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To the Chamber Choir and Dr. Habermann, thank you for opening our memorial program so beautifully.

And thanks to all of you for coming together to mark an anniversary like no other in our nation's history. As we thought about how best to remember the victims and survivors of September 11, we decided that this is far more than a day of mourning. It is a day to honor the best of the human spirit -- something that we saw in abundance on -- and after -- September 11. Today is also an opportunity to remember -- and reawaken -- the one great gift that emerged from so much tragedy: a tremendous sense of unity, of our common humanity, and of our need to support each other as we face a vastly changed future.

A year ago, at a student gathering in our residence halls the very night of the attacks, that sense of community, of family, was already evident. Student after student spoke out with a similar message -- that they were determined to continue to see each other as friends, to make sure that differences in religion, ethnicity, nationality or appearance would not cause them to treat each other badly.

The next day, at our first all-campus gathering after the attacks, with Malcolm X Plaza filled beyond capacity, the same message rang out. I summed it up when I said that day, "We stand here as a united community. We are here to pledge that terrorism will not achieve its hideous aim - that instead of driving us apart, it will draw us together. We will not let terrorism change the eyes with which we view each other, the hearts with which we understand each other, the respect with which we treat each other."

We could not have known that day how very much those warm expressions of mutual support and community would be tested by world events that have resonated strongly on this campus.

Since September 11, we have gone on with our lives, as we should. But here, today, on a date that reawakens intense emotions, we have a splendid opportunity to re-experience and recommit ourselves to the sense of inclusiveness and shared humanity that was our first response.

The universal question after September 11 was: "How can I help?" As a nation, we found some outlet for that impulse in the huge outpouring of contributions to fund drives and blood drives. Those immediate needs have long since been met. But all around us are a wealth of other needs -- community groups in need of volunteers, youngsters in need of mentors, schools in need of tutors, good causes in need of supporters. It is no accident that this has been designated National Civic Participation Week. September 11 roused our desire to help; let it now inspire us to make some part of our world a better place.

We can define the lasting meaning of September 11. We can, by the way we live our lives, ensure that it helps us become better individuals and a better nation. A cataclysm such as September 11 causes us to think about who we are and what we stand for. It can -- if we let it -- be a kind of epiphany, a fierce reminder of the need to make a commitment to something greater than ourselves. I can think of no better way for us to honor the memory of those who died on September 11.

To mark an anniversary of such magnitude and tragedy, we knew that we wanted our observance to go beyond words. None can truly be adequate to the event that is prompting them, and none, we felt, could help us ease our grief and re-charge our spirits as well as the beauty of music and movement. Very shortly, dancer-choreographer Cathleen McCarthy, cellist Stephanie Boivin and The Alexander String Quartet will offer us more of the joy and inspiration of the arts.

But before we continue with our program -- in a spirit of grief for the past and hope for the future -- I invite you to join me in a moment of silence in honor of the victims of September 11.