What makes a great research university? The usual answers to this question are outstanding faculty, excellent and committed staff, talented students, cutting-edge facilities and robust institutional support for scholarly activities. All of these are true, but perhaps the core characteristic of a great research university is the presence of graduate and professional education.

Much of the rhetoric surrounding higher education tends to focus on undergraduate education, including discussions of access to higher education itself, tuition, financial aid, student life and other matters.

Students living on the West Campus this year have told me, in great detail, what it is like to be living in a construction zone. The heavy equipment, which starts operating punctually at 8 a.m., ensures no problems waking up for an early class. But sleeping in after a late night of studying is simply not an option. Unfortunately, noise, dust and disruption are facts of current West Campus life.

Partly in response to the stress caused by the construction, we have put the West Campus project on an accelerated schedule so that it should be completed two years earlier than originally planned.

Cornell is an international university, and over the next several years it is likely to become more so. Is it appropriate for our university to increase our international presence? To encourage more Cornell undergraduates to seek a study abroad experience? To welcome thousands of international students and scholars each year? Should we expend efforts and resources toward internationalization when there are so many pressing needs right here in Ithaca?

I believe that the answer to all those questions is “yes.” Universities need to engage the world to educate American students to function in a global economy, to expose them to the breadth of world cultures and to continue to address common problems in an interconnected world.

With this column I continue a tradition begun last year of writing a monthly column for The Cornell Daily Sun. The Sun’s editorial board — led by Jonathan Lieberman ’08, Olivia Oran ’08 and David Wittenberg ’09 — has generously continued to give me freedom regarding topic choice, and they have even offered to provide suggestions for topics they believe would be of interest to Sun readers. I am honored and proud to be a part of The Sun team.

There is a new activist approach to journalism at The Sun this year and in this first From David column of 2007-08, I’d like to explore what that might mean for the newspaper that proudly proclaims on its masthead and banner “Independent since 1880,” suggesting a history of activist thought.

I had intended this final column of the academic year to be one mainly of gratitude to my colleagues at The Cornell Daily Sun and to readers of the newspaper for permitting me this space and for the tremendously helpful feedback I received as a result of these “From David” columns. I look forward to another year of useful interchange through this column and in many other fora in 2007-08.

It is nearly impossible to open a newspaper without encountering evidence of violence. Whether in our own community, our state, our nation or most places throughout the world, from Iraq to Darfur, violence is the rule, not the exception. University campuses and communities tend to be places of open discourse. We generally prefer to make our arguments with words, rather than with weapons or fists. But, even at Cornell, we have had the misfortune of experiencing acts of violence or attempted violence many times. We must reject violence as a means of interacting with each other and must not accept violent acts by others, under any circumstances, no matter whom or what the target might be.

I am concerned about the level of stress and about mental health issues that affect our campus. We have many services available to students and also to faculty and staff members, but I want to be sure that everyone on campus knows what is available and how to access the help they may need. And I want to stress how important it is that we take better care of ourselves and also look out for each other as members of a campus community.

I welcome all students back to Cornell, wish you a Happy New Year and a successful and fun semester. I had the great honor and privilege of starting the new year with a nine-day trip to India and learning about the superb faculty and student exchanges and scientific collaborations that characterize our more than half-century of history in India. I returned to the United States impressed with the accomplishments and courage of our Indian colleagues in facing and conquering significant challenges in areas like agriculture, health and education and more convinced than ever of the importance of internationalization to our campus.

For many of us, the next several weeks will be a time of looking outward, of giving; a time when we might remember our friends and colleagues with special gifts. It is also a time to redouble our efforts to lighten the burdens of others in our communities and around the world, a mission which many of you pursue every day. One of the things that I’ve discovered about Cornell is that the spirit of giving extends beyond the present season. As a community as well as individually, you have lived the letter and the spirit of our land grant mission for nearly a century and a half, and reached out to help others through philanthropy and volunteerism.

Is intellectual and political balance a reasonable goal for a university campus? Should every strongly held political and intellectual view expressed publicly be countered by a carefully selected opinion from the opposite pole? Are today’s students exposed to too narrow a range of acceptable opinions that limits their true intellectual development and mocks our cherished aspiration to be a marketplace of ideas?