Intellect is not enough

Sanders Theatre swelled with poetry and music, orations and awards on Tuesday morning, at the unofficial kickoff to Commencement week.

These were the 234th literary exercises of the University’s chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, inaugurating Harvard College’s top-performing juniors and seniors into one of the nation’s oldest academic societies.

But the celebrations were cut liberally with injunctions and warnings — sometimes stern — about the great responsibilities that fall upon new chapter members, half of whom are poised to graduate on Thursday.

The intellect and drive of these students are not in question: The chapter admits, at most, only one in 10 undergraduates based on their academic performance. But throughout the 90-minute program, speakers insisted that, on their own, intellect and drive are not enough — for responsible citizenship, or even for a meaningful life.

The chapter’s new members were enjoined to keep, and cultivate, their intellectual courage, in an opening invocation by the Rev. Matthew Ichihashi Potts, the Pusey Minister, and by Meghan O’Rourke, the exercises’ poet. 

Read more in the Harvard Gazette