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Closing
Remarks by Mr. H. Patrick Swygert
President, Howard University
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Before we close, again, I would like to thank each
and every one of you for joining us in this day of
great celebration and re-commitment to better health
care for all Americans.
We’ve acknowledged our students and our faculty. I
want to especially acknowledge the faculty members
who formed the planning committee who did the hard,
tough intellectual work that resulted in what you
see. They were the folk who helped to determine the
program that is reflected in this great edifice.
But I also want to again take the opportunity to
thank the members of our greater community. Howard
University is within a community, and the one thing
that we’ve tried to do with all of our projects,
including this project, is to turn a positive, open
and caring face to our community—our neighbors along
W Street, the southern boundary of this building.
For a year and a half, a year and a half, they
endured incredible disruption. I won’t go into all
the details. Suffice it to say that a
turn-of-the-century water main ran across this
property. It had to be replaced, re-configured and
re-sited which, to put it another way, you had a
significant, construction project affecting a
residence and our neighbors. And they endured. They
cooperated. They were patient with us and we can’t
begin to thank them. We hope to continue to develop
relationships and, more importantly, programs so
that the young people in this community will have
the opportunity to visit, perhaps study, and perhaps
research in the finest health care library in the
nation. They should have that opportunity as well.
I want also to thank, in addition to Dr. Hassan
Minor and his staff, the other officers and staffs
of the University who worked so closely with Bruce
Costello and his folk. Many of them are here today
as well. I want to thank our deans, our associate
deans, and the other administrators. This was really
and has been and will continue to be very much of a
team effort.
We’re also blessed because we have as it relates to
library sciences and resources. We have a very deep
bench and at the head of that bench is the
University Librarian, Mr. Mod Mekkawi, who is with
us today. We want to thank him for his support and
his guidance.
We have the new Health Sciences Librarian, Mr.
Ellis, who is managing this resource and facility.
We want to thank him.
Finally, in about six months, many of you, I hope,
will return to the University, this time to
Connecticut and Van Ness, when we have the formal
dedication of the new School of Law Library. And I
can only say to you that, that too, will be a joyful
and joyous occasion. You’ll have the opportunity to
meet our Law School Dean, Alice Gresham Bullock, and
our new Law Librarian, Ms. Rhea Ballard-Thrower. A
great day, a great moment made even more so by your
presence.
Again, thank you, Congressman Stokes and the members
of your family. Thank you, Board of Trustees for
your tenacity, for your caring, for your
superintendence of the values of this great
institution. And thank you, Ladies and Gentlemen,
for joining us this morning.
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