It is hard to imagine a quality more quintessential to life at Vanderbilt than the one reflected in this issue’s cover article, “Unexpected Collaborations.” Indeed, this was the driving force behind our very origin: the “unexpected collaboration” between a Northern industrialist and Southern minister through which our university was born. Seeking to unite a nation torn apart by the Civil War, our founders knew that bringing great minds together with the shared purpose of higher learning would help move society forward.
This quality, and this purpose, remain essential to Vanderbilt’s nature and to all that we collectively do—on our campus, in our region and, increasingly, around the world. When I joined the Vanderbilt community in 2020, I found our distinct culture of collaboration to be so unique among peer universities that I called it “radical.” And I meant radical not only in the sense of revolutionary (we always, of course, dare to grow), but at the very root—the radix—of who we are.
Collaboration comes so naturally to our community that we often do not even notice how deeply, and how creatively, we are engaged in the process. We simply have big ideas that feel too important to not share—and to not explore further—together. And when we want to solve difficult problems, we team up, roll up our sleeves and dig in.
“Collaboration comes so naturally to our community that we often do not even notice how deeply, and how creatively, we are engaged in the process.”—Chancellor Daniel Diermeier
While the process is sometimes mysterious, its results are abundantly clear: Astonishing breakthroughs happen, and life-changing progress is made. This issue’s pages present an array of such wonders. Our partnership with retired Gen. Paul Nakasone to found the Vanderbilt Institute for National Security is taking on urgent challenges for our future world. Meanwhile, we are working together to bridge geographical divides—and open new networks for our students, families and alumni—through our Vanderbilt hubs. We are even collaborating across history, in a sense, through the new learning opportunities we are creating with the expansion of the historic Sullivan Collection at the Vanderbilt University Museum of Art. Finally, we are honoring the life of a distinguished alumnus, the late Rev. James Lawson, who helped lead our nation toward greater justice through one of the most transformative collaborative movements that history has ever seen.
Such ideas need freedom to flourish. Our deep commitment to freedom of expression and civil discourse is inseparable from our collaborative spirit. It is at the heart of our community. It’s where we belong, and none of the transformative learning and discovery that we cherish as an institution of higher education can happen without it.
Much like our founders, we are no strangers to intensely divided times—and our universities have been increasingly challenged to stay the open platforms for productive discourse that they were designed to be. I am proud of how Vanderbilt continues to rise to that challenge—and to stay true to our deeply held values—one pathbreaking idea, one transformed student and one shining example of people finding bold new ways to work together at a time.
At Vanderbilt, “unexpected collaborations” will always lead to great things. It is a function of who we are; it is, quintessentially, this community. Thank you, at this moment and always, for being part of it.
—DANIEL DIERMEIER, CHANCELLOR
