The character of our community : Dean Anthony Kronman's welcoming address, 1997.

Abstract

The academic calendar, like its solar countcr·pact, Im its nwr; distinctive seasons. For those of us who live by the rhythms of the school year, this is the season of fresh starts. It is the season of high hopes, new beginnings, grand plans, modest anxieties, and large ambitions. It is all of these things for all of us here, teachers and students alike. Some of us have been at Yale for a while. Others are still unpacking. It makes no difference. Today my colleagues and I feel the same thrill of adventure that you do. Today we begin something new together, and among the many novelties that mark the season, the most exciting is that of your company. Yesterday we were strangers. Today we are the Yale Law School community and in the weeks and months and years ahead we shall rediscover and reinvent that community together. You who join the community today will gain much from your time at the Yale Law School, and you will give much to the School in return. But the most important advantage you will gain, and the most lasting treasure you will give, are the bonds of friendship that unite you to each other, and to the place. These are the source of an amazing collegiality that joins even the most fierce intellectual antagonists in a spirit of common endeavor, and the spring from which the School's fellowship of learning grows.