College of the Atlantic OCTOBER 1. 1974 College of the Atlantic began its third year on September 15 with a convocation address by trustee and visiting faculty member John Dreier. Mr. Dreier's address clearly communicates some ideas by which College of the Atlantic lives and grows. We would like to share it with you. I suppose the normal thing for me to start out with is to wish everyone good luck during the forthcoming college year. This I gladly do. But I would first like to congrat- ulate all of you--and myself as well--for the good fortune that has brought all of us together on this occasion. We gather here in a spot of extraordinary beauty. The varied natural environment of land and water, forest and bog. mountain and meadow, cannot fail to delight us and to excite our curiosity and interest. And we assemble as members of a small college community that is dedicated to sharpening our awareness of that environment and to maximizing its impact on our thought and action. We also assemble- for better or for worse at a time in history when forces of change throughout the world are exerting their influence on our lives more directly and more powerfully than ever before. Nationally, internationally and locally, traditions are being upset, old values are being challenged, and new problems are being created. These disturbances in the climate of our life are due to many things. One of them is the pervasive influence of the media which bring everything to our immediate and visual attention. Another is the fact that the phrase "one world" which for many years has been a favorite rhetorical expression has now become a stark reality. Never has the interdependence of the globe been more forcefully demonstrated than in recent years. Who would have dreamed a decade ago that a group of small, middle eastern countries--considered by western standards to be poor, backward and weak, would suddenly gain a mighty grip on the jugular vein of the entire industrialized world--and in fact on the international financial system of the entire globe--by virtue of their ownership of petroleum? Yet such is undeniably the fact today, despite the tendency of many of us to indulge in the illusion that the energy crisis is over-- because gasoline seems again to be readily available for our autos, outboards and ORV's. In the area of war and peace, we learned a bitter lesson in Viet Nam that we could not serve as a self-appointed world police- man as some had thought we should. The tragic experiences in Southeast Asia tore our country apart and contributed to the development of Watergate and its incredible train of events. Yet a retreat into isolationism offers no constructive guide to our world role. If we turn to the Middle East, it is clear that the maintenance of peace in that area is of the most extraor- dinary importance to the economic well being and political position of the United States. It has justified an unprecedented personal participation of our Secretary of State first, bringing about a cease fire and now in seeking to prevent a renewal and escalation of violence. While we cannot be the world's policeman, we may often have to serve as peacemaker. Even right here in Maine we sense the impact of national and world trends on our local scene. It is the national demand for energy that produces plans to build oil refineries on the Maine coast or construct more nuclear power plants adjacent to our cold water. Policies affecting the interests of Maine's coastal communities in ocean fisheries are the subject of discussion by 5000 delegates from 135 countries assembled in a United Nations conference in Caracas, unfortunately without constructive results. What has all this to do with our assembly here today? Is there a connection between these broad global developments and this small community of about 100 people on Mount Desert Island? Can College of the Atlantic say or do anything of significance in connection with the vast and dismaying problems that afflict the world? I am convinced the answer is "yes." For it was the very existence of global problems of the environment that provided this college with its reason for being. And it is an awareness of that fact that has attracted students, teachers and other members of the college community to its doors. The size of the community is no measure of its value. What counts are its quality and the spirit that moves its members. But there is another reason for believing that this college has an important role to play in relation to the global scene; it derives from the very nature of the problems with which we are faced. It is clear that these problems of man and his interrelated human and physical environment have to do more with values, goals and attitudes than with purely technical and scientific knowledge. To be sure, there is a continuing need for pressing ahead with scientific discovery and technological improvement the very demands of environmental balance require this in many fields. But more deeply, I believe, it is becoming clearer that underlying all the questions of technology and its application to contemporary life, lies the need for different values and attitudes that estab- lish different goals for society. We are not going to achieve a balanced relationship with our environment if we continue to pursue the same goals of wasteful consumption.