Irish President Mary McAleese and Syracuse University Chancellor Nancy Cantor have a lot in common.

Both are powerful, female leaders and feminists. Both have a close family member with a disability – McAleese, a deaf brother, and Cantor, an autistic son. Both have catchphrases for their administrations – ‘building bridges’ and ‘scholarship in action,’ respectively.

And both spent the better part of McAleese’s visit to the SU campus May 1 – the first by a sitting foreign head of state in the university’s history – congratulating one another for their work on inclusion for individuals with disabilities.

‘We are glad you are here, bringing the fresh energy of a bridge builder,’ said Cantor to McAleese during the first public welcoming. ‘Today is a day to celebrate bridge building and a hundred years of conversation on education connecting us to each other and energizing us to turn those walls into bridges, for all who walk across.’

McAleese returned the praise during her trip to the podium a few moments later. She recalled getting her hair done in Syracuse earlier in the morning and how the hair dresser called Cantor the best thing that ever happened to the university.

She then admitted: ‘And you’ll forgive me if I take a little bit of sinful pleasure in the fact that not only have I never heard this about any chancellor or vice chancellor, but that the first time I heard this about a chancellor, it happened to be a woman.’

McAleese’s visit stood as the grand finale for SU’s School of Education’s centennial celebration. The school had spent the academic year looking back at the events that led it to become the school it is today, said Dean of SOE Douglas Biklen.

‘She brings a commitment to equality that is very important and certainly a part of the history of this school of education,’ Biklen said.

He attributes her life experiences to helping her rise to a leader for disability inclusion.

‘Her one brother is deaf,’ he said. ‘And that also probably gave her insight to the difference between disability rights politics and an approach to disability that might be characterized by charity.’

McAleese attended four events during her daylong visit. Her first appearance was at the Regency Ballroom in the Sheraton Syracuse University Hotel and Conference Center. There, a ‘who’s who’ of both the SU and the local community waited for her entrance.

Syracuse Mayor Matt Driscoll and Onondaga County Executive Nicholas J. Pirro proclaimed May 1, 2007, as President Mary McAleese Community Recognition Day for both the city and county. Hendricks Chapel Dean Thomas Wolfe said a prayer and spoke parts of it in Gaelic, the native tongue of Ireland, before the 250 invited guests.

From there, McAleese walked toward the Quad, stopping at the Place of Remembrance to place a bouquet in honor of the SU students who died in Pan Am Flight 103. She was greeted by the SOE’s three Remembrance Scholars – seniors are granted the scholarship in honor of victims in the 1988 terrorist tragedy – Danielle Gagnon, Emily McCaffrey and Malcolm Merriweather.

‘Well it’s obviously a really big honor,’ said McCaffrey of meeting the president. But she said she was really pleased that the Pan Am tragedy was being remembered on a day beyond the attack’s anniversary.

For Gagnon, it was McAleese’s work for inclusion policy that made her visit valuable.

‘She has passions deeply rooted in what the School of Education believes in,’ Gagnon said.

McAleese and her entourage, which included husband Dr. Martin McAleese, made their way to Hendricks from there.

Hendricks was filled, but not to capacity as empty seats dotted the back rows. There was a good deal of preparation to ensure hearing-impaired audience members could partake in the speech. A screen was projected with the text of each speaker’s address and a sign language presenter stood at the base of the stage to translate the speeches.

Cantor spoke again before McAleese took the podium and commemorated the work of former SOE Dean Burton Blatt for his 1974 book ‘Christmas in Purgatory,’ which showcased the inhumane treatment of individuals in mental hospitals.

Cantor linked the historic work of the SOE to McAleese’s efforts to foster inclusive environments. She echoed a sentiment McAleese had stated earlier.

‘Our preconceptions about persons with disabilities must change for often it is those preconceptions that lead us to exclusion rather than inclusion,’ she said.

SOE Dean Biklen held the audience in further suspense of the McAleese’s address as he took the podium to explain why the Irish president was a perfect fit for the centennial celebration.

‘The values that President McAleese has embraced and personified throughout her career have transformed Ireland for the past two decades. Those values parallel the four values of the School of Education,’ Biklen said. He added that today’s Ireland is the best educated and most multicultural it has ever been.

Once Biklen gave the floor to McAleese, the crowd erupted into a long and sturdy standing ovation.

Her speech painted SU and especially the SOE as champions of inclusion education.

‘You have given a voice to the voiceless, confidence to the self-effacing and a place in the mainstream to those consigned to the margins by life’s caprice and happenstance,’ McAleese said. ‘In other words, you have something truly wonderful and humanly redemptive to celebrate, for you have become champions against the waste of human life and human potential, champions of opportunities offered rather than opportunities missed.’

The president spoke with eloquence and held the crowd captive during her more than 30-minute address. She mixed anecdotes with quoted passages from poems and literature to illustrate the importance of changing the inclusive culture.

But the core of her speech never strayed far from heralding SU as a pioneer institution for changing the lives of people with disabilities or congratulating the academic work of the university in that area.

‘You have also been champions of change within the community, using rigorous scholarship to change the lived environment for those who live with disability, or with poverty or as members of deprived minorities especially those of Native American origin,’ McAleese said.

She was presented a Native American bowl as a gift from the SOE for visiting, tying in the American Indian inclusion undertone expressed through the day. Onondaga Nation’s faith healer Oren Lions was invited and attended the speech at Hendricks.

McAleese concluded her speech with words of inspiration for the school to continue the tradition it has spent the year celebrating.

‘These hundred years at the School of Education have created a proud and inspiring legacy,’ she said. ‘Underpinned by a deeply egalitarian value system you have invoked scholarship and provoked change. Keep doing it. We are watching you and learning. In you, too, we see hope for humanity’s best future and I wish you well at the start of your second century.’

The crowd of 800 rose and applauded with conviction for more than a minute, showing gratitude and support for the Irish president.

Her precisely timed visit was beginning to run off schedule, and thus, a previously planned question and answer session was aborted. The president, a lawyer by training, headed directly to the College of Law to tour the Disability Rights Clinic and to converse with 75 law students. She left campus following this session.

‘She is a diplomat for Ireland, of and for Ireland on the world stage. And Ireland couldn’t have a better representative than her,’ said Michael Schwartz, a law professor and director of the Disability Rights Clinic. ‘She’s raised the profile of disabilities in Ireland by speaking about it, by going to disability rights groups to highlight disability. She’s added disability to the national discourse in Ireland.’

Schwartz is a personal friend of McAleese and was a critical player in brining her to SU.

Students also said they were impressed with the speech and took pride in her praise of the university.

‘I thought it was a really good speech,’ said Chris Colameco, a freshman psychology major. ‘She’s really motivating, how she felt about our university.’

‘There are so many events and groups on campus … The fact that they give students the opportunity to do what they’re doing is what’s really great,’ he said.

Celia Dubin also attended the speech and reacted positively to McAleese’s message.

‘I like the fact that she’s into diversity and giving everybody equal rights,’ said Dubin, a junior environmental biology major at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry.

Much of the day was spent linking McAleese’s campaign for inclusion in Ireland to SU’s academic studies promoting inclusion policies. But even McAleese knew one of her best connections to the university was her experience as pro-vice chancellor at Queen’s College in Belfast.

‘University’s are kind of a place I know a thing and a half about,’ said McAleese jokingly.

Published on June 3, 2007 at 12:00 pm