John Kerry Delivers the Weil Lecture on American Citizenship

The Institute for the Arts and Humanities welcomed U.S. Sen. John Kerry, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the 2004 Democratic Party candidate for president, to the UNC campus this spring. The Massachusetts senator delivered the 2009 Weil Lecture on American Citizenship at Hill Hall on Friday, March 20.

UNC system President Erskine Bowles introduced Kerry, who spoke to an audience of more than 500. Kerry emphasized awareness of climate change and encouraged citizens to fight global warming.

IAH Director John McGowan was pleased to draw attention to the contributions of the Weil family through the lecture.

“The Weil family has contributed generously to North Carolina and the University of North Carolina,” McGowan said. “It is an honor for the Institute to be able to recognize their work by bringing in someone of Senator Kerry’s stature.”

During his talk, Kerry urged his listeners to get involved by pressing their elected representatives to address the problem of global warming. The senator insisted that American ingenuity could provide a solution to climate change and expressed optimism that investment and innovations in “green technology” would foster much needed economic growth.

After his speech, Kerry responded to questions from the audience ranging from current American policy toward Cuba and Israel to his thoughts on the upcoming NCAA basketball tournament. Wisely, Kerry picked UNC to win.

In addition to the lecture, the Institute hosted a small private luncheon for the Weil family and the senator, inviting a few Friends of the Institute and UNC administrators and faculty to hear Kerry’s lunch remarks. Guests addressed a table topic on the responsibilities of citizenship, which spurred discussion about the strong service ethos among today’s college students, about UNC’s interest in encouraging “engaged scholarship,” and about economic inequality in the United States. Click here to view pictures from the luncheon and lecture, taken by photographer Eileen Mignoni.

The Weil Lecture, now administered by the Institute for the Arts and Humanities, was established by brothers Henry and Solomon Weil of Goldsboro and was first delivered by President William Howard Taft in 1915.  Among the distinguished speakers in the series have been President Jimmy Carter, US Senators J. William Fulbright and Nancy Kassenbaum, and Eleanor Roosevelt. 

The Institute for the Arts and Humanities presents the Weil lecture biennially.