On May 2, 2000, I was running uncharacteristically late to a meeting with other higher education leaders in Washington, D.C. Our guest for the meeting was the Honorable Joseph R. Biden, Jr., then U.S. Senator from Delaware. Because I was late, instead of being seated in the conference room along with my colleagues waiting for our guest, I ended up in the elevator with Senator Biden and some of his staff on the way to the meeting.
As the elevator ascended, Senator Biden took the opportunity to chat with me, as he’s known to do. During the short exchange, he learned my name and the organization I was with. While some members of Congress might have ignored me and acted as if I were not breathing the same air as they were, then-Senator Biden did not pretend that I was invisible. He was letting me know that he could see a Black woman who was nobody special as far as he knew.
And it didn’t stop there. Once we were in the meeting, he addressed some of his comments to me and called me by name as if we had known one another for some time. What some might see as political charm on the part of a politician, I saw as a person so secure in his own space that he could afford to share some light with others.
The topic for discussion at our meeting was binge drinking among college students. To say that Senator Biden was passionate about decreasing binge drinking among college students is an understatement. He admitted that his “prohibitive approach might not be the way to go at all institutions.” However, he was no less insistent that a light be shined on what he saw as an issue that was “breeding a host of other problems.” He urged us as leaders in higher education to bring the problem to light and encourage college and university leaders to commit to finding ways to reduce binge drinking.
As I listened, I could see that he was willing to brandish a big stick to get results. In his appeal for cooperation, he communicated that he would rather that higher education take the lead on the issue and not allow it to become something requiring government intervention. However, the threat was there if colleges did not react immediately and effectively.
He didn’t leave the burden solely on higher education administrators, however, wanting to know what was needed from legislators to deal with the issue more effectively. In addition to assuring his support for providing colleges and universities with the resources and support needed to address the problem of binge drinking and its consequences, he appealed to the conscience of those responsible for educating our students.
Having intimated that there might be the threat of more government oversight and having offered a carrot for support, his final appeal was to denounce the lack of progress in curbing binge drinking as “moral disapprobation” on the part of college and university leadership.
For me and many others, when the morality bell tolls, we listen. As I’ve listened to speeches and remarks by President Biden I’ve come to believe that, when there is a situation in which the cooperation of others is needed to do what he considers to be the right thing, in the final appeal he will ring the bell for human decency and what he regards as being morally acceptable. This is the kind of leader I can respect and from whom I would expect nothing less. Who wouldn’t?
Gwen Dungy 