Diversity is a tool for truth, not political agendas, said Vincent D. Rougeau, president of the College of the Holy Cross, in his keynote address April 7 for Weill Cornell Medicine’s seventh annual Diversity Week.
Rougeau delivered the Elizabeth A. Wilson-Anstey, EdD Lecture, “Why Commitment to Diversity Still Matters,” in Uris Auditorium as part of the annual celebration of Weill Cornell Medicine’s commitment to greater equity, diversity and inclusion in academic medicine and health care.
“We’re living in a moment in which it feels rather fraught to acknowledge the things that we know are true,” said Rougeau, a lawyer who in 2021 became the first Black president of Holy Cross, the nation’s only undergraduate Jesuit liberal arts college. “I see diversity as a reality check. It’s engaging the world as it is. Acknowledging its importance allows us to solve real problems.”
In his deeply personal speech, Rougeau drew from his family’s civil rights history and experience as a legal scholar to reinforce the concept that diversity is about understanding people, not just representation. Indeed, diversity is essential for effective health care, education and leadership, he said, because it ensures we understand and care for people as they truly are, not as abstractions.
“When we think about why diversity matters, it is this notion that no two people are the same, whether they are stepping onto a college campus in my world or into a doctor’s office in yours,” said Rougeau, who previously served as dean of Boston College Law School and the inaugural director of the Boston College Forum on Racial Justice in America.
To drive home how systemic inequities must not be ignored, Rougeau spotlighted shocking disparities in the average lifespans among residents of two neighborhoods in Boston—Back Bay and Roxbury—that are separated by mere blocks. In 2023, a study by the Boston Public Health Commission found that people living in Back Bay had an average life expectancy of 92, while those in Roxbury were expected to live until only 69. The two neighborhoods are composed of people of different races and vastly different socioeconomic status.