Having just read Bill O\u2019Brien\u2019s contribution<\/a> to the growing stories of Colgate\u2019s connections to Jimmy Carter (Letters, fall 2025\/winter 2026), I find myself moved to share my own experience. My wife, Randi, and I attended the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. One afternoon, we were watching the diving finals only to realize we were sitting directly opposite President Carter\u2019s delegation. I call it a delegation because Carter had made international news when he \u2014 in response to a request from organizers \u2014 intervened to convince North Korea to attend the 1996 Olympics, which they were previously planning to boycott. There he was with Rosalynn and a handful of North Koreans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Following the session, my wife and I hailed a cab to go to the Capital Grille for a quick dinner. We had tickets to the swimming finals, which were being held that evening. No sooner did we enter the restaurant than Carter and the Korean delegation appeared at the same location \u2014 [and then] were ushered to a private room. We ate quickly knowing we had limited time to return for the evening session. Immediately upon exiting the restaurant we realized we were never going to make it back; traffic was at a standstill. Just then the Carters exited the Capital Grille, and Jimmy and Rosalynn approached their Lincoln Town Car. Much to my surprise, my wife walked up to President Carter and explained that we had been sitting opposite them earlier and assumed they were returning for the swimming finals. Carter acknowledged that he was indeed. With that, my wife asked if we could ride with them to the venue. Perhaps surprised by someone being so bold to ask, Carter said yes. With that, the four of us squeezed in the back seat. The conversation during this 20-minute ride was animated, but in a break, I asked the Secret Service officer who was riding in front if President Carter had ever before invited a stranger to ride with him. The Secret Service agent promptly replied, \u201cNo, sir. It has never happened before, and I can assure you, it will never happen again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n –Peter Desnoes \u201965, P\u201917,\u201923<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I read with interest the article \u201cAcademic Freedom and Freedom of Expression in Colgate\u2019s Third Century<\/a>\u201d (fall 2025\/winter 2026) with the cover quote \u201cCan disagreements strengthen community?\u201d The answer, in the most obvious instance, is no, they can\u2019t. By their nature they are not strengtheners (whatever that can mean), but they do fall into several categories, each one worthy of examination, consideration, and evaluation. The actual question is, what is the ground for disagreements in the University to be addressed by or on? Some disagreements (speaking to the concept as used in the language) are resolvable; some are not but do not imply incompatibility with the shared idea of \u201ccommunity.\u201d Some disagreements will lie, by acceptance of the University\u2019s self-definition, outside of the \u201ccommunity.\u201d Some disagreements will be essentially toxic or destructive approached or fatal to the University. The fundamental point is not whether disagreements are strengtheners or not (because they are not), but what is the context in which disagreements will be addressed. That answer need not be overly strict but it should be rigorously defensible. The article does get at the moving target of the University \u201ccommunity.\u201d There is, though, a need for some fundamental principles that might be elastic enough to allow even temporary suspension, say for survival, or newly experienced needs becoming more immediately attended to. Then the fundamental principles return. That kind of set of principles may not be directly assessed by \u201cdisagreements,\u201d as if disagreeing were the only moving element. It\u2019s just the dance of the minute. I went to Colgate in 1965. I swallowed many disagreements I had with the college and with many of the students there for the sake of seeing what was worth changing, what was beyond my short time there to influence, and the personal sense of what a college education could be. I do not mind being on the margin of what might be considered the general or majority sense of what needs Colgate has as its mission. It is in fact the very weaknesses of the college that I treasure along with the more typical virtue-signaling \u201csuccesses\u201d that any college needs to promote. [The University\u2019s] strength will be exhibited not as a community per se, but in what my beloved Colgate presents to students coming in as an experience and an education, not preparing
\n\n\n\nTo Disagree or Not to Disagree<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
specifically for what a person wants to be, but to discover what it is to be a human being in this
time and this place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n