Like many of you, I was inspired when, as a freshman, I first read the plaque placed on the UW-Madison’s Bascom Hall. The message, declared by the Board of Regents in 1894, is worth repeating:
“Whatever may be the limitations which trammel inquiry elsewhere, we believe that the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.”