One of the first points Marx made was that the college serves as a leader in the educational community and that it is dedicated to forming moral leaders to serve the public good-a theme on which Marx continued to elaborate and trace throughout his conversation.
For example, an alumnus questioned why Amherst has placed second behind Williams College in the U.S. News & World Report College Rankings for the past few years. Marx explained that unlike several of its rivals, the College does not manipulate data to make it appear more selective or diverse; it simply shares the facts. Another issue Marx touched on was the momentous step the college took last year to switch from loans to grants. He pointed to this change as a way for middle-class students, in particular, to make use of the college's extraordinary resources without being hampered by large debt.
In light of the slightly larger size of the Class of 2011 and the goal to bring more international students to Amherst, Marx told the alumni, "We also are increasing the size of the college, not by a huge amount, but by enough so that we can ensure that as our sense of who needs to be here grows, there is space for those students." Marx also noted that despite these efforts, "the percent of alumni children is growing here at Amherst, as it should."
Some of the alumni were concerned with a sense of entitlement and elitism that they believe pervades the campus. One alumnus told Marx that one of his friends had felt snubbed by students of recent classes, and worried that at such a selective, remote and wealthy college, students might tend to take their education for granted and ignore the plights of others, even their own classmates.
Marx argued that while such concerns are indeed legitimate at any elite college, the College has taken steps to ameliorate this, particularly in recent years, by "saying to our students as clearly and as constantly as we can that the privilege of an Amherst education comes with an expectation." He further emphasized that the sorts of service that the College encourages in the student body is not "top-down noblesse oblige," but rather "quality engagements."
Marx also brought up some frank and specific points that have significant ramifications for the College. For instance, he revealed to the audience, "We expect a third of the faculty to be replaced in the next decade to 15 years" because the faculty is aging
Among the two conflicting tenors of Marx's speech-the greatness of Amherst paired against its penchant for pretension-was a third flavor that seems to be one of the College's greatest pillars: the spirit of giving. While discussing the endowment with one alumnus, or the hiring of new faculty with another, Marx felt no shame in telling the alumni point blank that "we need" your financial support.
Marx's speech to the alumni presented no earth-shattering facts or emotional displays of rhetoric. It simply explained to the alumni the direction that the College is taking and what it intends to do in the future as its faculty ages and the world moves further into the 21st century.
"I think we all come to this place, to this moment, understanding even more, given the questions we've been discussing this morning, why Amherst is so important at this moment in history," Marx concluded. "When the pressures of superficiality are growing, when the dangers to our society and to the globe are growing, this is a place that fills a unique role in providing leaders that will stand up against those pressures."