[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 78 (Tuesday, June 20, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1053]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


            HONORING PETER J. LIACOURAS UPON HIS RETIREMENT

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. ROBERT A. BORSKI

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 20, 2000

  Mr. BORSKI. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor President Peter J. 
Liacouras, who is retiring after an unprecedented 18 years at the helm 
of Temple University.
  President Liacouras has been called ``a man who reminisces about the 
future.'' Under his guidance, Temple University has achieved national 
prominence as a model public research university in a central-city 
setting, with suburban and international locations and programs.
  A Temple professor of law for nearly four decades, and a former Dean 
of Temple's Law School, Mr. Liacouras has presided since 1982 over an 
institution with a distinguished faculty, including some 29,000 
students on seven campuses in the Philadelphia region which encompasses 
successful campuses in Rome and Tokyo. Temple has 16,000 full-time and 
part-time employees, a renowned Health Sciences Center and Temple 
University Health System, 200,000 alumnae and alumni in 92 nations 
around the world, and 16 schools and colleges, offering bachelor's 
degrees in 135 areas, master's in 82 fields, and doctoral degrees in 49 
areas.
  President Liacouras's career has been characterized by six constants: 
continuous pursuit of excellence; (2) opening of universities and 
professions to persons from historically underrepresented groups; (3) a 
hard-nosed commitment to fiscal responsibility; (4) leadership from 
historically underrepresented groups; (3) a hard-nosed commitment to 
fiscal responsibility; (4) leadership in effectuating change; (5) far-
reaching academic improvements in the institution, with close and 
respectful collaboration with neighbors; and (6) the view that the 
human condition is universal, and education should be viewed 
simultaneously in the prism of the world and the local neighborhood.
  The son of Greek immigrants, Mr. Liacouras, as Dean of Temple Law 
School, became a national leader in developing model programs of 
university and community cooperation, as well as fair and sensible 
admissions policies for professional schools.
  Under Mr. Liacouras, Temple's objectives have included: revitalizing 
its Main Campus, which, as a result, is providing the spark for the 
first tangible renewal of a long-neglected section of the City of 
Philadelphia; strengthening undergraduate, graduate, and professional 
education in the region, nation, and world; restructuring Temple's 
schools and college to meet the needs of students and to recognize the 
rapidly changing environment of higher education; using Temple's 
resources to improve urban public education; strengthening the 
University's research mission; providing and expanding health care for 
all citizens, regardless of ability to pay; building better community 
relations.
  Mr. Speaker, Peter J. Liacouras should be commended for his 
extraordinary leadership and integrity as the steward of one of our 
great public institutions of higher learning, Temple University.

                          ____________________