[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 8547]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




       WELCOMING PRESIDENT WALLACE LOH TO UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Maryland (Mr. Hoyer) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, as you know, I am a very proud alumnus of the 
University of Maryland. For more than a century and a half, the 
University of Maryland has represented the best of American ideals of 
public education. Now I am very proud to say that the University of 
Maryland tradition is in the capable hands of our new President, Dr. 
Wallace Loh, who was inaugurated this spring.
  Wallace Loh came to the United States at the age of 15, alone, 
without family, with $300 in his pocket, his parents life savings. 
Wallace Loh was born in Shanghai, China. His father, a diplomat, fled 
the Communist regime to Lima, Peru when Wallace was a very young man. 
He grew up in Lima until the age of 15, but it was here in this country 
that he pursued the education that would ultimately make him one of our 
most respected academic leaders.
  President Loh comes to College Park from the University of Iowa, 
where he served as Provost and Executive Vice President. He brings to 
the University of Maryland more than three decades of hard work and 
accomplishment in higher education. His successful career as a scholar 
and administrator has taken him to Seattle University, the University 
of Washington, the University of Colorado-Boulder, Beijing University 
in China, and more. He also served as a top policy adviser to Governor 
Gary Locke, who will be our ambassador in China. Gary Locke, of course, 
was the Governor of Washington State. In that capacity, he led the 
State's effort to expand access to higher education for low- and 
middle-income students.
  As a leading scholar in the legal field, Dr. Loh has also been 
elected President of the Association of American Law Schools. Wallace 
Loh holds a law degree from Yale University, a Ph.D from the University 
of Michigan, a master's from Cornell University, and a bachelor's from 
Grinnell College in Iowa.
  I believe that the University of Maryland could not have chosen a 
more qualified leader to take our university into this century. 
Throughout his diverse career, President Loh has built a strong track 
record of creating academic excellence at every stop. What an 
extraordinary background Wallace Loh has for this increasingly 
integrated world, particularly as it relates to our relations with 
China, one of the world's largest nations both in terms of people and 
its economy.
  In his inaugural address, President Loh reflected on Barack Obama's 
statement that America has reached a ``sputnik moment,'' a moment when 
our place as a world economic and innovative leader is increasingly 
challenged. Institutions like the University of Maryland are critical 
to our continued leadership in the world. As President Loh said, and I 
quote, ``The American research university--a crowning achievement of 
American civilization--must respond to this sputnik moment. We are a 
premier research university''--speaking of the University of Maryland. 
He went on to say that ``we must also become a premier innovation and 
entrepreneurial university.''
  I have no doubt, Mr. Speaker, that the University of Maryland is 
well-equipped to fill that role and do its part for our State and our 
Nation. And I have no doubt that Wallace Loh was exactly the right 
person to choose to lead the university at this time.
  I want to wish Dr. Loh and the university the very best as it works 
with so many other extraordinary universities and colleges and 
educational institutions in the United States of America to make sure 
that we ``make it in America.'' That is to say that we out-educate, we 
out-build, we out-innovate our competitors so that we can provide the 
kind of quality of life, the jobs that our people need, a growing 
economy for the future, for our children.

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