The College of William and Mary proudly claims Thomas Jefferson as one of its own -- an alumnus who continues to inspire current leaders. During the Charter Day celebration on Feb. 11, Jefferson factored prominently into the remarks made by College President Gene R. Nichol and Virginia's recently inaugurated 70th governor, Timothy M. Kaine, who received an honorary doctor of law degree during the ceremony and was the keynote speaker.

The first governor of Virginia to be inaugurated in Williamsburg since Jefferson in 1779, Kaine affirmed to an audience filling every seat in Phi Beta Kappa Hall that he would be committed to preserving and improving the quality of education in Virginia.

"Education is the single most important domestic public priority," he said. "Each governor, each legislator, each college president, each member of an alumni association has to protect the good we have, and seek to extend and improve it."

Kaine cited three essential values of public universities in Virginia that he will strive to uphold: meeting the obligations for funding, protecting the diversity of the many different schools and programs offered in Virginia, and never forgetting that higher education is a public good.

"Jefferson saw and cemented the connection between individual education and public progress long before we had the Internet, computers or the insightful news commentary of your alumnus Jon Stewart ['84, D.A. '04]," concluded Kaine.

Nichol, who joked during the ceremony that Kaine, a graduate of Harvard Law School, would finally be receiving a real law degree during Charter Day, also underscored a sense of obligation, one that dated back to the charter that established the College.

"I think it's vital and ennobling to consider our charter -- our mandate -- our institutional description of purpose," said Nichol. "Especially here, this morning, in the company of a new governor, assembled in community, mindful of a storied past, optimistic of a bold future."

Nichol asked the audience to consider what James Blair, the first president of William and Mary, and other founders of the College might have expected of its caretakers 313 years after the charter was established.

"What would we promise to one another, to the Commonwealth, to the nation, to those who will come after us, to those who have gone before?" said Nichol. "How might we think of a chartered compact today?

"Would we pledge to continue this institution's unique trajectory to greatness?... Would we also embrace, and enthusiastically claim, our call to public obligation?"

The answer -- undeniably -- would be yes.