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ou might think that the president of a college has a pretty cushy job, but you would be mistaken. It is no picnic to be cast in the role of the garrulous old windbag who gives advice to an incoming freshman class.

So this year, I decided to embrace controversy by joining the ranks of Wikileaks and Rupert Murdoch's phone hackers. I revealed some private diplomatic correspondence that was hacked — the old-fashioned way, with picks and shovels — from the Egyptian archives in Amarna. The letter in question deals with an international incident that almost ignited a full-scale war in the Middle East — about 3,300 years ago.

After greeting the King of Egypt and inquiring after the health of his horses, chariots and family, the King of Babylon berated Pharaoh for not having sent him a get-well card during his recent illness. Pharaoh responded that Egypt was too far away from Babylon for him to have heard of the king's illness. After receiving confirmation from his own messenger that Egypt was, in fact, far away, the King of Babylon decided to forgive Pharaoh's oversight.

Whew! Crisis averted! But let's take a closer look at the implications of this letter.

We can discern from this correspondence that the King of Babylon was more interested in horses and chariots than in liberal learning. He is illiterate, since he dictates all his outgoing messages to scribes and has all his incoming correspondence read to him. He is ignorant of geography; Egypt, after all, was the greatest superpower of the day! And finally, the letter was written in Babylonian cuneiform, not Egyptian hieroglyphics; apparently there was no foreign-language requirement in the Babylonian educational system.

Clearly the King of Babylon was handicapped by a misspent youth, wasting too much time on his horses and chariots and not concentrating on his studies. His educational shortcomings almost led to serious consequences: There are few combinations more volatile than ignorance, irascibility, and ready access to chariots!

I shared this letter to inspire new college students with the importance of what they are in school to accomplish. Muhlenberg College's mission is to prepare graduates for lives of leadership and service. These two concepts are closely linked. Leadership is not the autocratic exercise of power for self-aggrandizement but the ability to mobilize one's own efforts and the energies of others to meet the needs of others. This understanding of the relationship between leadership and service is essential to the kind of close and mutually respectful community a college should be. Most freshmen choose their college because they want the benefits of living in such a community. Those benefits are real, but they are accompanied by responsibilities.

Here is what I told our freshmen they should bring to college:

•Humility, for starters. If you were already perfect, you wouldn't need to be here. You will soon discover that you are surrounded by classmates equally, if not more, accomplished than yourself. Rejoice! Think of what brilliant friends you will make and how much you will learn from them.

•Energy. You are not in college to catch up on your rest. Or on your video gaming, flirting, Frisbee-throwing, or time-wasting skills. The next four years will pass quickly. Don't waste them.

•Curiosity. You are not here to receive answers but to discover them. Reject the concept of "received wisdom." Wisdom is not received but earned through the clash of ideas, through trial and error, through accepting the very real possibility that those who disagree with you might just be right.

•Finally, support of your campus community through service, through civility, through respect for its other members, and eventually, with financial support.

If you give college your best effort, you will struggle and you will sometimes stumble and fall. You will not always receive the get-well greetings you may think you deserve. You will not be carried to the finish line in a chariot. But you will have achieved something of inestimable value that only you can obtain for yourself. You will be ready to lead and to serve.

Peyton R. Helm is president of Muhlenberg College. This column is based upon his opening convocation address to the Class of 2015 on Monday.

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