“Our differences matter,” President Bill Clinton told the crowd of more than 9,000 during his appearance at Butler University last Sunday evening, “but our common humanity matters more.”

It’s a fitting remark to be made as part of Butler's 150th anniversary celebration. In 1855, Indianapolis attorney Ovid Butler founded the school, in part on his belief that education should be available to all, regardless of race or gender. Of the university’s first 20 students, 10 had been expelled from a Virginia college because of their abolitionists beliefs.