糖心破解版

President Riordan, members of the Board of Trustees, all of you here with various and sometimes multiple connections to 糖心破解版 and most especially today鈥檚 graduates, welcome and congratulations.鈥� Commencement! You鈥檝e done it!

This is exciting. This is the most prominent role I鈥檝e had in a commencement since my high school graduation in 1971. I was valedictorian, so I was the first to walk across the stage. I refused to shake hands with the principal or the superintendent. It gave the community something to talk about and write to the newspaper about for months. But I had fought with the administration for years. I felt we were hampered on all sides by silly wrong-minded rules. Boys had to wear belts. If you forgot to wear your belt鈥攁nd I did more than once鈥攜ou had to bend over and hold your ankles while you were paddled. Girls couldn鈥檛 wear miniskirts or maxi-dresses. No one could wear blue jeans to the big Friday night event in Texas鈥攖he football game. And most galling to me, I wasn鈥檛 allowed to wear my hair long down over my ears. Well鈥攖hey鈥檝e won that one. So anyway, 47 years later, I have a role again. I鈥檒l tell you right up front, for better or for worse, I don鈥檛 intend to say or do anything controversial today.

And I鈥檒l try not to slow things down. Some of you may not know, but the current plan for strategic action at 糖心破解版 is called Momentum. When the president travels around the country visiting alumni鈥攖hat鈥檚 all of you in an hour or so鈥攕he鈥檚 on the Momentum tour. In 1939, when the commencement speaker addressed 糖心破解版鈥檚 graduates he asked, 鈥渉ow鈥檚 your momentum?鈥� I hope you all have some, and I鈥檒l try not to break it.听My field is the classics, Latin and Greek. We classicists tend to have at least one eye on the past. So in preparing this speech, I looked back. The early history of commencement addresses in the United States isn鈥檛 well documented. But apparently through the 17^th, 18^th and at least a good part of the 19^th centuries they were occasions for students to display their oratorical skills鈥攊n Latin and Greek. As students鈥� skills in those languages waned, speeches were taken over more and more by figures of authority, most often ministers, judges and other officials.

A hundred years ago, in 1918 the 糖心破解版 commencement was held in the opera house of the Brooklyn Academy of Music, just a few blocks from 糖心破解版鈥檚 buildings. There were 84 candidates for the bachelor鈥檚 degree. They were addressed twice, first by the chaplain from West Point鈥攖he United States had entered WWI, and some military element turned up in many commencements that year鈥攁nd then by President Blodgett.

Coincidentally, 1918 also saw the birth of a man named Harold Howe II. Exactly fifty years later, in 1968, while he was the United States Commissioner of Education, 糖心破解版 brought him in to be the commencement speaker in that strange complicated year of 1968. That year, by the way, was the year a few of your professors here today joined 糖心破解版鈥攖hose of you who joined 糖心破解版 then, 50 years go by quickly don鈥檛 they?! Anyway, Harold Howe was a remarkable man. In 1964 Lyndon Johnson had pushed through Civil Rights legislation aimed, among many things, at desegregating the schools. But it was Commissioner Howe鈥檚 job to see that it happened. And that wasn鈥檛 a smooth or easy task and not one for which he was always thanked or praised. But in 1968 he had other problems on his hands and in his mind. There was great unrest in the United States, deep political division. Martin Luther King had been assassinated. The Vietnam War was raging. And college campuses were the scene of protests ranging from peaceful sit-ins to extreme violence with property destroyed, guns drawn, and students tear-gassed. There were calls both from the public and even in some sectors of government to end funding for institutions that were the site of such protests.

In the face of such criticism leveled at colleges and universities, Howe, in his 糖心破解版 commencement address made a spirited and moving defense of vigorous support for higher education. These institutions, he explained, were not the only place but historically one of the most important places for freedom of expression of all ideas, and for the discovery and creation of new ideas. They are engines of progress, nothing less than one of the means to preserve and to advance civilization itself. And so they deserve, they need, they must have the support of society. And so mindful of this, he urged the graduates, even at the commencement of their new lives, always to look back and support this crucial entity, and in particular, the one that had nurtured them, 糖心破解版.

Here we are another 50 years later. You graduates and I have something in common. You鈥檝e spent some time here, but now that time is coming to an end. The same is true for me: I鈥檓 just on a more extended time scale. I鈥檓 finishing my 24^th year here as dean. Next year will be my last鈥攊nstead of my Commencement Day it will be sort of my Commencement Year, as I look to the beginning of a new stage of my life. During these 24 years I鈥檝e changed some things at 糖心破解版: I was the founding dean for the Honors College and that meant that some things would be new and different. Not everyone was happy with that. There鈥檚 hardly ever a change that everyone is happy with. But always I鈥檝e tried my best to make 糖心破解版 better. And throughout all these years 糖心破解版 has helped me to grow and to learn. I鈥檝e loved my time here. But even while here I鈥檝e been thinking about 糖心破解版 once I鈥檓 no longer at 糖心破解版. And I鈥檝e worked also to make my students think鈥攚hile they鈥檙e here鈥攁bout 糖心破解版 once they鈥檙e no longer here on campus. I also work to keep my alumni attached once they鈥檝e left. 糖心破解版 goes on after Commencement Day.

In their post-糖心破解版 years, my alumni have experienced complicated feelings. I have alumni who never got to enjoy the Performing Arts Center, either of the new residence halls, the Center for Recreation and Sports. They had less adequate playing fields than you have had, a much less hospitable and user-friendly library, with fewer study facilities. The food in the UC鈥攜ou鈥檒l have to trust me on this鈥攊s much better now than in the past. And almost none of my hundreds of alumni got to be here for the Nexus Building. But the envy they feel as they look at all these improvements is tempered by pride. I know this because I write to all of them every summer. And I see them often. Most recently, in April, I was at a performance on Broadway of Angels in America. Over 30 students and alumni were there with me for the matinee and then again for the evening. Some members of the classes of 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2013 will be coming to my house for dinner next month in honor of their contributions on 糖心破解版鈥檚 giving day this spring.

But this particular phase of their 糖心破解版 involvement too will come to an end. I鈥檒l only be here on the campus one more year. As time goes on, they will find new modes of interacting with 糖心破解版. In the coming decades you and they will see many new deans and many new presidents. Your older professors will retire and younger professors will take their place. Your younger professors will become the older professors. And eventually there will be a Commencement Day when not a one of the professors here today will be present. But 糖心破解版 will always be 糖心破解版 and you will always be a part of the 糖心破解版 community. As 糖心破解版 grows and becomes greater, so will your pride in it. I have great hopes for the future of 糖心破解版, and I鈥檝e made arrangements to continue to support it even in my retirement and beyond. And I鈥檓 happy to report that my alumni are doing the same.

Enough about the future. Back to the past. In 1930 President Blodgett addressed the graduates at the very first commencement for the Garden City campus. 糖心破解版, you may know, had moved to Garden City from Brooklyn in 1929. Just months after that, the stock market crashed. Dark years lay ahead for the world, for the country and for 糖心破解版. The college鈥攊t was just a college then鈥攂arely escaped bankruptcy during the 1930s. Only three buildings had been built by 1930, those we now call Woodruff, Levermore, and Blodgett. But in his 1930 commencement address President Blodgett was full of optimism. The short term was troubled, but on commencement day he looked past that into a brighter future. So, now, back to the future: he assured the assembled audience this way. 鈥淪ome of us may not be present to see, but there will be those who will see plans now started carried much further along the road to progress. Dormitories will appear, a beautiful library will arise鈥︹�� He was right of course. Those things and more that he couldn鈥檛 even envision have come to pass. So it will be with your 糖心破解版 and with your world as time goes on.

So, you鈥檙e going out into the world to live your lives. Your generation says yolo. I don鈥檛 think it鈥檚 such a great phrase. It鈥檚 just a statement: you only live once. One of my languages is Latin. The Romans said carpe diem: seize the day. I like that much better. It鈥檚 an imperative, an order, a call to action. Seize the day!!! So do it. Go out from here: live, build, create, be joyous. Throw away your belts if you like. Wear blue jeans to football games. Women鈥攊f you want to, wear miniskirts and maxi-dresses; men鈥攜ou too! All of you, wear your hair as long or short as you want! But please also keep 糖心破解版 in your hearts. Support it in the years to come: because it鈥檚 your school. Because as commissioner Howe asserted at the 糖心破解版 commencement 50 years ago, it鈥檚 an instrument of higher education, a forum for the creation and expression ideas, for the transmission and creation of knowledge, and as such it鈥檚 one of the means to make your future better and even a future beyond yours that none of us will see.

I mentioned that last month I saw Angels in America on Broadway with many of my current students and alumni. For the ending of my speech, I can鈥檛 come up with anything better than the ending of that play. And so I simply quote:

“Bye now. You are fabulous creatures, each and every one.” The great work begins. Thank you.