As University Provost and on behalf of the entire University at Buffalo community, I extend my heartfelt congratulations to our 2009 graduates.
As your Provost, I relish occasions in which we celebrate our students’ achievements. And, this commencement day, I celebrate with you, your family, and your friends on your remarkable achievements to date. It is with an eye to the future I anticipate a lifetime of yet to be imagined successes.
As you take a breath, and look up from your studies after years of broadening your intellect and honing your skills, know that you are members of a dynamic world.
You belong to a world that is—at its best—innovative, empathetic, ecumenical, generous, and ethical. At its worst, our world is none of these.
So, today as you begin to re-calibrate your self-identity from student to professional, from learner to enlightened citizen, seek to embody the ethical values and practices inherent to a progressive and humane 21st-century world.
I know this is graduation day. And, I know that you were hoping to have left the university lecture hall behind. Well, I have good news and I have bad news.
First the good news: I will try to keep my comments relatively brief.
Now the bad news: While days of scheduled classes and examinations may be over, your days as a student—a learner—should never cease.
To be successful in the 21st century—as professionals in your field and as world citizens—it is imperative that your education—formal or informal—never ceases. We live in a complex and dynamic world. We, as a culturally, religiously, politically diverse people, are the perfect manifestation of a complex world.
Now, combine this complexity with our inter-connectedness.
Technology carries information from every corner of the globe to our hand held smart phones. Images of human distress and need from remote regions are chronicled and shared across an electronic network reaching millions of people—seemingly at the speed of light—resulting in outpourings of humanitarian relief.
Our interconnectedness is clearly evidenced with, for example, the warming of our earth. Our human activity, the release of carbon dioxide from automobiles, smoke stacks, and burning forests, has raised the average surface temperature of the earth by more than 1 degree Fahrenheit since 1900.
With the warming of the climate, Artic melting is occurring at rates mystifying scientists. Rising sea levels are jeopardizing traditional ways of life for Native Alaskans. And, according to a newly-released report by the Asian Development Bank, Southeast Asia will be among the regions worst affected by global warming, with “diminished rice harvests, seawater seeping into aquifers, and islands vanishing into rising oceans.” Populations of people will struggle with mal-nourishment, the lack of potable water, and disease.
This interconnectedness does and can result in much good, but as we have seen it can spur distressing societal and economic challenges.
Less than two years ago I spoke to an international group about the unprecedented economic expansion occurring across the globe.
I spoke of the unprecedented expansion of the middle class in developing nations. I spoke of markets climbing, corporate revenues rising, and communities prospering.
Not long after that event, we learned that the expansion of our financial sector was a “house built on sand.” Simply stated: This prosperity was unsustainable. As the days and weeks unfolded, we were reminded once again of our inter-connectedness. We were reminded of the vulnerability of our entire global financial system when driven by the worst of our nature.
With stridency I maintain that we cannot lament failures in character or in systems that led us to where we are today. We can only commit to making the right choices for our families, our communities, and our society as a whole, so the failures of today do not resurface tomorrow.
I contend that we are in the midst of a watershed moment—meaning a critical point that marks a change in course; or turning point.
I believe this historical moment, this turning point, underscores the necessity of rediscovering, as Abraham Lincoln once said, our better nature.
Let’s be forthright: greed, dishonesty, selfishness, the worst of our nature has brought us to this challenging economic place.
This watershed moment, this jolt from comfort and security, reminds us that our morality cannot be pushed aside or cast away, without very serious implications.
This watershed moment reminds us that unmitigated growth and consumption cannot be sustained.
Indeed, we must not lose our ethical bearing. Individual actions, choreographed as systemic response, must be driven by our moral intelligence.
We, as learners, as enlightened citizens of our nation and world cannot allow the failures of today to define us. We have a responsibility to chart a return to a sustainable world. We must be equipped with an informed, relevant, and global perspective so we can learn from, and move beyond, the trials of today and usher in a new approach, a new way of living that appreciates and harnesses (for the purpose of good) our inter-connectedness.
I want to share with you one of my favorite quotes from the famed astro-physicist Brian Greene:
“I have long thought that anyone who does not gaze up and see the wonder and glory of a dark night sky filled with countless stars loses a sense of their fundamental connectedness to the universe.”
With this elegant quote, Professor Greene reminds us that we are part of something much larger than our individual selves.
As we ponder the challenges and opportunities that are present before us today, and as we anticipate the world of tomorrow, know that your active engagement in your studies and your informed world view has well-prepared you to be citizen leaders. Know you will be called upon to help resolve our nation’s, and our world’s, most difficult economic and financial challenges. Seize this moment without trepidation. For you have the repertoire of knowledge and skills to be magnificent leaders of change.
I wish my sincerest and most heartfelt congratulations to our 2009 UB graduates.
Last Modified: Tuesday June 09 2009