Yesterday, many of you participated
in our new-student book experience, and I had the privilege of taking
part in one of the discussions, where students from many different
backgrounds talked about their reactions to the author Roya’s
story. It was fascinating to listen
to the different reactions students had to the challenges she faced,
and to see how the different reactions to her story were shaped by
our own stories.
After we talked about the book – and because I believe in listening to
the voices of students – I asked the group to give me some advice about
my talk today. They had several things to say: first, that they appreciated
feeling already that the presence of new students is important to us; second,
that getting involved with people and activities, both in and beyond the classroom,
is important to your success; third, that many of you understandably feel
a little anxious, but that you will feel increasingly comfortable as you experience
the different types of support available to you here; and finally, that it’s
clear already that your education here will go beyond simply helping you find
a job; in fact, we will teach you how to live and prepare for life.
I can’t overemphasize how important it is to reach out for support. In
fact, when I was a freshman in 1966, I recall the Convocation speaker saying
to us, “Look to your left; look to your right; one of you will not graduate.” At
UMBC, we say, “Look to your left; look to your right; our goal is to make
sure that all of you graduate.”
So, as I talk to you today, I hope you will keep these themes in mind: that you
are important to us; that getting involved is crucial; that we are determined
to give you the support you need; and that you are here to prepare for life.
A year ago, UMBC awarded an honorary degree to Duke University President Richard
Brodhead, who served the decade before as the Yale Dean. Each year at Yale,
he addressed new students, and in his 2002 address, he expressed to them precisely
what I want to express to you today.
You worked hard to get into a great college. And
you succeeded! And
this day, you get your reward… Seek out all the opportunities
of your new home, and you won’t be the same person when you
leave. You’ll be you, all right, but you enriched and
developed: you further realized through the process of education. The
riches of this place are now all yours. Let the education begin! 1
Today, at Convocation, the campus community comes together to welcome
freshmen and all other new students. We are excited that you
are here and want to do all we can to support you. Most important,
we want you to dream and to develop the skills and values that will
enable you to achieve your dreams. We will work hard to do our
part – we are committed to offering you a distinctive undergraduate
experience that values the life of the mind and supports your intellectual
and personal development. Your education here will be about hard
work and high achievement, character and integrity, relationships built
on civility and mutual respect.
Your education also will be about “moving from the information
age to the conceptual age” – an idea Daniel Pink writes
about in his book, A Whole New Mind. If you haven’t
read this book, I strongly recommend it because it focuses on the new
era in which you’ll be spending much of your lives. Pink
writes that,
Ours has been the [information] age of the “knowledge worker,”…but
that is changing… We are entering a new [conceptual] age…animated
by a different form of thinking and a new approach to life… Our
brains are divided into two hemispheres. The left hemisphere
is sequential, logical, and analytical. The right hemisphere
is nonlinear, intuitive, and holistic… Today, the defining
skills of the previous era – the “left-brain” capabilities
that powered the information age – are necessary but no longer
sufficient. And the...“right-brain” qualities of
inventiveness, empathy, joyfulness, and meaning… increasingly
will determine who flourishes and who flounders… [P]rofessional
success and personal fulfillment now require a whole new mind.2
It’s exciting that this new era is dawning just as you’re
beginning your UMBC education, where hopefully you’ll not only
develop a “whole new mind,” but also become a whole person – capable
of thinking critically and solving problems on the one hand, and being
creative and compassionate on the other. Your liberal education
here promises to transform your lives. Indeed, the term “liberal
education” is rooted in Latin and relates to ideas about “freeing” and “nurturing” the
mind.
Many of you may already be wondering about “life after UMBC” and
where your education and experiences here may lead. You’ll
be inspired to hear what some of this year’s graduates are now
doing. Many are beginning graduate programs with fellowships at top
schools across the nation – from Harvard in physics and public
policy, and Yale in drama and public health, to MIT and Georgia Tech
in nuclear and bioengineering, Cornell in Asian studies, NYU in cinema
studies, and Maryland in medicine and law. Other graduates are
launching careers with major companies and agencies – from DuPont,
GE, IBM, and Lockheed Martin to NASA, the National Security Agency,
and public school systems in Maryland.
Above all, we hope that you’ll become passionate about your education. I
often talk about Samuel Beckett’s novel, Molloy,3
in which the main character is enraptured by what he sees when he observes
the dancing behavior of bees. Molloy says, “Here’s
something I could study all my life and never understand.” The
lesson from Beckett is that none of us ever reaches the end of our
education – the more we learn, the more we appreciate how much
more there is to know. I am convinced that the keys to a successful
life are twofold – maintaining a passion for learning and being
part of a community through meaningful relationships.
I encourage you, therefore, to reach out to one another – supporting
and learning from each other. Throughout your college career,
you can play a major role in one another’s success – as
study partners and as collaborators in the lab, in performances, and
on projects; as partners in civic engagement; as teammates on the athletic
field; or simply as friends. I also encourage you to connect
with faculty and staff – through courses and experiences that
promote student engagement, leadership, study groups, research opportunities,
mentoring, advising, co-curricular experiences, entrepreneurship, and
community service.
In your relationships, I urge you also to push yourselves to move beyond
your comfort zones, and to learn also about diversity of people. UMBC
is a microcosm of the nation and world, with students and faculty from
every state and nearly 140 countries, representing a variety of backgrounds
in terms of race, ethnicity, religion, politics, sexual orientation,
and culture. In the process of getting to know others, not only
do we come to appreciate our differences, but we also learn about those
characteristics that make us so much the same – our fears, hopes,
and dreams. Reading Roya Hakakian’s Journey From the
Land of No, this year’s book selection for new students,
we sense such fears and hopes. It is by building on our relationships
and academic experiences that we begin to become citizens of the world.
I now need to share with you tragic news about a special young woman
who was to be with us today. Madison “Maddie” Bingaman,
a recent graduate of Stony Point High School in Austin, Texas, was
to become a UMBC freshman this week. An outstanding student and
volleyball player, Maddie died in a car accident outside of Memphis,
Tennessee on August 8th while she and her mother were driving to UMBC. Mrs.
Bingaman also died, two days later, in a Memphis hospital. Needless
to say, the Bingaman family, their hometown community, and all of us
at UMBC are devastated. Described by one of her coaches as “quiet
and exceptionally intelligent,” Maddie Bingaman is with us in
spirit, and I ask that you keep her and her family in your thoughts
and prayers throughout the year. I ask that we now have a moment
of silence in her memory. In fact, we dedicate today’s
Convocation to Maddie.
This tragedy puts into perspective – and magnifies – how
precious our lives are, and how fortunate we are to be able to live
each day, pursuing our dreams and making decisions that shape our life
stories. We want you to be inspired by your own story and the
stories of others, and to appreciate the opportunities you have to
learn and grow during this important period of your life. A defining
chapter of my story took place a few years before my freshman year
in college, during the Civil Rights Movement. I had the privilege
of participating in the 1963 Children's March in Birmingham, Alabama,
and of going to jail with Dr. Martin Luther King. That experience
taught me one very important lesson – that even children can
make important choices that affect not only their own lives, but the
lives of others. Because of that experience, I know that each
of you has the potential to be a leader in our society – not
20 years from now, but now.
To live and lead outside your comfort zone, you’ll need to embrace
the world around you. To do that, you’ll need to develop
the skills and values of a liberal education; be passionate about your
life and what you do; value your relationships with people; and see
your education and your life as a journey. You’re beginning
the next stage of that journey here today.
Like President Brodhead, in his address to Yale students a few years
ago, I want to encourage you to “embrace both the disciplines
and the freedoms of this place.” At UMBC, you have
sufficient freedom to explore the sticky issues of the day – from
global warming and stem cell research to national immigration policy,
the troublesome gaps between poor and advantaged people, the appropriate
role of America in the world, and what it means to be human. You
also have more freedom than ever to make choices that will affect both
you and those around you. For example, it should bother us all
that 1,400 college students die each year from binge drinking – that’s
more than 100 deaths each month, more than three deaths each day.
In fact, on Convocation morning three years ago, I was deeply concerned
to learn that one of our new freshmen had been rushed to the hospital
the night before – having been found unconscious and lying in
the dirt after drinking 10 shots of alcohol in half-an-hour. It
was a frightening situation, and we were greatly relieved that he survived. But
the experience pointed up important lessons for all of us. I
often talk with other college Presidents about students who have been
killed in alcohol-related accidents or who died as the result of alcohol
poisoning or drug overdoses. Make no mistake about it – this
is a matter of life and death, and it is essential that we talk about
these issues regularly. The campus does not condone illegal drinking
or drug use.
We want you to use your freedom responsibly – in ways that will
help you grow and develop intellectually and as a person. I often
say that character has everything to do with who we are, what we say,
and how we act – not only when others see us, but, even more
important, when others cannot see us. We at UMBC believe deeply in
the importance of academic and personal integrity.
Also, we believe in each of you, and we know you will do well and go
on eventually to have a good job and a variety of careers over the
next 50 years. So, what is your education here all about? It’s
about the excitement of ideas, building your character, learning about
yourself and others, learning what it means to lead and serve, and
about solving problems and making good decisions. During the
next few years, I will often give you the following challenge:
Watch your thoughts; they become your words.
Watch your words; they become your actions.
Watch your actions; they become your habits.
Watch your habits; they become your character.
Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.4
Again, welcome to UMBC. “The riches of this place are now
all yours. Let the education begin!”
1. Brodhead,
Richard H., The Good of This Place: Values and Challenges in
College Education, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2003,
p.72.
2. Pink,
Daniel H., A Whole New Mind: Moving From the Information Age
to the Conceptual Age, Riverhead Press, New York, 2005, pp.
2-3.
3. Beckett,
Samuel, Molloy, Grove Press Inc., 1955.
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