Aug. 25, 2024: Convocation Remarks

Good evening, members of our distinguished faculty and staff. And welcome, Bucknell University transfer students and Class of 2028!

It's a great privilege to be here as you stand on the threshold of profound opportunities for life-changing transformations.

I have addressed Bucknell's Convocation for well more than a decade, and yet this moment never loses its air of anticipation and wonder because of all you will accomplish, gain and contribute as individuals, as groups and as a class.

I appreciate that much of your current focus is on the immediate. You arrived on campus after many long goodbyes, and we have immersed you in one new experience after another. But I hope you will join me in briefly setting aside any prevailing thoughts and questions, so that I can muse with you about your future.

Tonight's Convocation comes, of course, on the heels of the 2024 Commencement ceremony, not quite 100 days ago. The proud graduates who accepted their diplomas in May were once first-year students, just like you — excited to begin a new chapter here at Bucknell, but also unsure and, at times, perhaps, overwhelmed.

And yet, just four years later, they were seated on Malesardi Quad, looking at the surrounding campus that had become a second home. Their fellow graduates, once a sea of strangers, were now classmates, roommates, collaborators and best friends.

From the stage, the class bore only a perfunctory resemblance to the incoming students I had addressed four years earlier. The graduates had a new confidence, forged over semesters of accomplishing what they did not think was possible. Their worldviews had been enriched by campus activities, experiential learning, semesters overseas, and conversations with the distinguished faculty around you tonight. As the graduates walked across that stage, they were not only prepared for professional success; they were also ready to become the next generation of engaged citizens and civic leaders. 

Like every class before them, their time at Bucknell was life-changing… and as distant as your own graduation may seem, your journey toward that defining moment begins tonight. And trust me — the 1,365 days between now and then will pass quickly. 

As you embark on this next chapter, I recognize that you do so at a time when our world seems overwhelmed by unprecedented challenges. I must tell you that Bucknell will not — and cannot ­— provide you with a safe harbor from these challenges. Instead, we will prepare you — and encourage you — to confront them head-on.  

I know what it is like to come of age at a time when many are concerned about our collective future. Sadly, one of my earliest memories was the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963. I was dismissed early from kindergarten and walked home — this, in New York City — thinking I'd surprise my mother with the news… I didn't. This memory has resurfaced — vividly — again and again throughout my life, twice especially in the Sixties, but up to and including the present day. President Kennedy's death was just one of the decade's dark milestones that had Americans of that generation, like today, concerned about the direction of the nation. Coming of age in the '60s…the things that we saw…this is why everyone needs to read history.

And yet, we also saw how a young president worked to alter society's course by mobilizing the nation's artists and scholars… and its youth. He would issue bold challenges to America's best minds, calling on them to break new ground, even if that ground was – unimaginably – not on the earth, but on the moon. Decades later, as a young academic, I got to meet Neil Armstrong, and reflected on what Kennedy summoned the nation to do. On many occasions, in fact, he would encourage Americans to work together and collaborate across traditional lines to reach historic goals. Most significantly, the president urged so many to train their focus not solely on personal accomplishments, but also on collective achievements that would strengthen and enrich society as a whole. 

An early example of this was seen on Oct. 14, 1960, when Kennedy, still a presidential nominee, arrived in Ann Arbor, Michigan, after debating Richard Nixon. It was two o'clock in the morning, and Kennedy was worn out and ready to sleep. However, to the campaign's surprise, as many as 10,000 students from the University of Michigan had waited through the night to greet him.

Kennedy rose to the stage, though he did not have a prepared address, or the energy to speak for long. At first, he fell into his standard stump speech, but in a moment of spontaneity, he asked the students what they were prepared to do for their country and the world at large, foreshadowing, perhaps, his famous inaugural address.

"How many of you who are going to be doctors are willing to spend your days in Ghana?" he challenged. "Technicians and engineers, how many of you are willing to work in the Foreign Service and spend your lives traveling the world?" 

We all know what some of the equivalent questions are today, and so I ask, what are we willing to do to address our most pressing needs today? Middle Eastern conflicts, global economic competition, access to health and education, the role of artificial intelligence… the needs and concerns are many.

The reason for the university, Kennedy concluded, was not, "… merely to help its graduates have an economic advantage in the life struggle. There is certainly a greater purpose," he said, "and I'm sure you recognize it." You can find his speech on YouTube, and I challenge you to do so.

Kennedy's message speaks to the very heart of Bucknell's values as a liberal arts institution. Yes, pursue excellence in a field of your choosing, and yes, do so with a keen eye on your professional aspirations… but do so also with a broad awareness and care for the world around you. Indeed, prepare yourselves for future careers, but recognize that your opportunities as members of your communities are about more than achieving professional success. Recognize, too, that entire sectors of the economy will very likely change like never before.

On that night in Michigan, the future president's speech lasted only three minutes, yet it resounded among the students. They organized themselves and, within a week, had a petition with 1,000 signatures, pledging their support for Kennedy's idea for a government program that sent Americans overseas for two years to complete service projects. The students' activism encouraged the candidate to formalize his idea, and as president, he established what we know today as the Peace Corps.    

President Kennedy's challenge is just one iteration of many in humanity's unending search to find meaning in, and solutions to, life's struggles. In posing his questions to those students on the cusp of finding their way in the world, he implicitly recognized that embracing the tenets of the liberal arts can open our minds to the possible, even when it appears society itself is fraying.

In one of my favorite poems — "O Me! O Life!" — Walt Whitman agonized over life's purpose. I confess that I have done the same. Whitman wrote, in part:

"Oh me! Oh life! of the questions of these recurring,
Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill'd with the foolish,
Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)"

These words and thoughts may seem distant, and unrelatable… but the poet, who had witnessed the scourge of slavery firsthand and cared for the wounded amidst the carnage of the Civil War, asked, "What good amid these, O me, O life?," before giving a powerful response:

"What good amid these, O me, O life?
That you are here—that life exists and identity,
That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse."

Your time at Bucknell will offer you a rarefied opportunity to discover a greater purpose and determine how you will contribute to this world, and to contribute your unique verse.

Those who recently sat in these very seats are already pursuing new discoveries and solutions to difficult problems.

Caroline Corbett, Class of '26, will spend this academic year in Amman, Jordan. While there, she will complete an intensive Arabic language course and study the geopolitics of the Middle East as part of her goal to help resolve conflicts among the international community. 

Gwen Radecki, Class of '25, eagerly approached psychology professor Aaron Mitchel about research opportunities while just in her first year. She also took advantage of Bucknell's Emerging Scholars Summer Research, Scholarship & Creativity Program. Now, she is studying how children learn language and how that process helps them understand the world around them.

And Bret Hatzinger, Class of '24, spent part of his undergraduate years on a remote island research station on the Great Barrier Reef. From there, he successfully applied for a Fulbright Scholarship that will take him to New Zealand to study rare genetic diseases — work that could one day lead to groundbreaking treatments.

Each of these Bucknellians is poised to make a profound impact. And I should note that they did not achieve these successes by narrowly confining themselves to a single field. Caroline is a double-major in international relations and Arabic & Arab World Studies. Gwen is majoring in both psychology and linguistics. Ben pursued his biology major with minors in chemistry and religious studies.

Subject matter expertise is invaluable to pushing the bounds of any field, but we know a sometimes-greater potential for discovery and progress lies at the intersection of established disciplines.

Consider a potentially stunning revelation in marine biology unveiled earlier this year. Since humans first detected the songs of whales nearly 60 years ago, scientists have been trying to interpret the meaning of their clicks and bellows. One team recently reviewed thousands of hours of sounds made by sperm whales and felt they were finally picking up on patterns, but they did not yet know what to make of them. They decided to add computer scientists to the team with the hope that artificial intelligence and the power of computing could shed more light.

Pratyusha Sharma, a computer science graduate student at M.I.T., began by reviewing whale sound data, which the marine biologists had plotted in a particular way. However, she struggled with how to interpret their data and realized a better way to visualize the data would be needed. With this change in perspective, she managed to untangle overlapping whale sounds and analyze each noise more precisely than ever before.

In doing so, she revealed evidence that suggests the calls of sperm whales could be far more sophisticated than we have ever known, including the use of an alphabet and phonetic sounds. Now, scientists are uploading a stream of whale songs in hopes that AI can learn and decipher the patterns to an even greater degree. If successful, computer learning just may allow humans to not only listen in on the conversations of these majestic creatures, but also to talk back. Imagine what Dr. Doolittle would think, more than a century after he first appeared in literature.

As the world becomes ever more interconnected, this ability to collaborate across academic fields will become the expectation of many professions, and increasingly necessary to live up to the promises of the future. I hope you also come to see how it will bring you some of your greatest joys and satisfactions.

Terrific examples of interdisciplinary projects are taking place here at Bucknell. Professors Kat Wakabayashi, in chemical engineering, and Jonathan Scholnick, in geography, are bringing together faculty from various fields to explore the intertwined elements of coffee, asking such questions as: How did the drink become so ubiquitous in our society? What role does it play in our social lives? What sustainability challenges came with the industrialization of its production? What chemistry makes this beverage such an indispensable start to so many of our mornings, let alone a necessary part of staying up late?

Another team of faculty members is collaborating on a language & cultural studies immersion program to complement Bucknell's global management curriculum. Together, they are promoting opportunities to learn new languages, better understand cultures and discover internship opportunities overseas. Through this program, future Bucknellians will not merely succeed in international business. They will rise as leaders with firsthand knowledge of the impact of industry on our global neighbors and personal connections around the world that inform their values and decision-making.   

The ability to cross-pollinate among academic fields is a distinguishing characteristic of Bucknell. It is a pillar of our legacy that we continue to build upon through innovative resources that will prepare you for the future.

Two new centers are exemplary of the opportunities Bucknell will provide you to develop interdisciplinary skills. 

The Dominguez Center for Data Science, for example, will prepare you to solve global problems in a digital age by teaching you how to integrate data science into your field. This ability will be all but essential in the world ahead of us, and it will open promising doors to data-driven ethical decision-making and creative problem-solving.  

At our Perricelli-Gegnas Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, you will be able to take concepts beyond the classroom and engage in hands-on opportunities that allow you to create products, imagine novel enterprises and consider solutions to global problems in any discipline.

Bucknell has long boasted centers and institutes that foster collaboration within and across our three colleges. The Humanities Center coordinates interdepartmental endeavors in fields foundational to the liberal arts. The Stadler Center for Poetry & Literary Arts organizes readings, residences and community programming that nurture an appreciation for the diversity and richness of these timeless forms of expression. And the Bucknell Institute for Public Policy provides a forum for contemporary public policy discussion, a mechanism to support faculty-guided undergraduate research and an academic home for students pursuing a degree in public policy. 

As your interests emerge and develop, I strongly encourage you to take advantage of what they and many others have to offer.

But there's more.

We are about to head into the most heated weeks of an already bitter presidential election — an event that is meant to be a sustained contest of ideas, one that may result in the first woman elected to the presidency; but also one that has coarsened and corroded, sadly reflecting too much of our national discourse. 

Our society has fallen prey to litmus tests, labels and red lines drawn in the sand. As thinkers, we may sometimes believe that we are immune to making generalizations or entertaining prejudiced thoughts. We feel that we are unaffected by the echo chamber of social media, or by news outlets that only reinforce our particular views. However, renowned organizational psychologist Adam Grant, in his recent book Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know, opines that with intelligence comes the ability to recognize patterns faster —which is great — but which can also lead to snap judgments that prematurely categorize people and ideas. Even more provocatively, Grant reports that people with higher intelligence are less willing to update their viewpoints, once they have been established.

Friends, nothing could be more counter to the tenets of the liberal arts than an unwillingness to hold one’s beliefs up to scrutiny, or a blind rejection of any evidence that runs to the contrary. As the great dramatist George Bernard Shaw told us, "Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything."

Each of us comes to this campus as a whole person, with individual, distinctive and distinguishing backgrounds, experiences, interests and ideas. We are more than any one label — in fact, more than even a simple sum of all our unique parts. And each of us holds equal value. As we develop our ability to think holistically in the realm of academia, we must also nurture an open-minded sensibility toward each other as members of multiple, overlapping and intersecting communities.

At Bucknell, we certainly encourage you to develop strong opinions and learn how to make your voices heard. That is essential to your education. But at the same time, I implore you to engage in all your discussions and all your debates with both a humble heart and an open mind, remembering that passion alone cannot by itself persuade. We must commit ourselves to disputes and disagreements that do not extend to discord, division and disparagement. In my experience, one way to do that is to reflect deeply on the idea of certainty.

"Certainty" is complicated in a world where there is still so much to know, and when some of the most influential forces in our daily lives are still so new. Think of even the relatively simple example of "certainty" in the context of technological advancements, reflecting the changes that have occurred just since you were born. See this? This is the iPhone 1, the first smartphone, released in 2007…when most of you were toddlers. It still works! You grew up with some version of this, and have seen it evolve… but you have no visceral experience with how much has changed in so little time because of these devices…Imagine the next 50, 60 and 70 years that you will see! What is "certain" will — dare I say it? — certainly change.

Bucknellians, the world around us is not static. It is not fixed or set in stone. The obstacles and limitations on your ability to shape the future are dwarfed by the opportunities that abound. But you must ready yourselves for them, and that process begins tonight.

Do not wait to engage in all that Bucknell has to offer. Take advantage of campus resources. Nurture rich and fulfilling friendships with the members of your class. Soak up the wisdom of the distinguished faculty around you…I repeat, soak up the wisdom of the distinguished faculty around you. 

Above all else, embrace the tenets of the liberal arts. Question what you believe to be true. Actively listen to the opinions and perspectives of others, respecting their life experiences and how they may be different from yours. Study and explore as deep as you do wide. Adopt and develop scholarly habits of mind that will neverask "How do I get an A?" but rather "how can I learn as much as possible?"  Then — and only then — will you be able to use this time to become the best versions of yourselves…a version that only you can define.

Your time at Bucknell will be unlike any other period of your lives. It will not only shape your identity, but become a permanent part of it. Because as "the powerful play goes on," it is here on this campus — in these halls, in these classrooms, in these laboratories, libraries, studios and theaters — where you will write your powerful opening verse. And I can't wait to see all that you achieve.

Welcome, again, Class of 2028!