Each Fall, we welcome new students back to campus with an opening convocation. These were my remarks to the Class of 2028 on Thursday.
Convocation means to be called together – from vocare meaning voice or calling. We are called together to signal your entry into the life of this university and to celebrate the beginning of your matriculation. It is an opportunity to declare a new beginning for all of us, to be drawn together with one voice to affirm what we are called to do.
Students, you are beginning an extraordinary chapter in your lives, but in addition to your excitement, I know you are experiencing cognitive overload. This is a moment in your lives when you are likely experiencing the most concurrent change: a new community; a new role; soon to be new classmates, neighbors, and friends; will they like you, will you like them; a new academic experience with a different kind of faculty (you’ll soon discover how great they are), and a different set of academic responsibilities. For most of you, for the first time, home has just become a place different from where your family lives.
Right now, most of you are on auto-pilot. That’s normal, and it’s okay, but I want to take a few minutes to challenge you to make the most of this opportunity, to affirm why you made such a good choice in coming to Susquehanna, and to ask you to make some commitments to your new community.
Statistically, many of you chose to attend Susquehanna because we had a major that you believe equates with a job you think you want right now, or at least you did 6 months ago. For many of you, that will change, and that’s a good thing. We will help you to develop your sense of vocation — what can you do that will be most personally rewarding? What will bring you the most meaning?
Many of you chose Susquehanna because you believe you can develop the skills and knowledge to be successful in professional life. That is a fundamental strength of this university, but we will also help you to cultivate broader skills and perspectives.
And, most of you chose Susquehanna because we made it financially possible for you to be here. We were founded to provide an education to meritorious students many of whose families could not afford a 19th-century college degree. Today, we are all able to be here because of extraordinary philanthropic generosity that has created this beautiful campus, expanded our offerings, and has continued to grow scholarship support over the past 166 years.
Many of those gifts came from individuals who would never meet you, but who believed deeply in the promise that you would bring to this great university. It is important to acknowledge that selfless generosity and to be thankful.
I challenge each of you to make the most of this remarkable opportunity and their laudable investment.
First, a message of assurance to the parents and families of our new students. Contrary to what you often see and hear in the media about the value of a college education, according to the Georgetown University Center for Educational Statistics, the return on investment of a college degree has never been greater than it is this year. I repeat, the financial advantage of a college degree has never been greater than it is this year. That same study places Susquehanna’s graduates among the top 11% of all colleges and universities in the United States for lifetime earnings.
That should give you comfort, but it should not be the most important reason you are here.
Students, we are here, faculty, staff, and trustees to help you to become the best citizens, best neighbors, and best people you can become. We are here to help you to develop and expand your personal philosophy, to affirm those things that are most important to you, and to give you the tools to pursue them and to advocate for them. We are here to help you to chart a course that will lead you to your best life.
To help us to do that, you need to commit to practicing the habits that will make those lofty goals a reality.
First, good citizenship includes active participation in our democracy. If you haven’t registered to vote, we will help you, and we will help you get to the polls. Our Achieve, Lead, Vote initiative made Susquehanna the most improved higher education institution in Pennsylvania for participation in the 2020 election. This year, let’s all commit to surpassing that achievement.
Being good neighbors takes work and courage. We are living in a time of geopolitical upheavals and rampant incivility. We see ideologies and righteous passions quickly turn into self-righteous disruptions on sister campuses across the nation, we must continue to do better.
We are also witnessing systematic attacks on institutional efforts to create and sustain diverse, equitable, and inclusive communities. As a university, we are committed to maintaining a campus where all members of our community can flourish.
Civility, respect, and belonging are interdependent. A credal document for the Susquehanna community is our Statement on Ethical and Inclusive Living. It opens with these paragraphs.
Susquehanna University is an institution of higher education that brings learners of different backgrounds, experiences, and talents into dialogue as they pursue knowledge and wisdom together. We commit to maintaining and fostering a safe and welcoming campus environment that aids us all in the process of lifelong learning and the cultivation of good character. As Susquehanna continues its quest to embody the rich diversity of the human community, we are committed to the full participation of all persons representing the breadth of human differences.
With a long-standing ethos of collaboration, our community focuses on the development of cross-cultural relationships marked by mutual curiosity, cooperation, and respect. To that end, we must actively seek to identify and reject systemic and individual biases against individuals based on race, ethnicity, national or geographic origin, sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, social class, age, religion, political affiliation, and marital or parental status. Each individual’s identity is intersectional, deriving varying degrees of advantages and/or limitations from the experiences that frame our lives.
Our community relies upon teaching and advising practices and professional behaviors that promote critical engagement with diversity that seek to understand how the differences among us affect our lived experiences, the beliefs that emerge from and frame those experiences, and the impact of power and privilege on our lives. We hold up our differences as a vital asset to our success as an academic community. We pursue justice and reject injustice in all forms. This is essential for effective teaching and learning, equitable governance and decision-making, and healthy community life.
I encourage you all to read the statement in its entirety.
These commitments will help us to grow as a community and as individuals, and they will equip us to become that ideal city on the hill of which Walt Whitman dreamed when he wrote:
I DREAM’D in a dream, I saw a city invincible to the
attacks of the whole of the rest of the earth;
I dream’d that was the new City of Friends;
Nothing was greater there than the quality of robust love—it led the rest;
It was seen every hour in the actions…of that city,
And in all their looks and words.[1]
This is what we are called to do. This is our one voice, our vocare. This is what it means to be better.
We must be an example for our neighbors. This is what it means to achieve, lead, and serve. This is what it means to be Susquehannans.
At the laying of the cornerstone of Selinsgrove Hall in 1858, which was the founding of this great university, Joseph Casey stated, “Education, in its legitimate sense, includes not only the cultivation of the mental powers, but the proper training and development of the moral sentiments and faculties, and its true object is to ‘make us not only wiser but better…’”[2]
Today, I invite you to your graduation on May 20th 2028. Each year, I give this charge to the graduates. Today, I challenge you to commit to doing all you can during your time at Susquehanna to meet this charge to your fullest.
Achieve all you can for good,
Lead with honor and humility,
Serve with love and pride,
And always strive to be not only wiser, but better.
Welcome home!
[1] Whitman, Walt: from Calamus, 1860.
[2] Joseph Casey, Esq.: “Remarks delivered at the laying of the corner-stone of the Missionary Institute at Selin’s Grove, PA, September 1, 1858.”