Commencement Speech May 2011
Chancellor Pam Shockley-Zalabak
President Benson, members of the regents, faculty, staff, distinguished guests, friends, loving families and, most importantly, members of the class of 2011, thank you for coming today to celebrate success.
As I begin, I want you, our graduates, to join me in special celebration.
§ Graduates who are the first members of your family to graduate from college, I ask that you stand and remain standing.
§ Graduates who worked full or part time while attending UCCS, please stand and remain standing.
§ Graduates who volunteered in this great community, or in your home community, or somehow assisted others while attending school, please stand and remain standing.
Everyone stand.
Now, graduates, I ask that you look for those in the audience today who supported your academic endeavors and thank them for their support by giving them a round of applause.
(Lead Applause)
Please be seated.
One of my favorite authors, Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, frames the world in which we live. She claims, “A wired world moves and changes. A wired world doesn’t just change the way we receive knowledge, it changes the way we make meaning…It should come as no surprise, then, that Americans do not agree about “what it all means’. As we observe our society becoming more and more polarized and inclined to fight over the meaning of both religion and politics, perhaps we ought to look at the fact that we live in a wired world now and see what impact that could be having on us, and how we can help our fractured society become a little more whole again.”
We know we are in a time of unprecedented turbulence, the job market is rocky, and the changes and challenges ahead uncharted. So the future can be described as grim-- or a challenge for which you have prepared yourself—or both. I do believe it is a challenge for which you have prepared yourself –perhaps at times difficult—but a preparation that your graduation signifies—a preparation which will serve you well as you go forward.
Last week one of our faculty referenced an author I have found fascinating for a number of years—Howard Gardner. Gardner, the Harvard Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education, in his book, Five Minds for the Future, eloquently frames what is needed to thrive in a complex wired world. Gardener contends a conscious, continuing, multi-disciplinary education is the only way to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow. That education occurs in classroom but importantly in every aspect of life.
Gardner claims we need five minds—the disciplined mind; the synthesizing mind; the creating mind; the respectful mind, and the ethical mind. These minds prepare us for an uncharted future. And I would add to Gardner’s list--the intentional building of trusting relationships in all aspects of life.
Let me briefly explain
First, the disciplined mind—learning to think in a discipline—identifying truly important topics or concepts (content) and the methodological ways of understanding the discipline. Hopefully your major field of study has stimulated this thinking. But the disciplined mind also makes steady and continuous progress in the mastery of skills, crafts, or bodies of knowledge. Taking responsibility for continual learning and development. As Wilma Mankiller, former principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, was famous for urging, “We must trust our own thinking. Trust where we’re going. And get the job done.” A disciplined mine—discipline from within you not from others.
Second, the synthesizing mind—the ability to take information from vastly different sources and find relationships. With the amount of accumulated information and knowledge doubling every two to three years, it may well be as Nobel Prize winning physicist Murray Gell-Mann suggests, the mind most at a premium in the twenty-first century will be the mind that can synthesize well.--
You can thank all those research papers and essay exams for supporting this necessary competency.-- Those excellent at synthesis will be able to set goals and create vision--vision related to strategies, methods, and approaches to accomplish goals. Whether in classrooms, for profit institutions, government, or non-profit organizations, those able to seek an uncharted future will become the leaders we need to collectively solve increasingly difficult problems.
Third, the creating mind—creating something new obviously relates to the disciplined and synthesizing mind. However, it also is obvious that innovation and creativity not only solve both major and minor problems, they create the value which supports change. Problems of global warming, food production, health, clean water supplies, and education all require creative thinking. Computers today and more in the future can process data more efficiently than any of us. But the creating mind uses technology to make a contribution with meaning.
Fourth, the respectful mind—difference matters. One can be brilliant in a field of study yet exist in an intolerant environment. A wired world connects us whether we like it or not. A genuine competency for today and tomorrow is the ability to understand difference and work with respectful difference. I am not saying we will or should always agree—but the problems of today and tomorrow require working with difference in new and creative ways. I like a story Susan Thistlehwaite tells about three children all living on one street. Each child claims to have the best Mother and Father on the block. Which child is right? Most of us world say all are right. How can this be true? How would our answer change if we said one child is from Pakistan, another from Israel, and another from the U.S.A. A respectful mind allows us to listen, which in turn, informs our thinking.
Fifth, the ethical mind
Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher, “I’m not upset that you lied to me; I’m upset that from now on I can’t believe you.”
Distrust and ethical breaches surround us. They are discouraging. Good works are valued but some would claim rare. Excellent, engaging, and ethical work change the world—one individual at a time—900 graduates at a time.
(Pause)
And finally, the intentional building of trusting relationships. Most agree trust is desirable but few believe there is anything we can do about it. In fact, everything we do is about building trusting relationships. Disciplined, synthesizing, creative, respectful, and ethical people build the trusting relationships that bring both personal satisfaction and success.
The future belongs to the well-rounded mind, to those living fully engaged lives—and I see 900 of these individuals before me today. People matter, the arts matter, science and technology matter. Your degree today is only the beginning. One of my favorite philosophers is Wayne Gretzky, the former NHL hockey great and coach—Gretzky challenges us to understand, “We miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.” Or as civil rights activist, Mahatma Gandhi powerfully admonishes us, We must become the change we want to see in the world.”
In closing, I want you to take disciplined, synthesized, creative, respectful, and ethical shots at life—a large number of them. I believe you are ready and I wish for you meaningful work, relationships, contributions, a meaning-filled life. You are the future, and I believe the future is good. Congratulations.