President’s Graduation Remarks, 2011

Before I finish this ceremony by conferring the degrees, let me brag a little.

SUNY Empire State College is an institution of open learning: the only public, open university in the state, and probably one of the best of its kind in the world.

Open is a simple word, but it has multiple meanings and implications, especially when applied to education.

Open learning is innovative,progressive, liberated, and public.

It is available, flexible, and inclusive.

Open learners like yourselves are open-minded, creative, tolerant, receptive and honest.

Open educators like my colleagues here are communicative, reachable, generous, and unprejudiced.

And an open university like SUNY Empire State College is completely committed to helping those who are motivated and can benefit from rigorous education that connects them to their lives, their work and their communities on their terms. But you already know that.

We now serve 20,000 students on site and online in 35 locations around the state, in every state of the nation and in dozens of countries worldwide.

We are a leader in the provision of programs and services to military personnel and their families around the world and to veterans here at home.

We are acknowledged globally for our expertise in mentored learning, our recognition of prior learning, and our delivery of online education, and we rank first in student satisfaction among our peers in SUNY.

Our vision is

  • to be a better institution, by learning from you and from each other on how to be more effective in every way;
  • to be bigger in ways that do not sacrifice quality;and
  • to be bolder: the more we are recognized as a leader in open learning, the better it is for our graduates.

Our banners are inspired by you and by the SUNY motto: to learn, to search and to serve, but we adapted it to our approach and to your journey: you came to us to search and we joined you in that endeavor, through which you were able to learn, and, though many of you already knew what it meant to serve your communities and your family, we hope you feel better enabled and more empowered to expand that engagement as a thoughtful global citizen.

In so doing, you join a family of over 60,000 Empire State College alumni and alumnae around the world, and you also join the power of SUNY as one of over 2.4 million graduates.

These graduates increasingly staying in touch with each other and with SUNY and the rest of the world through technology, and our award wining alumni website is your gateway to staying in touch with all of us. So, please, do just that. Stay in touch. There’s no excuse.

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