Commencement Address
(Video versions are also available.)
In a normal commencement exercise, the president would, at this point, introduce the speaker. However, as this is my first commencement ceremony as your new president, I have been asked to deliver the address. I probably won't get the opportunity again any time soon. It seems they only want the president when he or she is coming in to office or going out.
Before we begin I would like to say thank you, to you and all the other students, faculty and staff for helping make my freshman presidential year such a wonderful experience for Patsy and me. It is indeed an honor to serve you. So, with all our heart, thank you for allowing us to be a part of your University.
Hence today, as your commencement speaker, how can I help set the lifetime goals of each class member and challenge you to go forward and reshape the world?
Well, I sat down and tried to think of the profound comments my commencement speakers had made . . . I couldn't remember a thing. So I asked my wife Patsy some of her recollections . . . she couldn't remember any either. Then I asked my assistant and she couldn't even remember the name of the speaker! So the pressure was off! Because it really doesn't matter what I say, you're not going to remember it anyway!
What I do want to talk to you about are some of the experiences I have had since I began college. Looking back on my career, I have had several transitions. Each transition has been a personal growth experience. I have crystallized those phases into five guiding principles. I also want to share with you how these principles are driving my vision for this University or what, in moments, will be your alma mater.
First, "Set your owns sights". Before I left Earlington High School in Earlington, Kentucky to go to college at Murray State, someone told me, "If you go to college and just get through and graduate, that will be quite an accomplishment coming from this small school." So I went to Murray just hoping that I could hang in there and get by. But I remember sitting in Algebra and Trigonometry class one day, looking around and saying to myself, "Someone in here is going to get an 'A' and it might as well be me!" That day, I reset my sights and went through a growth transition.
At each stage of my education and career I learned to reset my own sights. When I first met with the Presidential Search Committee I addressed the fact that I did not feel people were taking the Top 20 challenge seriously enough. I told them that one of my first tasks would be to convince the people of Kentucky and many at UK that we deserve to have a Top 20 institution. We tend to think that those things happen on the East and West coasts, but not here. My second task would be to convince everyone that we can do it and then, set the vision for how we can accomplish that mission. Ignore the nay Sayers and those that say it can't be done! CHALLENGE YOURSELF FROM WITHIN AND SET YOUR OWN SIGHTS!
Which leads me to the second principle, "Choose challenge over comfort." After I was at Murray for two years, I was quite comfortable. I had done much better than I had expected. I knew the professors and the professors knew me. I had made a lot of friends and I really liked the campus. Everything was very comfortable . . . but, I wanted to be an engineer and to do so I had to transfer to U.K., which was kind of scary to me at the time. So I transferred. I was intimidated. The lowest score I ever made on a test in my life was the first test I took at UK, since I had put myself under such pressure.
I eventually righted my rudder and did much better here than I had expected. By my senior year I was again quite comfortable. I knew the professors and they knew me. I had made a lot of friends and I really liked the campus. But then I got an opportunity to leave that comfort and go to Boston, to M.I.T. For whatever reason, I chose challenge over comfort. Patsy and I loaded our worldly possessions into a small U-Haul trailer and headed to Boston to 'grow up'.
If I had been intimidated by the transition from Murray to UK, I was scared to death when I went from UK to MIT I had the feeling that everyone else was a genius and that I was the only one that really had to study. But, I gained tremendously from that experience.
When my name surfaced as a potential candidate for this job I don't mind telling you, I had a lot of reservations. I was pretty comfortable as a senior vice president for Lotus Corporation. But ultimately the desire to be a part of something greater won out -- to have the opportunity to make a difference, not only at the University, but also in the economic and educational growth of the entire state. So when something inside you is trying to get your attention, when something inside you is telling you it is time for change, listen to that still small voice - - and CONSIDER "CHOOSING CHALLENGE OVER COMFORT."
Third, "Seek opportunities to sit in the presence of greatness." Late one Friday afternoon during my senior year at UK, a professor asked me if I would like to meet with Dr. Edward Teller on Saturday, when Dr. Teller was going to meet with several students. I immediately said "yes." Dr. Teller is a very well known physicist, best known as "the father of the hydrogen bomb." After meeting with a group of us, he asked me to come back in the afternoon and talk with him. That "talk" turned out to be a two-hour oral exam where I stood at the blackboard and answered questions. At the end, he asked me, "What do you want to study?" I said, "solid-state electronics." He said, "You'll go to MIT Have you applied?' I said, "no." To me MIT was some mecca somewhere that I never dreamed of attending. He said , "You apply and I'll get you a Hertz Fellowship if I can - - if not, I'll get you something." Two weeks later, I got a telegram in my screen door from Dr. Teller. The Hertz Fellowship fully paid for my M.S. and Ph.D. work at MIT
Looking back, I gained more than my paid education. I had sat in the presence of greatness! I had had a "give-and-take" with someone that was well established in the field I was beginning to pursue - - and I had survived! That experience gave me confidence to face other oral exams I had at MIT, to have intellectual "tug-of-wars" with other people in my field. It built a confidence I could not have easily built otherwise.
This case is an extreme of the point I want to make to you. To "sit in the presence of greatness" you don't have to be talking to a Nobel Prize winner or a business tycoon. You can "sit in the presence of greatness" by meeting with someone you admire and respect but probably do not personally know.
President Lee T. Todd
If you want to be a doctor - go talk to the best doctor you can find. If you aspire to someday have your own company - go talk to someone who has started her or his own company. If you want to be a professor - go talk to the very best one you can find. Ask what it takes to become a full professor, a research professor - she or he will tell you. Let the professor question you. I assure you, you'll come out thinking on a different plane having "sat in the presence of greatness."
Fourth, "Don't think you're not very smart because you talk slowly." I must profess that this principle does not apply to all of you, but it did to me. So, if you are from Kentucky or somewhere else in the South, you may appreciate this point. During the years I was at MIT, I came to realize that there were not many Southerners that attended the institute. I also came to realize that a lot more could be there if they would only chose to do so. But, we Southerners sometimes have a low self-image. We don't think we can knock heads with the North Easterners.
While at MIT, I once had a salesman tell me, 'I never thought Southerners were very smart because they talk so slowly." I said, "John, I certainly hope you're not trying to sell me anything!" But, many people do share his opinion. I take that as a personal challenge. I was able to get six patents while I was at MIT Every now and then I would see John and, in my best Southern accent, I would say J-O-H-N . . . I got another patent last week!" He got the message.
So don't let other's opinions lower your self-image. We have a heritage for which we can be proud - a work ethic that will put most to shame. Our alumni include two Nobel Prize winners, six Pulitzer Prize winners, many outstanding writers, CEOs of Fortune 500 companies and numerous university and college presidents.
UK has scores of programs ranked in the top 50 in the country, many regarded among the Top 20, and several programs recognized in the Top 5 in their respective fields. In addition, most of the major academic programs at UK have faculty members who are the envy of any university in the country because they are recognized as being the most knowledgeable experts in their discipline.
So continue to talk slowly, smile graciously and let the results tell the story. But, NEVER "think you're not smart because you talk slowly."
My fifth and final principle is Have a Dream!" I think it is very important that we have dreams. Dreams are your personal goals you want to achieve. When you go to bed at night after a long grueling day, your dream is a mental escape to what it will be like once you achieve your goal. A dream is a bridge between "what is" to "what can be."
In my inaugural address I talked about the need for this University to find a new way to dream. While I am now in what I believe is the dream job, looking back I realize that I never dreamed big enough. Going to MIT, starting two high-tech companies or being president of UK was never in my wildest of dreams.
I challenge you to dream big, to lift your vision 15 degrees higher!! Whatever your goal - dream to the next level. Believe me when I tell you that you can go farther than you think you can go. You can go farther than you are being told you can go.
People who fail to dream do so because they cannot believe their dreams will ever result in reality. Anatole France, the French writer and winner of the Nobel Prize for literature, said, "To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe."
Today you are all part of someone else's dream - that of John Bowman. Bowman was a Kentuckian whose self-appointed mission was to launch a public university in Kentucky where the public could receive a quality education at minimal cost. He succeeded. In its first year, 1866, the Agricultural & Mechanical College, later named the University of Kentucky, enrolled 190 students who paid annual fees of $10 each.
You are now one of the more than 185,000 graduates of John Bowman's dream.
The other key here is never stop dreaming. I assure you I have not. And I am trying to dream bigger. I have some very lofty dreams for this University and for Kentucky. I believe we have a responsibility to serve a higher purpose within this state. Kentucky faces many challenges and UK must be part of the solution.
We must be "a university that values the pursuit of private curiosities and champions the achievement of the common good." We must be "a university that preserves the best of academic traditions and innovates for a better-understood and prosperous future."
President Lee T. Todd and student
If we are to become a Top 20 institution, we must have a Top 20 student body. We must be a university whose students are motivated not only by our high expectations for them but also by our strong nurturing of them. We must create a climate on this campus that embraces diversity and champions the development of the individual.
We must be a University that is internationally respected and locally loved. We must continue to build our reputation nationally and internationally with our research and service accomplishments. But we must also have an impact in Lexington and across the Commonwealth.
Those are some of my dreams for OUR University. They are certainly not ambitions that will be accomplished overnight. You have accomplished a dream, which is evident by your graduation today. I challenge you to set your sights on your next dream and continue to strive for what may seem beyond your reach!
I would like to share with you one of my favorite poems. It is called Press On by Calvin Coolidge.
Nothing
in the world can take the place of persistence
Talent will
not, nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent,
Genius will
not, unrewarded genius is almost a proverb,
Education
alone will not, the world is full of educated derelicts.
Persistence
and determination alone are omnipotent.
I am a firm believer in persistence and determination. Whenever you think you can't, believe you can and try again. These characteristics, along with faith, family and friends will serve you well.
And so, I challenge you to:
- Set your own sights!
- Choose challenge over comfort!
- Seek opportunities to sit in the presence of greatness!
- Don't think you're not very smart because you speak slowly!
- and above all, Have a dream!
I want to congratulate you, as well as your family and friends that supported you along the way, in reaching this milestone. I wish you the very best as you continue to pursue your careers or graduate studies. As you venture beyond the boundaries of this campus and accomplish great deeds, I encourage you to continue to be a part of our university family and support us as we continue to pursue our dreams.
Thank you for being a part of the University of Kentucky. And above all, remember your success will be measured not by what you do for yourself but by what you do for others.
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