graduates cautioned_ don’t shut out opposing views - nytimes.pdf

8/11/2019 Graduates Cautioned_ Dont Shut Out Opposing Views - NYTimes.pdf

1/6

http://nyti.ms/1kxLtlU

DUCATION | COMMENCEMENT SPEAKERS | NYT NOW

Graduates Cautioned: Dont Shut Out Opposing Views

y RICHARD PREZ-PEA JUNE 14, 2014

Commencement speakers made news this year mostly by their absence. Protesters

on the left assailed speakers who had been invited by colleges and universities, and

in some cases, they got their wish, driving away the intended guests.

Brandeis University rescinded its invitation to Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Somali-born

activist. Others withdrew in the face protests: Condoleezza Rice, the former

secretary of state, from Rutgers University; Christine Lagarde, head of the

International Monetary Fund, from Smith College; and Robert J. Birgeneau, former

chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley, from Haverford College.

This topic of scuttled speakers was on the minds of many of those who did

speak, including some who addressed colleges where the protests succeeded. Some

approached the issue humorously and others seriously, some obliquely and others

head-on.

Mostly, they expressed disapproval, warning against political orthodoxy, and

insisting that the principle of airing opposing views should have trumped whatever

objections there were to the speakers. (Ms. Hirsi Ali was opposed for her

denigration of Islam, Ms. Rice for her role in the Iraq war, Ms. Lagarde for the

I.M.F.'s treatment of poor nations, and Mr. Birgeneau for Berkeleys rough

treatment of Occupy protesters.)

Some of the favored graduation themes of recent years have faded the

failings of the financial system, the moral dimensions of a muscular Americanstance in the world while others have flourished.

Speakersexhorted young people to take risks, court failure, and embrace

uncertainty and change. They noted the growing importanceof high-tech fields that

have long embraced those values, and the growing influence of that culture on non-

tech careers.

And many speakers sought to shake graduates out of any complacency

deflating their egos a bit, reminding them how fortunate they are, lamentingpersistent economic inequality, and urging them to work hard and pursue higher

causes.

HARVARD COLLEGE

Michael R. Bloomberg,former New York City mayor and majority owner
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/p/richard_perezpena/index.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/pages/education/index.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/http://nyti.ms/1kxLtlUhttp://www.nytimes.com/adx/bin/adx_click.html?type=goto&opzn&page=www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/us&pos=Frame4A&sn2=49a9ec0b/60172910&sn1=8a5ebaea/26201e65&camp=FoxSearchlight_AT2014-1911124G-nyt5&ad=Birdman_96x60&goto=https%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Eyoutube%2Ecom%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DxIxMMv%5FLD5Qhttp://www.nytimes.com/adx/bin/adx_click.html?type=goto&opzn&page=www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/us&pos=Frame4A&sn2=49a9ec0b/60172910&sn1=8a5ebaea/26201e65&camp=FoxSearchlight_AT2014-1911124G-nyt5&ad=Birdman_96x60&goto=https%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Eyoutube%2Ecom%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DxIxMMv%5FLD5Qhttp://www.nytimes.com/adx/bin/adx_click.html?type=goto&opzn&page=www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/us&pos=Frame4A&sn2=49a9ec0b/60172910&sn1=8a5ebaea/26201e65&camp=FoxSearchlight_AT2014-1911124G-nyt5&ad=Birdman_96x60&goto=https%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Eyoutube%2Ecom%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DxIxMMv%5FLD5Qhttp://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/p/richard_perezpena/index.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/pages/education/index.htmlhttp://nyti.ms/1kxLtlUhttp://www.nytimes.com/


2/6

of Bloomberg L.P.

Intolerance of ideas, whether liberal or conservative, is antithetical to

individual rights and free societies, and it is no less antithetical to great universities

and first-rate scholarship. There is an idea floating around college campuses,

including here at Harvard, that scholars should be funded only if their work

conforms to a particular view of justice. Theres a word for that idea: censorship.

And it is just a modern-day form of McCarthyism. Think about the irony: In the

1950s, the right wing was attempting to repress left-wing ideas. Today, on many

college campuses, it is liberals trying to repress conservative ideas, even as

conservative faculty members are at risk of becoming an endangered species. And

perhaps nowhere is that more true than here in the Ivy League. ...

Requiring scholars and commencement speakers, for that matter to

conform to certain political standards undermines the whole purpose of a

university.

SMITH COLLEGE

Ruth Simmons,former president of Smith College and Brown University

I felt it important to answer the request to stand in for the announced speaker,

Madame Christine Lagarde. ...

Ones voice grows stronger in encounters with opposing views. My first year

after leaving Smith, I had to insist that Brown permit a speaker whose every

assertion was dangerous and deeply offensive to me on a personal level. Indeed, he

maintained that blacks were better off having been enslaved. Attending his talk and

hearing his perspective was personally challenging, but not in the least challenging

to my convictions about the absolute necessity of permitting others to hear him say

these heinous things. I could have avoided the talk, as his ideas were known to me,

but to have done so would have been to choose personal comfort over a freedom

whose value is so great that hearing his unwelcome message could hardly be

assessed as too great a cost. Universities have a special obligation to protect free

speech, open discourse and the value of protest. The collision of views andideologies is in the DNA of the academic enterprise.

HAVERFORD COLLEGE

William G. Bowen,former president of Princeton University and the

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

I want to suggest, with all due respect for the venerable right to protest

which I would defend to the end that it is a serious mistake for a leader of the

protest against Birgeneaus proposed honorary degree to claim that Birgeneausdecision not to come represents a small victory. It represents nothing of the kind.

In keeping with the views of many others in higher education, I regard this outcome

as a defeat, pure and simple, for Haverford no victory for anyone who believes, as

I think most of us do, in both openness to many points of view and mutual respect.


3/6

THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY

Steven L. Isenberg, writer, professor and former publisher

Some of you and your parents may have in mind a question as to the world of

work and English majors: Do they need us? I was reading again, recently, the

autobiography of one of my favorite novelists, Graham Greene, and was struck by

this sentence: Perhaps, until one starts at the age of 70 to live on borrowed time, no

year will seem again quite so ominous as the one when formal education ends and

the moment arrives to find employment and bear personal responsibility for the

whole future. I remembered when I graduated feeling a certain sense of loss at

having to leave the coherence and happiness I had built up in undergraduate life. I

was unsettled by not knowing what I would do next. The first in my family to go to

college, I had small knowledge of the worlds possibilities and only impulses of

interests, rather than a settled direction. But I did know how to read and loved to do

so, and I liked to write, however much work I knew my writing needed, so I banked

on those two elements for confidence, feeling they must be a foundation for

whatever was to be ahead.

ALBRIGHT COLLEGE

Bob Garfield,journalist

I just cant tell you how disappointed I am with you. It was three months ago

that Albright announced me as your guest, and not a peep from you.

At other colleges, students mounted furious protests, signed petitions,

dispatched lists of demands to prospective speakers, in letters boiling with moral

outrage. And what do I get? Directions from the turnpike. Come on, did nobody

Google me? Have I said or written nothing in 37 years as a journalist to offend your

sensibilities and provoke righteous indignation? Oh, man. Do you have any idea

any idea what a disinvitation would have done for my profile?

HARVEY MUDD COLLEGE

Beth Shapiro, evolutionary biologist

Your unique education has prepared you for careers at the cutting edge ofinnovation. This is both good news and bad news. Its good news because youre

probably going to find a job, it will pay well, and it will be intellectually fulfilling.

Its bad news because whatever you thought you were training for when you started

this exercise might not actually exist anymore. Five years ago, when you guys were

deciding where to go to college, there were very few mobile-app developers or big-

data architects, and there certainly werent any chief listening officers for social

media outlets. Its hard to imagine where the next five years will go, but its kind offun to do so. Will there be a Borg-esque integration of biology and technology, or

self-driving cars that get rid of traffic congestion? Who knows, but you guys are

going to be among the people that are actually making it happen. And itll be

awesome, as long as youre willing to take some risks and step outside of your


4/6

comfort zone. When an opportunity arises, take it.

THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL

Atul Gawande, doctor and writer

Ultimately, it turns out we all have an intrinsic need to pursue purposes larger

than ourselves, purposes worth making sacrifices for. People often say, Find your

passion. But theres more to it than that. Not all passions are enough. Just existing

for your desires feels empty and insufficient, because our desires are fleeting and

insatiable. You need a loyalty. The only way life is not meaningless is to see yourself

as part of something greater: a family, a community, a society. And that is the best

part of what college has allowed you to do. College made it easy. It gave you an

automatic place in the world where you could feel part of something greater. The

supposedly real world you are joining does not. ...

One thing I came to realize after college was that the search for purpose is

really a search for a place, not an idea. It is a search for a location in the world

where you want to be part of making things better for others in your own small way.

It could be a classroom where you teach, a business where you work, a

neighborhood where you live. The key is, if you find yourself in a place where you

stop caring where your greatest concern becomes only you get out of there.

CORNELL UNIVERSITY

Ed Helms, actor and comedian

Im a guy whose primary connection to this venerable institution is having

portrayed a rather hard-to-like Cornell alum on the NBC television show The

Office. Its interesting, Condoleezza Rice backed out of speaking at Rutgers this

year because students protested over her controversial role in the Iraq war.

Meanwhile, I directly embarrassed this school for eight years on national television,

and no protests. When I got the invitation to speak, I was scared to open the email

because I thought it might be a lawsuit. ...

Please, remember to be a fool. Sounds crazy a fool is by definition a person

who lacks good sense or judgment. But Im here to tell you that good sense andjudgment are highly overrated. Wisdom is too often just a fancy word for cynicism.

And foolishness is a condescending word for joy, wonder and curiosity. George

Bernard Shaw said, A man learns to skate by staggering about and making a fool of

himself. Indeed, he progresses in all things by resolutely making a fool of himself. I

couldnt agree more. Turns out, the world provides us with virtually infinite

opportunities to be a fool.

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITYDan Futterman, actor and writer

I am a lucky person. Of the roughly 100 million babies born worldwide in

1967, I was lucky enough to be born into the wealthiest country. Born to educated,

healthy parents. To parents who had not only gone to two of the great colleges in


5/6

the world, but who intended, or at least hoped, for their children to do the same. To

parents who had books in their home. Theres a very good chance that many of you

come from similar backgrounds. You drew a lucky card in life. Thats not to

embarrass you or to diminish how hard youve worked or how much youve learned

these past four years. Thats simply to state a fact. Many of us most of us come

from an exclusive club. That doesnt mean were more worthy. It means were more

lucky. This exclusive club is only becoming more exclusive as incomes and

opportunity at the top of our society expand, and incomes and opportunity at the

bottom contract. For those of you who didnt come from privileged backgrounds ...

let me tell you how much I admire you. You have bested long odds to be here today,

long odds which I never faced. But you, too, have now entered an exclusive club,

graduates of one of the great universities of the world. And with that privilege, you

have responsibility, all of you do. Do not shut the door behind you. Each of you has

a responsibility to turn around, give someone else a hand up, up the stairs and

through the door.

EMORY UNIVERSITY

John Lewis, congressman and civil rights leader

I saw those signs that said white men, colored men, white women, colored

women, white waiting, colored waiting. I would come home and ask my mother,

my father, my grandparents, my great-grandparents, Why? They would say:

Thats the way it is. Dont get in the way. Dont get in trouble. ...

In 1957, I met Rosa Parks at the age of 17. In 1958, at the age of 18, I met

Martin Luther King Jr., and these two individuals inspired me to get in the way, to

get in trouble. So I come here to say to you this morning, on this beautiful campus,

with your great education, you must find a way to get in the way. You must find a

way to get in trouble good trouble, necessary trouble.

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY

Janet L. Yellen,Federal Reserve chairwoman

There is an unfortunate myth that success is mainly determined by somethingcalled ability. But research indicates that our best measures of these qualities are

unreliable predictors of performance in academics or employment. Psychologist

Angela Lee Duckworth says that what really matters is a quality she calls grit an

abiding commitment to work hard toward long-range goals and to persevere

through the setbacks that come along the way. One aspect of grit that I think is

particularly important is the willingness to take a stand when circumstances

demand it. Such circumstances may not be all that frequent, but in every life, therewill be crucial moments when having the courage to stand up for what you believe

will be immensely important.

BRYANT UNIVERSITY

Richard W. Fisher,president and chief executive officer of the Federal


6/6

Reserve Bank of Dallas

Our mother would say, Never let your brains go to your head. The pun is

horrific, but the message is profound: To achieve success, you will need to keep your

superb education and your considerable talent in perspective. Brains and the gift of

talent are necessary, but they are insufficient for success in life. Time and again, in

business and universities and government, we see instances in which women and

men of towering intellect get far at first, but ultimately snatch defeat from the jaws

of victory. They do so because they have forgotten to develop their emotional

quotient with the same devotion they applied to developing their intelligence

quotient. My heartfelt advice to you is to work as hard on expanding your E.Q. as

you have on harnessing your I.Q.

CARTHAGE COLLEGE

Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit

Its O.K. to not really know what youre doing, and just trust your gut. Make

the best judgment you can. Theres not going to be a syllabus assigned to you. Its

going to be using whatever knowledge youve gained, whatever resources you have,

to just figure it out, to just hack it. I mean, most of the time, I still dont know what

Im doing. ...

You are going to figure it out, and failure is going to be part of the process.

Youre all here because youre good at not failing, right? This is the culmination of

doing a great job at not failing. There are no G.P.A.s after this. Theres going to be

lots of setbacks. Theres going to be lots of failures. No one introduces me as the

founder of My Mobile Menu, also known as Mmm, because that was our first

company. Before we started Reddit, Steve and I started that, and for a year and a

half worked on something that went nowhere. But thats O.K. Failure is an option.

A version of this article appears in print on June 15, 2014, on page A20 of the New York edition with the

headline: Graduates Cautioned: Dont Shut Out Opposing Views.

2014 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytco.com/

graduates cautioned_ don’t shut out opposing views - nytimes.pdf

Documents