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Class of 2005 Matriculation Day Address
August 29, 2001
Introduction
Hello again. I greeted many of you Friday when my colleagues and I helped you carry your belongings into the residence halls; and I met many more of you Sunday at the President's Dinner.
I liked what I saw. I knew about you from statistics - SAT scores, high school class rank, the number of newspaper editors and team captains, etc. - but it was more important to meet you as a person. That is the Adelphi way. People first. Becoming known and getting to know others.
On this day when you officially and ceremonially matriculate as students of Adelphi, I wish to offer a few comments which I hope you find helpful.
First, you might want to know who preceded you? Who was here before you? Second, you might ask, who is my teacher? With whom will I learn? Third, you might want to know how to approach your studies? You might ask, what can I do? Who can I be? Can I find meaning here - or is it all about making a living?
Who Came Before Me?
The brief list entitled, "Did you know?" in today's program includes facts about Adelphi and a few of our 70,000 alumni. Those who came before you are playwrights, DJs, corporate executives, government officials, investment advisers, coaches, scholars, nurses, social workers, therapists, diplomats, teachers today of some 80,000 public school students in New York schools, and representatives of numerous other professions. Like you, they entered Adelphi hoping to become an authority in their chosen field and gain recognition from their colleagues. Many did not know their professional goals on Matriculation Day, but knew they wanted to help others, be successful, raise a family, and develop a meaning of life.
Those who came before you include three of Long Island's five State Senators; two members of Congress; the author of the play "Rent"; the former chairman of the New York Stock Exchange; the president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a co-founder of Nextel; the CEO of Borders-Waldenbooks; the head of a major foundation; the leaders and practitioners of important social service agencies; scientists who add to our knowledge of how to live healthy lives; scholars, practitioners, and executives in nursing care; and professional athletes.
Those who came before include Alice Hoffman, whose 15th novel was just published to national acclaim; Rich Barton, one of nine children from a family in Roosevelt, who left his past as president of Xerox to start a dot.com and sell it just in time; and Bob Gary, who retired last year as president of Allstate Insurance.
They all had their first day on campus, and made it. 70,000 alumni made it, and so will you.
Who is my teacher?
But, I heard some say, on Friday and Sunday, who will help me? Who is my teacher? Your primary teacher, of course, is a member of the faculty, and Adelphi has a tradition of excellence in teaching. When I meet alumni across the country, they ask about their teachers - not the president or the dean, but the teacher. You will develop that kind of relationship, too.
We place emphasis on excellence in teaching by hiring the best people in their field - and have added 23 new faculty this fall, have added more than forty in the past few years, and will continue to add faculty in order to replace those who retire, meet enrollment requirements, and achieve our goals for quality.
We also invest in the professional development of faculty - so that they can remain leaders in their fields.
But if the faculty is the first answer, with the staff right up there with them, your fellow students surely are second. You will learn from your new friends just as you will learn from your own inquisitiveness. So, choose your friends wisely. Spend your time wisely. Make the most of the opportunities we make available, so that visiting lecturers, the internet, dramatic productions, and dance recitals can be your teachers as well.
How can I know what is true?
Someone once said, if I have so many teachers, how can I know what is true? How do we know what we know?
All students, no matter what their academic or professional goals, will pursue a course of study that is designed to be "liberating." Some call it the "liberal arts," or the "liberal arts and sciences." I call it liberating because it is designed to help us distinguish between fact and opinion and belief and superstition. We know by faith, we know by fear, we know by fact - but often we don't know which way of knowing is at hand. Our goal - and yours, I hope - is to know the difference between empiricism, emotion, and epiphany.
So, be skeptical; be inquisitive. Ask questions. Ask about assumptions. Make your teachers work.
The author James Baldwin has a wonderful quote that I use often. He said, "Lay bare the questions hidden by answers." Think of the many times you have heard an assertion that is presented as fact, only to realize that the assumption was wrong, or that the solution proposed was not related to the problem later revealed.
What can I do? Who can I be?
So, you might ask, what can I do? Who can I be?
We want Adelphi to be known as the "engaged" university, with faculty and students engaged in the community on and off-campus, learning and serving, and with members of the community engaged on campus - as students, teachers, and participants.
You can plan your engagements. Talk with your adviser about the courses you will take as well as the opportunities to be engaged. When will you join a club, when will you serve as an intern, when will you study in another culture? You can do all this, and more.
Map out your eight-semester plan, while you have time. You can plan your time. You can be in charge of the clock. You can shape what you will do and who you will be. You have that power, that possibility, at Adelphi.
Conclusion
That last comment might sound like an admonition to "beat the clock." Well, in a way it is. Take advantage of the time you have here and the opportunities we offer.
This is not exactly the same sentiment expressed by Keats when he wrote, "When I have fears that I may cease to be - Before my pen has gleaned my teeming brain," but it is close. It is, however, related to another Keats' line, when he said:
I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the heart's affections and the truth of imagination. What the imagination seizes as beauty must be truthƒwhether it existed before or not."
Keats is correct. Ignore not the imagination. No matter how important is "science and technology in explaining everything from genes to galaxies, the world has no intention of abandoning enchantment," recounted Peter Smith.
Don't let anyone deprive you of enchantment. We are here to be your teachers, your partners in learning. Our goal is to help your spirits soar, to help you imagine a new life, and to grow in ways you never before imagined. And be enchanted with learning.
Go, and be well, Class of 2005!
Thank you.
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Mailing Address
Adelphi University
Office of the President
Levermore Hall, Room 100
1 South Avenue
P.O. BOX 701
Garden City, NY 11530-0701
Office Phone
516.877.3838
Office Fax
516.877.3845
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