Commencement 2015

Amazing. Today is the day - the culmination of so many individual, familial and collective efforts. It's why all the buildings are here and the reason we need a word for 'campus.' The desks and chairs, the technology and the books, the assembly of learning and the skill to share it all present together in the diplomas that will be handed out this evening in that edifice normally reserved for contests of will and strength. Today and this evening, it will witness the celebration of actual strength and true triumphs of will. Graduation.

It's fun, if you're of the type, to try and come up with words equal to this occasion. A exercise in futility, to be sure. But we imbue our students with this goal - we're sure it's the reason they chose this campus and not another, the name of the institution at the top of the document. So when they arrive, when they march into that grand celebration and exit a couple of hours later, they will have indeed arrived. To that elevated ground, that rarified space that makes all these buildings worth having, lawns and fountains worth tending, all the news worth sharing.

Congratulations to our graduates today, and to our faculty, each of whom take special pride in this passage. Great job. Enjoy the day. Good luck with everything that comes next.