In the wake of the shootings at Virginia Tech, we asked a number of scholars, college presidents, and writers to answer this question: If you were giving the commencement address at Virginia Tech this year, what is the core of the message you would like to leave with the graduates?

Amy Gutmann | Michael Eric Dyson |Ariel Dorfman | Lionel Shriver | Edward J.W. Park | Donna E. Shalala | Barry R. Glassner | Sissela Bok | Robert Coles | Karla Jay | Bobby Fong

April 20, 2007

Bobby Fong, president of Butler University

You Were Not Alone: Your time at Virginia Tech has been about more than the accumulation of academic credits. It has, I hope, prepared you to live a flourishing life intertwined with the well-being of others. That preparation has come from drawing lessons from all your experiences, happy and sad, fruitful and frustrating, sweet and bitter, including the experience of that tragic day, April 16th. One lesson I hope you will carry with you from that day and its aftermath is that you were not alone. Your family and friends worried about you. Virginia Tech was not alone. The concern of fellow universities, and the nation itself, was focused on Blacksburg. As individuals and as a hurting community, you were the recipients of our thoughts and prayers. Remember this, for in the times of desolation you will experience in the future, you never will be truly alone. Those who love you will care. Even strangers will be kind. In the depths of misery, there will be cords of compassion to draw you back to others.

This is not to deny the presence of tragedy, hate, and evil in the world into which we send you. Life can be dangerous, full of risk. But to respond to life with fear is to diminish yourself. Resolve, rather, to treat every precious moment of your life as a bounty to be spent with generosity and joy. You have already learned that, with the help of others, you can be brave in affronting the challenges life will throw your way, and learn to ride out its storms. In word and deed, encourage one another. As others will be there for you, you in turn will be desperately needed by others. And you will have something to give them because of what others have given you.

In your years at Virginia Tech, you have accumulated knowledge, skills, and wisdom, not simply to make a living, but to make a life. Your experiences at this beloved university contributed to the fashioning of your best self. All the experiences, even those of that terrible day. Redeem the memory of that day by using it as a spur to live fully the gift of the life you have. The world awaits the hope and meaning that you will bring to it.

Comments

1. I’d pick Dr. Glassner to speak. Protecting your perceptions in the face of a media storm is an important lesson in today’s world.

   Some of the other speeches tend to go right along with the media in dwelling on the unspeakable, the horror, the sound of guns popping.

   I don’t mean to diminish the tragedy at Virginia Tech but
   many young people in the Middle East and the United States have to live with this type of random death daily. Where are their ribbons?

   The shock, of course, is that these people represent the middle class of America. A group we assume should always be protected.

   One student at my university solemnly told me that we and Virginia Tech were about the same size and level. I told him to go take a stats class.

   I also told him that as bad as it was to have a madman let loose on innocent people, its worse when your own National Guard does the shooting as at Kent State.

   Its all an expression of a culture of violence where our imperialistic policies overlap with our entertainment and gun ownership is considered a right.

   The best speech for this commencement would be one that discusses the availability of guns in this country. There will always be madmen in our midst, can we at least limit their range?

   — Carmen    Apr 23, 01:03 PM    #

2. Neither a college big-wig (yet) nor famous personality (some day perhaps), I will not be asked this year to give any college commencement address, but if I had been invited to speak at Virginia Tech, I would say something similar to this:

   As a unique culture, we are connected as never before in the history of humankind. With a push of a button we are in almost instantaneous contact with practically anyone, nearly anywhere on the planet.
   Yet, sadly, we are alone and isolated on a scale unimaginable even one generation ago. One can go through life conversing with a friend, classmate, or stranger via discussions on a cell phone, text messaged or e-mail, and never once having laid visible eye on each other, not having the chance to deliver and receive non-verbal clues, never actually seeing the physical attributes, but relying on preconceived notions and limited input to draw a mental picture that may be greatly off-target and is, regardless, incomplete and thus untrustworthy.
   Throughout the history of humankind, we have survived, and thrived, on our emotions, and none so strongly as our capacity to love. Wires and radio waves are inefficient at encoding and transporting love. Love needs to be communicated by a look. Love needs a touch and a taste. It needs humans to hold hands, not cell phones. Love requires people to touch hearts, not keyboards.
   The challenge today for the graduates of this college, and on all campuses in America, is to disconnect. Break the wired and wireless connections. Hang up, and then reach out and hang out. Knock on a door – any door – on your dorm floor. Talk with the person inside, face-to-face, human-to-human.
   Flip your cell phone shut when walking across campus, and instead smile at some one, anyone, and everyone. Say “Hello,” and feel the inner warmth real human interaction can attain.
   Instead of connecting to the web tonight, connect with a solid hit in a friendly game of baseball with acquaintances and friends – and don’t forget to invite that shy kid, the one that hardly smiles, or talks or seems interested. That person is only waiting for some one to connect with him or her on a personal level. All he or she is really looking for is love.

   — tb    Apr 24, 12:45 PM    #

3. tb’s would certainly be my choice for the commencement speech if I were choosing. We certianly need to spread this sentiment broadly thoughout our campuses and our day to day lives/interactions!

   — JA    Apr 24, 03:47 PM    #

Next: Karla Jay, professor of English and women's and gender studies at Pace University