Speeches

University Commencement Address
Redefining UB’s Public Service Mission: Building Sustainable Communities

University Commencement
John Barclay Simpson, PhD
14th President of the University at Buffalo
Sunday, May 13, 2007

Good morning, and a warm welcome to all of our friends and family here with us today.  And most of all, congratulations to our Class of 2007!

I’d also like to wish a Happy Mother’s Day to all our mothers in the audience.  I think our graduates might like to applaud you for all that you’ve done over the years!  As our gift to you I can say that the bills from UB will probably be stopping!

I have spent pretty much my entire life in public universities much like this one.  And university life comes with a lot of rituals and ceremonies.  But I think that commencement is surely the best one of all.  Here in front of us – in the form of a couple thousand young men and women in caps and gowns – is the end product of years of hard work and sacrifice.  Countless hours in the library . . . lots of time in front of computer screens . . . far too much cold pizza. 

But on one glorious day, you sit together as a class, surrounded by those who care about you the most, while we collectively pause to celebrate your achievement.  In reality, given all your hard work, you probably deserve more than a single day to bask in the glory.  But ours is a busy society, and tomorrow you’ll begin the task of figuring out what comes next.

“Investments in public higher education not only help produce thoughtful citizens. They also return huge benefits to our society through economic growth, technological progress, cultural ferment, and intellectual vitality. Ask yourself this: can you think of any great cities or regions without a great university?” John B. Simpson President

The philosopher Will Durant said that “Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.”  While this may sound a bit harsh, he did put his finger on an important point – that education does not end with a college degree.  It is really a lifelong process . . . a long walk.

So, therefore, if your relationship with learning must continue, hopefully so too will your relationship with your alma mater.  Today you are joining an alumni family of over 190,000 graduates living in some 120 countries around the world.  Wherever your travels take you, there’s a very good chance that other UB alums will be nearby.

Here’s my simple message to you then: UB will always be here for you.  You are always welcome back.  Affiliating with your alma mater can be lifelong relationship – one that not only helps create the sense of campus pride we enjoy, but one that will always help ground you as an individual.  You also will be connecting affirmatively with the ten or so generations who’ve graduated from UB since the first class of new physicians did so in 1847. 

Investing in Public Higher Education

It is customary for university presidents to dispense words of wisdom at Commencements.  (It is also customary for you to roll your eyes, thinking you’ve had quite enough wisdom for a while!)  But if you indulge me this morning, I would like to offer some investment advice. 

I don’t have any good stock tips to share.  If, however, UB was a publicly traded company, now would be a great time to buy shares!  My investment advice is not aimed to make you rich.  Instead, it’s advice for our society at large – and the message is a simple one: education, especially public higher education, is the smartest investment we can make.

Let me tell you why.  First, it pays a huge return on investment.  Investments in public higher education not only help produce thoughtful citizens.  They also return huge benefits to our society through economic growth, technological progress, cultural ferment, and intellectual vitality.

Ask yourself this: can you think of any great cities or regions without a great university?

I predict that the most successful places in our increasingly “knowledge-driven” world will be those that have substantial strength in nurturing ideas, new ways of doing things, inventions—in brief, what we call “intellectual property.”  And the 20th century has shown that the modern research university—such as our university—is at the center of that embrace and nurturing of intellectual property.

Consider this: the rest of the world right now is copying the American model.  I would argue that the great American economic success story in the 20th century begins with the rise of the American research university. 

As one example, I was in Singapore two summers ago, as part of a delegation of American university presidents there to attend what was billed as a conference on promoting student and scholarly exchange between Asia and North America.  Nonsense.  What was afoot was an effort to learn from those 25 or so American university presidents just how the American research university operated, and how Singapore might learn from those presidents how to build their own world-class system.

Why?  Simply because there is recognition there, as well as in just about everywhere in the world that wants to enter the future “knowledge–economy” driven world, that the very best research university is the ticket to entry to future economic success.  You’ll find the same sort of story in Europe, China, Australia, and many other places around the globe. 

Countries, states, and cities that want to succeed in the century now upon us—a century where success will be fueled by knowledge, by intellectual property—will nurture and support their own research universities.  Those that don’t will not compete.  Those that do will.  And we have here smack in the midst of Buffalo and Western New York a research university that is pushing its quality and excellence strongly now.  This public research university is well worth investing in.

The New Public Service: Building Sustainable Communities

But public higher education does something else that sometimes gets lost, something well beyond the “economic pragmatism” I just described.  Our public colleges and universities educate more than three-quarters of all degree seekers nationwide.  Indeed, our schools serve communities of all racial, ethnic, and economic backgrounds as a fundamental part of their missions. 

You could say it’s in our blood.  From the very start of the mid-nineteenth century, public universities embraced a mission of improving people’s lives.  Early on, the goal was “agricultural extension,” in essence helping feed and clothe a growing nation.

More recently, public universities have engaged in various forms of service to the communities where they reside, taking the expertise and resources universities possess and extending their benefits beyond their campus walls.

This American public university also is continually seeking to rewrite the definition of what constitutes public service.  It is a different consideration than the pragmatic one about the place of the research university in the knowledge economy. 

Today’s challenge goes well beyond simply sharing agricultural progress, or delivering more services to those in need.  The central challenge facing us as a society is creating sustainable communities – communities that are resilient, socially just, economically successful, and environmentally responsible.

In my opinion, our nation’s public research universities are ideally positioned to lead the way in bringing about these sustainable communities.  And the stakes are high.  For instance, the last half century has seen extraordinary social and political progress around the world, lifting more people out of poverty than at any time in human history. 

And yet when more than a billion people live on less than $1 a day there is ample evidence of a world that remains profoundly unjust, inadequate, and unequal. 

Maybe then here is one way of asking the question: how do we as a society – and you as college graduates entering that society now as adults – deal with the cognitive dissonance of our world?

We sometimes talk about the new world of the 21st century being flat, and there’s no doubt that technology has helped level the playing field for many.  But when we know we have the knowledge to improve the quality of life for some, how do we not push even harder to secure these benefits for all?

The Challenge for UB’s Newest Alumni

Few of us would disagree that the status quo is unacceptable. As educated citizens, it should offend us to simply let it stand.  But what to do?

This university helps individuals face that question.  For many years UB has been a welcome home to people who are unsatisfied with the world as it is.  We have welcomed avant garde poets and composers wishing to push the boundaries of classical form; trained entrepreneurs who opened information to the masses in their home country; educated historians who would go on to redefine their field; and nurtured inventors whose discoveries have saved thousands and thousands of lives.

That’s the UB of which you are now alumni.

So what does this have to do with my investment advice?  The answer is that public universities have a fundamental—indeed, an ethical-- obligation to prepare young people to tackle the challenges and opportunities of our age.  And this endeavor, I believe, is worthy of our support. 

And what’s the alternative?  To quote former Harvard President Derek Bok, “If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.”

So, if you’re willing to take on this challenge, what is the start-up investment required from you as UB graduates?  Your challenge is not just to understand the new world you are entering, but also to commit to making it better.

Don’t underestimate the power you have to effect real and lasting change, and to do so on a truly global scale.  As SUNY Chancellor John Ryan reminded us when he was on campus a few weeks ago for our annual Celebration of Academic Excellence, as members of the millennial generation, you comprise less than 30% of the population—but are 100% of the solution to the challenges our world stands to face, now and in the future.

Each of you will enter this world, and think about these challenges in your own way.  Some of you as business people, some as academics.  (For the next few weeks, some of you will think about these challenges on mom and dad’s couch.)  But at some point, each of you will find your place, seize your niche.

However you ultimately answer these weighty questions, your graduation from UB today attests to our great faith in your ability to meet them head on.  Congratulations on all that you’ve achieved as UB students, and best wishes for all that you have yet to achieve as UB alumni!