On this commencement weekend, UB is proud to join you in celebrating the completion of your degree. We applaud the intellectual, professional, and personal successes you have achieved.

As you reach this special milestone this year, UB comes to a milestone of its own-the 150th anniversary of its founding. In 1846, leaders of the rapidly growing city of Buffalo decided to build a strong university for the young leaders of their thriving Great Lakes frontier.

The challenges of the day mandated thoughtful, well-advised leadership not just for Buffalo, but for the nation as a whole. The 1846 Oregon Treaty and the Mexican-American War-which began on the day of UB's founding-added vast new territories to the United States. Westward expansion also reopened debates about the respective powers of the federal and state governments regarding the question of slavery. Millard Fillmore, UB's first Chancellor and later the 13th President of the United States, was among the political figures who grappled with these issues.

Other leaders arose around these urgent issues of 1846. As the abolitionist movement gained momentum, Frederick Douglass was writing his Autobiography. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony were shaping ideas that would lead to the first women's rights convention in 1848. Authors like Emerson and Thoreau were questioning the relationship of the individual to society and to government.

New leaders were also changing the face of science and technology in 1846. William Morton, a fledgling Boston dentist, used ether as an anesthetic for the first time. Samuel Morse had recently created the first functioning telegraph line, and Asa Whitney had just made the first proposal for a transcontinental railroad. Anesthesia would change the face of medicine, while the telegraph and transcontinental railroad would open the new American West.

Many of the challenges and pressures of 1846 are still with us in 1996. Back then, the United States believed it had a "manifest destiny" to extend across the continent. Now, near the end of an "American century" in which our nation has dominated world politics and commerce, we are asking if the U.S. can, should, and will continue to lead in the 21st century global community.

We are still asking questions, in a time of national fiscal reinvention, about what issues are the responsibility of federal government, and what issues must be addressed by the states. Today, these issues include health care, civil rights, welfare reform, and environmental management.

We are still asking questions about the relationship between individuals and the society as a whole-questions being brought to the fore once again by the violent acts of some individuals and groups which oppose government.

We are still asking how to make our society more equitable, and our American dream more accessible, for people of color and women. As the population of the United States becomes increasingly diverse, these questions become more urgent by the day.

And we are still trying to come to grips with new technologies-no longer the telegraph and railroad, but now the Internet, which is fundamentally changing the way we communicate, do business, learn, and meet each other.

Generations of American leaders have grappled with the legacy of the complex and pressing issues of 1846. Our responses to them have in some ways strengthened us, and in other ways left us far short of the promise America still represents.

Your time at UB has offered you the opportunity, the training, and-we hope-the inspiration to become a leader. Those who come after you will look to you to resolve some of America's lingering concerns, and to create new opportunities for all.

As you move on to new things, UB charges you to accept the challenge of leadership, and to be aware-in all that you do-of the influence you can have on national and global issues. To the extent that you make that commitment, your individual achievements will be achievements for all of us.

UB is still here to teach and train leaders. We are proud to graduate leaders like you. We wish you many successes in the years ahead.

Sincerely,

William R. Greiner