WSU Commencement Address
May 6, 2006
Washington State University College of Liberal Arts
“Everyone who got where he is had to begin where he was,” said Robert Louis Stevenson. As a first generation college graduate, to be invited back to my alma mater to give the commencement speech is an honor beyond all reasonable expectation. I thank President Rawlins and Dean Lear for inviting me.
Students today like interactive communication, so let me start by asking two questions:
The first question is easy: How many out there are from my home town, Seattle? Raise your hands.
The second question is hard: How many out there are, like me, Tigers from Ephrata High? Raise your hands.
As many others have pointed out, it is a special challenge to deliver a commencement address. The parents in attendance want to hear a speech that is sweet and sentimental. The faculty want to hear a speech that is intellectually rigorous. And, the graduating students want to hear a speech that is, well, short. Since this day focuses on the students, they are going to get their wish for a short speech.
Let me take you back 43 years to September 1963. My brother, Terry, drove me to Pullman and dropped me off in front of Waller Hall. I was a nervous, excited, Ephrata High School graduate. I had never even stepped foot on a college campus before. I had no clue what to expect for the next four years. I had no clue what I wanted to do or be. Certainly, I had no clue that I would become a university president. From this timid beginning, filled with anticipation and apprehension, Washington State University wrapped its academic and social arms around me and embraced me and allowed me the opportunity to grow up intellectually, socially, and culturally.
Washington State faculty, like R.R. and C.A. Jones, Bud Carlson, Remo Fousti, and Robert Vogalsang taught me to think. University staff, like the Speech department secretary and the Bryan Hall custodian, taught me the value of helping others. My fellow Cougars, like David, Chick, Karen, Millie, and Julie, taught me the value of developing friendships. And, finally, Washington State University, as a collective entity, taught me to have the courage of my convictions, to work hard for what I passionately believe in, and to follow my dreams—which I did.
Fellow Cougars, I know that Washington State will have the same profound impact on your lives. It may take 10/15/20 years for you to realize fully that your experiences at Washington State were life-changing. But you will, no doubt, come to know, as I have, that the faculty, staff, and administrators at Washington State have set you up to succeed. Now it is up to you. Now you must gather your courage and energy, you must strap on your tool belt of knowledge, critical reasoning, skill, personal networks, and friendships that Washington State has provided you, and go to work. Some of you will go on to graduate or professional schools. Some of you will go into the armed services, or directly into the workforce. But all of you will have an opportunity to make a difference in this world.
My desire, today, is to get you to leave Washington State University with two goals in mind. The first goal is for each of you to prosper. I’m not just talking about making money, although I hope you do, as does President Rawlins. Because, when you are financially prosperous, President Rawlins will track you down, relentlessly. And he will ask you to give back to Washington State so that he can build a better and better university for those who come after you. So financial prosperity is one thing, but to truly prosper, you must focus on people. You must put people first. Cherish human connections at work and play.
To prosper means giving your time to your community, your state, your nation, and especially to your family and friends. So, first, be prosperous in the wide and deep sense of that word. The second and most important goal I want you to take away today is to help FIX THINGS. Along your march through life, each of you will see and hear about things that are broken or in need of repair. You may witness mistreatment. Unfairness. Inequity. Injustice. Cruelty, even. Don’t, like the ostrich, bury your head in the sand. And don’t think for one minute that you cannot make a difference.
The world advances by individual decisions and actions of individual people. The best single example I can think of took place in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955. A black woman named Rosa Parks (who died this past December) refused to give up her seat on a crowded bus to a white man. She was harassed and carried off to jail, but her single act of defiance changed the United States for the better, forever. So, like Rosa Parks, don’t ignore things that need to be fixed.
Washington State University has given you the tools, hanging from your tool belt, to fix things. As Carl Sagan said to a graduating class,
“Do not sit this one out.” Do not play it safe.Make a world worthy of the children your generation will bear. Sagan is saying, fix things, right wrongs where and when you can.
I’ll leave you with a final thought from West Texas. Native Texans have a saying: I’m fixin’ to do something; fixin’ to do so and so. By that they mean: I am getting ready to do something. In Pullman you might say, “I’m fixin’ to go to Ferdinand’s” Or, “I’m fixin’ to go to the Bookie.” Using West Texas slang, I’d like you to leave WSU today saying…. “I’m fixin’ to fix things that need fixin’.” Each one of you will have many opportunities in the years ahead to make a difference in your family, your community, your state, or in this great nation. So when you come upon those opportunities, roll up your sleeves, grab one of the tools off your Washington State tool belt, and say: “I’m fixin’ to fix things.”
As Cougars forever and ever, I want each of you to prosper and to fix things.
Bless you all.
Go Cougs.