Graduation Address to the Ursinus College Class of 2012
Dr. Carol Geary Schneider
President of the Association of American Colleges and Universities
Thank you so much for that warm welcome, and for the opportunity to be with you on this extraordinary and momentous occasion. It is a very special distinction for me to be here this morning, particularly because this is President Fong’s first graduation ceremony at Ursinus. President Fong, who has been my friend and colleague for many years, is a distinguished and exceptionally thoughtful educational leader, the perfect leader for this this very thoughtful college, in this moment in its long and creative history. But Bobby Fong also has exemplified in his own life that wonderfully classic American immigration story, in which higher education – liberal education - became, quite literally, the transformative gateway for a wider world and a far better future. As you heard when he was inaugurated a few weeks ago, he came here as the child of Chinese immigrants, he was raised by a widowed mother who spoke no English initially, who worked in a sweatshop, who helped him get a great education, and since then, he has devoted his own life to the expansion of meaningful educational opportunity for others, and now for Ursinus students. I know that he sees his own commitments mirrored in the values of Ursinus – and that is what makes it especially wonderful for me to join you today.
But most of all, of course, I want to celebrate the Class of 2012. Congratulations to every one of you, let’s have a cheer for all of you (applause). You have reached a milestone moment in your lives, and everyone who is here today--your families, the faculty, the staff, all the special guests—we all are beaming with pride at the hard work and the accomplishment that this moment represents. I hope each of you will actually find a few moments for yourself this weekend --amidst all the revels and celebrations and the non-stop partying -- to just be quiet and think for a few minutes about how far you have come and what your education here has meant for you.
But of course, with every milestone moment, there comes a whole new set of questions – and for the graduates today, there’s always just one that everyone asks, I asked it this morning, already: So what’s next? And that’s what I want to talk with you about this morning, What IS next?
Some of you, of course, have already answered that question—at least for the immediate future. You’ve found a job, or you’re planning on graduate school, or you’re committed to a year or two of public service, maybe you are going to go abroad. But others, like every single one of my actual children, decided to postpone all that, until the diploma was actually in hand, making it particularly interesting and exciting for your families.
It does work out. Families, you’re going to feel better and better, about the education you helped your sons and daughters get, as time goes forward.
But as the head of a higher education association with nearly 1300 colleges and university members of all kinds, I know very well the kinds of questions that are welling up in our society about college itself. Is college still worth it, pundits seem to ask every day. And even more pertinently, is a liberal education still worth it? What is the connection between the kind of that education you got here at Ursinus, and the paths you are going to be charting, in the economy and in society, as you go forward?
Now one way to answer these questions is to ask employers themselves, and that’s exactly what my association has been doing for the last several years, in the initiative that Erica (Schindewolf 2012) described: LEAP- Liberal Education and America’s Promise. LEAP is an initiative that builds on the traditional strengths of a liberal arts education: that broad, big picture knowledge, the very strong intellectual skills, the ethical and social and civic values that Erica mentioned, that she spoke herself about her experience here. But LEAP also places strong emphasis on what students can actually do with all that knowledge after college. We believe firmly, and Bobby Fong shares this belief, that liberal education in the twenty-first century has to bring together knowing and doing: and so, my association and I have been spending a huge amount of time talking with employers themselves, and I know we have a lot of you in this audience, about what you look for in a well-prepared college graduate. What are the qualities of the people you want to find for your organization, the people you hire, the people you promote and want to keep.
So, in that context, we’ve been talking extensively with employers around the country, we have focus-grouped employers, and I’m here to tell you two things. Employers, of course, do not use the vocabulary of liberal education and liberal arts education (although my association is trying to fix that).
But when employers talk about 21st Century skills and the 21st Century workplace, they are talking about exactly the kinds of emphases, commitments, practices that you’ve experienced from the day you walked into that Common Intellectual Experience as freshmen at Ursinus.
So in their own vocabulary, employers are looking for people who have strong communications skills, who can write well, who can speak well, who have strong critical thinking skills, problem solving skills, who know a lot about diversity and can work with people who are different from themselves. They are looking for people who have strong ethical values, and in fact in the time we have been surveying employers, their interest in ethics has spurred, up from 53 percent five years ago to 75 percent after the economic meltdown which in fact was caused by ethical lapses. So what we hear from employers is that they are looking for people who bring that skill set to the workplace, and make that part of the portfolio that helps an organization succeed.
But skills are only part of the equation. Over and over again, employers have told us – face to face and in one survey after another – they highly value that broad knowledge that has been so fundamental to your liberal arts experience at Ursinus. Whatever it is you’re doing at your job, they want people who know something about what is going on in the global community because what’s happening in the global community affects what’s happening in every organization across the country.
They want people who understand science and technology, because those are the keys to our future. Again, whether or not that’s your job, the fact that was part of your education is an asset for you.
And they also said that, while they are interested in your majors, they’re even more interested in the fact that you went to the kind of school that had you working across a broad range of disciplines.
And this really important for you students to listen to: What employers told us is that integrative learning -- integrator thinking as they put it -- is one of the keys to success in their organizations. They want people who can help make different parts of the organization work successfully and they want, as they put it, people who will bring that 360-degree perspective to every problem that we’re going to tackle. They do not want people who bring only one point of view, one frame of reference. Rather, they want people who will look at an issue from every possible angle and will together from every possible approach to get it done.
And they know that a liberal arts education is what brings you that broad, cross-disciplinary integrative thinking they value so highly.
There was one other theme that came through all our surveys, all of our focus groups, all of our personal discussions, and it’s just this, captured by the Chair of the Intel Corporation, Craig Barrett, who said, just a couple of years ago, that at the end of every calendar year, on Dec. 31, 90 percent of the products his company produced didn’t exist on Jan. 1. Ninety percent of the products were rolled out in that calendar year. Now just think about that. Think about that pace of change. This is what we heard about from employers all over the country: things are changing so fast in the workplace that you are going to be hired not so much for what you know, as for the evidence that you are good at continuous new learning, that you will be there to learn, unlearn and relearn with the organization as it rolls forward.
So how would employers even know that you are good at this kind of thing? The transcript does not tell them. But every single Ursinus graduate has a particular way to show employers and graduate schools that shows that you can be part of that continuous learning and problem-solving that is so important to the future of our economy. And that experience is the expectation that Ursinus holds out that every one of you did some kind of an independent study. Whether it was research, whether it was an internship, whether it was field work, or whether it was student teaching: this is the evidence employers value most – your independent study shows that you can tackle new problems, take your learning into the workplace, into the community; put it to work for them and for society.
And I hope the parents and family members here understand how distinctive it is that Ursinus expects every student to do something that is culminating in their college studies. I have nearly 1300 colleges and universities in my association; only a handful of them expect every senior to have to do an independent study. The option is there for every student in every college in the country but the expectation is not. Especially for those of you who haven’t nailed down that first job, thinking about what you learned from that independent study, and how it connects to the job you’re looking for, will be something that you can tangibly take with you, into the job search.
But there is another dimension of successful performance, successful careers that I also want to emphasize – and that dimension, isn’t just what you know about your job or your work, but how well you know yourself. And this is the final way that your liberal education at Ursinus has prepared you for this very fast-paced, very turbo-charged economy.
Starting with the kinds of questions you did explore in that Common Intellectual Experience and every semester since then, your education has given you the space, the time, the colleagues, the encouragement to develop your own moral code. It has encouraged you to become aware of your own values, to think about your ethical responsibilities to yourself and to others.
And that I believe is the most enduring value and strength of the kind of education you’ve experienced at this college.
Whether we call what you got here a liberal arts education, or "21st century’s workplace skills," you have acquired the preparation you need to succeed in today's economy and to contribute to our democracy.
But many of the questions that you confront along the way, in every part of your life, are not going to be questions of how to get things done. Rather, they are going to be questions about what is the right thing to do, what is worth doing. Ultimately, these are the questions that each of you is going to have to answer for yourself.
But your education at Ursinus has asked you to think long and hard about what you mean by success and what you really value. And in a fast-paced world where the tides of change can just push us all too easily carry you forward, that inner compass -- that inner sense of self, is likely to prove the most lasting educational value that you will take with you from this college.
Members of the Class of 2012, you’re here today because you had the wit and the drive and the determination to get a really great education. You’ve become part of that small group of thoughtful and committed people who are ready, not just to go to work, but to go to work to change our world and our society for the better. We are all far more hopeful today because of the great work that you are going to do tomorrow.
Congratulations on your graduation —and Godspeed.
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