Commencement 2001 Address
Elizabeth S. Boylan, Provost and Dean of the Faculty
May 15, 2001
Each
year, the faculty and I get one last crack at
the graduating seniors - one last message we hope
you will receive, process and remember. Today
I would like to extract some meaning for the class
of 2001 from what you might perceive to be an
unusual source: an email from my daughter who
graduated from college one year ago this week.
It's
been quite a year. Separating more formally in
some ways: she has her own apartment and medical
insurance and credit cards. Staying together through
the familiar: the landline and cell phones, visits
home and email.
So here is my message, first content then context,
an edited version of the email she had received
and sent on to me, forwarded to her by a friend,
from someone she never knew, entitled "Why We're
Lucky."
If
we could shrink the world's population to a village
of precisely 100 people, with all the existing
human ratios remaining the same, it would look
something like the following. There would be:
- 57
Asians
- 21
Europeans
- 14
from the Western Hemisphere, both north and
south
- 8
Africans
-
52 would be female
- 48
would be male
-
70 would be non-white
- 30
would be white
-
80 would live in substandard housing
- 70
would be unable to read
-
50 would suffer from malnutrition
- 1
would be near death,
- 1
would be near birth and
- 1
(yes only 1) would have a college education.
It
went on a while, ending with:
Work
like you don't need the money.
Love like you've never been hurt.
Dance like nobody's watching.
Sing like nobody's listening.
Live like it's Heaven on Earth.
So
that's the content: some perspective on where
you and we are today on Earth in 2001, a very
privileged minority with a whole lot of understanding
and learning and vision to offer the world.
And
now the context: how did this come my way? Well
the electronic forwards begin four messages ago,
from a Liz unknown to me who wrote: Guys, I feel
like this is really important, I don't always
send out cheesy forwards, but this is the most
important one I've ever seen.
Maya forwarded it, commenting: To all you cheeseballs.
Pamela
forwarded it with no known personal amendment.
Lauren forwarded it to my daughter and others,
noting: Beware faint odor of cheese, but it puts
things in perspective.
My
daughter sent it on, admitting that she doesn't
like forwarding this sort of stuff, but she did
anyway. Besides the message that clearly resonated
with my daughter's compatriots, what I think is
important is to whom she sent this e-message.
Decoding the email addresses, I have figured out
that I was among:
her
best girl friend from high school, an old boy
friend from high school, all her suitemates from
her senior year in college, both of her current
apartment-mates, her former boss from a summer
job, a bunch of her current business colleagues
who had just survived their training course, one
of her uncles, some names of whom I have not a
clue.
And
that's what makes it all wonderful, the connections.
So my parting shot at you, on behalf of the faculty
at Barnard is:
.... leverage your Barnard education in every
way you can;
.... remember how special it is;
.... stay connected with your classmates, your
family, and with us;
.... take heed of the words of Charlotte Perkins
Gilman who pronounced: "Life is a verb, not
a noun;"
.... take pride and pleasure in the years and
decades to come in the extraordinary women with
whom you are celebrating this day.
To
the seniors of 2001: class dismissed.
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