Matriculation Address 2007

Lawrence S. Bacow
Matriculation Address
August 29, 2007

Ladies and gentlemen, members of the faculty, staff and administration, the Board of Trustees represented here today by Bernard Harleston, and most importantly, to the members of the Class of 2011, welcome to Tufts!  I speak for the entire Tufts community – faculty, alumni, staff and administration – when I say that we are delighted you are here, delighted that you are part of this very special community known as Tufts. 

Whether you have come from Beijing or Boston, you have each traveled a long journey to get here.  I know from personal experience that the college admissions process is stressful.  For much of the past year most of you, parents included, have obsessed over where you would go to college.  You spent lots of time visiting schools, perusing college web sites, sweating through interviews, slaving over essays, and worrying about where you would get in. 

Once you received your acceptance notices, the anxiety shifted.  You started worrying about future roommates, dormitory assignments and what to bring. (Judging by some of the cars I have seen coming up the hill earlier today, many of you brought way too much.)  Some of you have already started worrying about what you will major in, what courses you will take, and even where you will go to graduate school.  So I have some advice for you:  Stop worrying.  You will figure it out, just as generations of other Tufts students have done before you.  Relax and savor this moment. 

I recall my first day as a college student.  I was convinced that I had gotten in on a fluke.  The admissions committee had made a mistake and it was only a matter of time before someone realized it.  I lived in fear that someone would tap me on the shoulder and announce to all, “Bacow, out of here.  You are a fraud.”  Well, I am here to tell you our admissions committee does not make mistakes.  You are all members of the Class of 2011 because you have distinguished yourselves academically in high school.  Because you have demonstrated both leadership and strength of character.  And because you have excelled inside the classroom and beyond.  Each of you has something special to contribute to this community over the next four years.

Tufts was founded in 1852 by the Universalists.  Our founder, Hosea Ballou 2d, was a Universalist minister, as were the first four presidents of the College.  The university itself is named for Charles and Hannah Tufts, who donated the land on which you are sitting.  At the time of our founding, many religious denominations were building colleges to educate their young in the traditions of the church.  Those colleges that accepted students from other faiths typically required faculty and trustees to belong to the founding church.  Tufts was different.  Our founders stipulated that there would never be a religious test for employment or admission at Tufts, a truly radical notion at the time.

Our Universalist founders were progressive in their thinking in other ways as well.  They believed in education for all, not just for the children of privilege.  They were early abolitionists.  They advocated vigorously for the separation of church and state.  And they were the first religious denomination in the country to ordain women -- in 1863, 11 years after our founding. 

Perhaps most importantly, our founders believed that with education comes responsibility.  Those of you who are fortunate to study at Tufts have an obligation to use your education for the benefit of others.  We believe that each of you must become an active citizen of this community and of every community that you will belong to in the future.  The world we live in is far from perfect.  This is not a political statement, but a statement of fact.  The only way that the world will ever improve is if people like you work to repair it. 

* * * *

This past summer I read a wonderful new book by a member of our history faculty, Professor Felipe Fernandez-Armesto.  The book, entitled Pathfinders, is a history of exploration from the Middle Ages to the present.  Professor Fernandez-Armesto reminds us that the motivation to discover has been one of the prime factors influencing the course of human history.  It is also one of the prime forces in our own lives.

I want to talk to you not about discovery over the past millennium, but rather about the process of discovery that I hope will take place during your next four years at Tufts.

College is a time when most of us figure out who we really are; where we get to be exposed to new fields, new ideas, and new ways of thinking.  It is a time of personal discovery.  In the same way that the explorers of the 15^th century sought out new worlds, you should seek out new intellectual realms.  Challenge yourself.  Do not take the easy path.  Be willing to take intellectual risks in search of greater intellectual rewards.  Learn a new language.  Take a course in a field you know nothing about.  Try your hand at music, theater, or studio art.  It will never be easier to explore than during your time at Tufts.

In attending Tufts, a research university, you have the opportunity to participate in the process of discovery yourself.  All of your professors are not only great teachers, but also distinguished scholars, pushing the boundaries of their own disciplines.  Professors love talking about their research.  Ask them about it.  In fact, invite them to have a cup of coffee with you at the Tower Café in Tisch Library.  If you are there with a faculty member, anything you order to drink is on the house.

Also, look for opportunities to get involved.  It is incredibly exciting to collaborate with your professors in the process of discovering new knowledge.  We make it easy for you through the Summer Scholars Program which provides stipends for students working with faculty on research in all seven of our schools and at our four affiliated teaching hospitals.  I hope that each of you will one day feel the rush that comes from being the first person in the history of the world to have uncovered a new fact or a new insight.  While few of us will ever discover new lands, we can all participate in discovering new knowledge.

You will discover many great teachers at Tufts.  Only some of them will have professor in their title.  Some of the most valuable lessons I learned in college came from participating in a varsity sport.  Much of what I know about getting people to work together for a common cause, I learned from my coach.  Everyone who works here takes great pride in what they do, and everyone is here to help you.  You will learn many important life lessons at Tufts outside the classroom:  from coaches, trainers, advisors, librarians, deans, counselors, chaplains, and, of course, from your classmates.  The truly wise person learns from all people.

We hope that you will discover many new friends during your four years on this Hill.  One of the many challenges you will encounter is learning to live in close proximity to people who are quite different from you.  At Tufts, you will find students from over 100 countries and every state in the union.  You will find people who come from very different religious, cultural, ethnic, and political traditions.  Seek out people who are different from you because we learn from our differences.  And please, treat everyone with civility and respect, especially those with whom you disagree.

Try not to judge people too quickly.  They will surprise you.  I recall meeting my freshman roommate for the first time.  He was loud.  I was quiet.  He stayed up late.  I went to bed early.  He liked to study with the stereo on.  I liked it off.  He loved all New York sports teams.  I hated them.  I could never imagine being friends with him.  I could not have been more wrong.  He turned out to be one of the brightest, most interesting, and insightful people I have ever known.  We lived together throughout college and then graduate school.  I will always be grateful to him for introducing me to my wife, Adele.  Thirty-eight years after Alan and I met, he is still one of my closest friends.

Many of your classmates will become your lifelong friends.  You will attend each other’s weddings, go into business together, vacation together, and share life’s joys and sorrows together.  Some of you will even marry your classmates.  In the next four years, you get to discover those people sitting among you now with whom you will share so much over the rest of your lives.

I can tell you from having spent the past 38 years on a college campus that it is very difficult to predict who among you is likely to make their mark on the world. 

• In the 1970s, two Tufts students shared a house on College Avenue.  One was crazy about movies and the other about theater.  They both described themselves as indifferent students.  Indifferent they may have been, but they both went on to win Academy Awards -Steve Tisch, ’71, for Best Picture for Forrest Gump and William Hurt, ’72, for Best Actor in Kiss of the Spider Woman.
• I talked to one alumnus recently who told me that he came to Tufts to major in baseball.  His goal was to make it to the major leagues.  He said that many in his class just assumed he was a dumb jock.  Well he may have failed to make it to the big leagues in baseball, but we don’t have dumb jocks at Tufts.  Bill Richardson, ’70, is running for President.
• One member of the Class of ’86 told me her friends worried about her when she would go off to play her guitar in the Harvard Square T station.  She said it was a good place to practice and she made a few bucks in the process.  They should not have worried.  Tracy Chapman went on to win multiple Grammy Awards.
• And then there was Kathy McCartney, ’77, a townie who grew up literally in the shadow of the campus.  Kathy juggled multiple jobs to earn enough money to pay her way through Tufts.  A brilliant student, Kathy became one of the world’s most distinguished child development scholars, and today is the Dean of the Graduate School of Education at Harvard.

I could go on.  Each of these students succeeded because they discovered their passion and had the courage to pursue it during their time at Tufts.  So should you.

I hope you will discover Boston while you are here.  You are going to school in the greatest college town in the world.  Get to know it.  Walk the Freedom Trail.  Get to know the city’s richly textured neighborhoods.  Take in a concert at Symphony Hall or visit the Museum of Fine Arts.  There is no excuse for ever being bored in Boston.

Medford and Somerville are both historic towns, and Paul Revere passed just down the hill from us on his famous midnight ride.  We celebrate that ride each April on Patriot’s Day, when Boston holds the world’s largest block party.  Close to one million people line the Boston Marathon route to cheer on over 20,000 runners who make their way 26 miles, 385 yards from Hopkinton to Boston.  Each year, Tufts enters the largest collegiate team in the Marathon.  Two hundred students, faculty, staff, alumni and parents train and run the Marathon together as part of the President’s Marathon Challenge.  If you really want to challenge yourself while you are at Tufts, join us.  And I can tell you from having run the Marathon many times with my son, there is no better way for parents and kids to bond than to train and run it together.

One tradition that we honor at Tufts is that each generation helps the next. You have already seen this at work as upper-class students have helped you unpack and get settled in your rooms. You will soon meet your peer advisors, fellow students who have come back to school early so they can help your faculty advisor with the advising process.  In the future, you will have the opportunity to continue this tradition, and I hope you will do so selflessly and willingly as others have done before you.

As you sit on this Hill, you have already benefited from the collective efforts of the 90,000 Tufts alumni represented today by Sunny Breed, President of the Alumni Association. They have interviewed you, supported scholarships that underwrite your education, and they have literally helped to build this university.  In the future, they will help you with career advice, internships and contacts. Wherever you go in the world, you will find fellow Jumbos ready to help.

Class of 2011, in a few hours you will say goodbye to your friends and family. You are going to be on your own - with lots of support, but on your own nonetheless. If you want to eat three meals a day consisting of Ramen noodles and Doritos, no one will stop you.  If you elect to stay up all night playing video games, no one will tell you to stop and do your homework.  If you run a fever, it will be up to you to get yourself to Health Services.  Part of what you are here to learn is to make these choices responsibly. We have great confidence in your ability to do so.

If you look hard enough, you will find many temptations on a college campus - and Tufts is no exception. We admitted you because we thought you had good judgment. Please do not prove us wrong.  If you would not be comfortable explaining to your parents why you did something, you probably shouldn’t be doing it.  Your Tufts ID does not entitle you to flout the law or behave in ways that would get you arrested elsewhere.  Tufts is not a consequence-free zone.  As an adult, you must accept responsibility for your actions. We expect you to be the type of person you described in your application.  The Dean of Admissions assures me that none of you claimed to be loud, obnoxious, drunk, or offensive to your neighbors. We don't expect you to behave that way here either.

You have been prepared well for this day by your parents, family, and friends. Many of your loved ones have literally sacrificed so that you may enjoy the privilege of a Tufts education. Honor their sacrifice by behaving responsibly, and making the most of this extraordinary opportunity.

Going off to college is a big adjustment for each of you, but in some ways it is an even bigger adjustment for your families. You have lots of people to help you through this transition - advisors, deans, counselors, and fellow students.  By contrast, your parents are on their own.  It is up to you to help them adjust to a life without you.  Please keep in touch with them.  Let them know how you are doing.  It is even OK to ask them how they are doing.

And now a word to parents:  In just a few minutes this ceremony will end and you will have “The Conversation.” This is the awkward moment when you actually have to say goodbye to your sons and daughters.  I suspect everyone has anticipated this moment for some time.  Some students may even have extracted promises from their families to avoid emotional goodbyes.  I must confess that as a parent, my sympathies are obvious.  It is not easy saying goodbye to someone who has been the center of your life for the past 18 years.  It is also not easy sending them half way across the country or around the world to live independently for the very first time.  So, to the parents assembled, I hereby grant you a special presidential release from all commitments to avoid emotional goodbyes.  Clearly, these commitments were made under duress and should not be enforceable.  When the time comes, hold your kids close, give them a big hug, and cry if you want.  I guarantee that no one will notice because they will all be doing the same.

You should be enormously proud of what your sons and daughters have already accomplished. The fact that they are sitting here today is but one sign that you have done your job well.  But I suspect that as you prepare to say goodbye, your hopes and aspirations for them are tempered by more than a bit of anxiety.  You are probably asking yourself, "Are they ready for all that awaits them?  Will they act maturely?  Will they use good judgment?"  We raise our children to be independent, yet when they reach the moment when they are ready to spread their wings, our natural inclination is to cling to them.

I must now ask you to do the hardest thing you have ever done as parents - let go. Let your kids fight their own battles. They don’t need you to pick their classes.  If their mattress is lumpy, they don’t need you to call Residential Life to get a new one.  Learning to deal with a large organization is another useful life skill they will master at Tufts, if you let them. You cannot be everywhere for your kids, and I assure you they don't want you to be.

You must also trust your sons and daughters to make the right choices.  Of course, they will make mistakes.  We were not perfect when we were their age.  We learned from our mistakes and so will they, if you let them.  Rest assured, they will remember the lessons that you, their first teachers, have taught them. And, of course, we are here to help.

This is a good place, a caring place. All of us at Tufts are here to help your sons and daughters continue to grow and learn; to build upon the wonderful foundation that you have so lovingly provided to them.

So, members of the Class of 2011, your time has come. The next time you assemble together on this quad, it will be for your commencement. The time will pass in the blink of an eye.  Don’t hurry it.  Savor it.  May the next four years bring you challenge, growth, excitement, passion, opportunity, and fulfillment.  I know I speak for all those assembled here today - your families, friends, faculty, and staff - we look forward to sharing this extraordinary journey with you. Good luck to you all.