Chancellor Katehi's Fall 2011 Commencement address

12.10.11

(Chancellor Katehi delivered the following address to the 2011 graduating class on Dec. 10, 2011.)

Hello everyone, and thank you Dean Van Alfen for your thoughtful remarks and for that nice introduction.

Welcome to all the families and friends who have supported our graduates. Today is a milestone for you, too.

And welcome, of course, to our proud graduates, who are the very reason we are gathered here today to celebrate you and your accomplishments.

As chancellor, there is no greater honor for me than to address you on graduation day, when we honor your hard work and everything you have accomplished during your time with us at UC Davis.

Congratulations! You are the class of 2011. You have graduated from the University of California, Davis!

If you reflect back on the very first day you arrived here and everything you have experienced from then until now, it truly is a magical journey you have been on. 

I think the first day of college and the last are two of the greatest milestones in a young person's life.

I know they were in mine.  When I think back to the day I graduated, I remember I was filled with so much excitement but so much uncertainty, too, for none of us can predict the future or what it will bring.

You are about to enter the real world, as people like to say, and that world can be harsh and sometimes unforgiving.

But remember this: you have graduated from one of the best universities in the nation.  You know how to work hard and succeed.

You have a passion for education and a passion for life. With all you have learned as you labored toward this day, you are well prepared for whatever awaits you.

You have the tools, you have the skills and you have what it takes to be successful.

You have proven that already by getting accepted to this university and you have proven it by being here on graduation day. You will prove it again in the world outside UC Davis.

You know, of course, that does not mean you will be immune from setbacks and failures.  None of us are, no matter what heights we attain in our lives.

We will all have setbacks, we all have failures. What’s important is how you react to them. What’s even more important, is what you learn as a result.

You have probably heard the saying Learn to Fail or Fail to Learn so please don't be afraid of failure.  It's part of life. It is how we grow.

As everyone here is all too aware, we have experienced some very difficult times on our campus this past quarter.

Students are understandably worried about the future, the condition of the economy, the direction of our state and nation.

They have protested cuts to higher education and rising tuition, as I have protested them and will continue to do. But during one of those protests, our campus police used pepper spray on some of the students they were trying to disperse.

As chancellor and a member of the UC Davis community, I was horrified by the events of Nov. 18. But I have promised to take action and make changes so this will not happen again.

Our campus will not be defined by the event, but by the corrective actions we take and the leadership we provide moving forward.

I know we will emerge from this experience stronger and better prepared than before – a great university and a better place of learning.

Now that you are leaving us, I have tremendous faith in you to go out and make a positive mark in the world.

If you have something you are passionate about and are willing to continue working hard, I know you will succeed even in challenging times like these.

What’s important is that you search within yourself for what you truly care about and then pursue it with all the energy and commitment you can summon.

You may have heard someone talk about that very eloquently a few years ago, someone who has already probably had quite an influence in your day-to-day lives. Yes, that's right, I am talking about the late Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, creator of the I-Pod, I-Phone, I-Pad, I-Tunes and now the I-Cloud and so much more.

In a 2005 commencement speech at Stanford that is one of the most watched commencement speeches in history, he spoke of his own mortality and passion. 

But he also stressed the need to take full advantage of your time on earth and to follow your own dreams, not anyone else's.

"Your time is limited," he said, "so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking.

"Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."

That is wonderful advice by one of the true visionaries of our time. He was a demanding and tough-minded perfectionist, but he lived what he preached.

I would simply add this to what he told those Stanford graduates: Go out there and make a difference. Our world needs your intellect and heart.

There is nothing that makes me more hopeful for our future than watching students like you learn, grow and discover your inner voices.

Yes, the world can be harsh, but this is nothing new. Our state, nation and world face many challenges right now. But leave here today knowing you are equipped with the education and idealism to make a difference. 

You have already been tested and you have passed the test with flying colors.

President Kennedy said: “Let us think of education as the means of developing our greatest abilities, because in each of us there is a private hope and dream which, fulfilled, can be translated into benefit for everyone and greater strength for our nation.”

You have earned that education. Like Dean Van Alfen said, I hope you will never stop learning and educating yourselves.

So go out there with confidence and pursue your hopes and dreams. They belong to you. Hold them close and they will serve you well. They will serve all of us well.

Your time here has enriched this university. I know you will do the same beyond the UC Davis campus. 

Thank you and congratulations to you and your families for all you have achieved.