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Depart with this: 2003 convocation speeches
By David J. Craig
Following are highlights from speeches of some of the scholars, artists,
and community and business leaders who offered their insights to graduates
at Convocation ceremonies on May 18.
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Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney Photo by Robert Klein |
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Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, LAW Convocation
It
is indicative of the declining interest in civic matters in the United
States that in the last four decades the percentage of Americans aged
18 to 24 who vote regularly has plummeted from 51 percent to 32 percent,
observed Governor Mitt Romney. And today, he said, lawyers are among
the professionals most needed in civic life: to serve as public defenders
and prosecutors, to do pro bono work, and to participate in politics
and charity.
“
America is at the peak of its power,” he said. “But there
is nothing more vulnerable than entrenched success. History shows that
the ingredients of decline of every great civilization have been apathy,
self-gratification, and civic disinterest. America needs civic volunteerism
from amongst its best lawyers. Lawyers make the Bill of Rights actual
human rights. They apply our Constitution to strengthen our resolve against
fashionable and popular incursions. They preserve a nation of laws.”
And
the key to a rewarding life, Romney said, is putting to use one’s
talents toward selfless goals: “I’m convinced beyond a reasonable
doubt, based upon firsthand evidence, that the measure of your success
and fulfillment will be the extent to which you give yourself to causes
greater than yourself, to your spouse, your children, to your faith,
to your community, to your country. You also will live larger than yourself
by adhering to principles greater than yourself: to honor, integrity,
honesty, loyalty, and commitment.”
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SMG Dean Louis Lataif with BU Trustee John Smith (GSM’65, Hon.’93). Photo by Patrice Flesch |
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BU Trustee and retired General Motors chairman and CEO John
F. Smith, Jr., SMG Convocation
Shortly after receiving
his MBA from BU in 1965, John Smith, Jr. (GSM’65,
Hon.’93), the recently retired chairman and CEO of General Motors,
was promoted to a management job at GM’s treasurer’s office
in New York. He learned there that an effective leader must be self-assured.
“
I was astounded with how bright everyone around me seemed to be,” he
told the graduates. “Some individuals felt threatened or intimidated
in that kind of environment, and they never reached their full potential.
The true leader, on the other hand, is the individual who is not intimidated
by having people around who are smarter than he or she might be. I learned
early on that surrounding myself with bright people not only broadened
my own horizons, it made a stronger and more creative team, and everyone
gained in the end.”
Smith also advised graduates to be fully invested
in their jobs rather than constantly plotting their next promotion. “Many
aspiring MBAs and young executives have asked me how I planned and designed
my career
to become chairman of General Motors,” he said. “Well, I
tell them, I didn’t. I tell them that when it comes to your career,
the adventure and the reward are in the journey as much as the destination.
If you’re focused on that next job — positioning yourself for
the next move up the ladder — then you are not going to be able to focus
on your current job as well as you need to.
“
So my advice to you today is to find a job you really like — don’t
give up until you do — and go at it with complete passion and enthusiasm,” he
continued. “Rather than focus on specific career goals, like making
VP before you’re 30, I suggest you keep giving yourself a reality
check. Ask yourself: ‘Why am I really doing this?’”
Massachusetts Department of Public Health Commissioner Christine
Ferguson,
SPH Convocation
The federal government has responded
to the threat of bioterrorism by earmarking billions of dollars for
public health efforts. But serious
questions about the allocations have been raised: is it appropriate,
for instance, that so much money go to bioterrorism response when state
and local coffers are stretched thin?
Massachusetts Department of Public
Health Commissioner Christine Ferguson believes that health resources
are being allocated wisely. “Here
in Massachusetts, as in the rest of the nation, health problems persist
that can and must be addressed through prevention, early detection, and
rapid response,” she told graduates. “Some see the focus
on SARS, bioterrorism, West Nile virus, smallpox, and the like as drains
on our limited resources. I disagree. They represent the first opportunity
that we in public health have had in many years to reinvigorate our infrastructure
and remind the public at large of the importance of a community response
to the threats to our health status, not only in the United States but
in every country.”
Ferguson said that a key challenge facing public
health officials today is effectively communicating information to the
public. “We are
confronting tough times,” she said. “Economic resources are
tight, the constant threat of terrorism is wearing, and health is suffering.
The future of public health will be determined by how we respond to the
challenges and opportunities we face today, in a time of adversity. The
measure of a person is clearest in his or her response to adversity,
so to paraphrase Winston Churchill, I suggest that when you’re
going through hell, keep going — persist, persist, persist!”
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Regis College President Mary Jane England (MED’64) Photo by Frank Curran |
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Regis College President Mary Jane England, MED Convocation
Regis
College President Mary Jane England (MED’64) believes that
young doctors today have a responsibility to their profession and to
humanity that extends far beyond their duty to treat individuals: advocating
for a universal health-care system.
It is a “new professional humanism,
beyond all ability to earn a living or a profit, that is required to
sustain your art of doctoring
today,” said England, who worked as a psychiatrist for many years
before becoming a college administrator. “It seems to me that physicians
today have a political call in the deep sense of the word, a call to
the larger community of human beings, for whom doctors — the learned
ones — are advocates against the enemy of ignorance. You are called
today, by virtue of your medical education here, to break through chaos
and gridlock in American health care and to become not only scientific
and technical experts, but also social advocates for universal health
care.
“
Some say that universal health care is essentially an issue for members
of the Democratic Party and not the Republican,” she continued. “But
I think . . . the time for the issue to be recognized beyond party lines
has come. You have to decide as doctors what is mere politics and what
is a needed evolution. Your profession suits you to decide. Your legacy
at this School of Medicine and at Boston Medical Center suits you to
decide.”
6
June 2003
Boston University
Office of University Relations