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Past Commencement Speeches 2000

• Richard McCray, December 2000
• John Fielder, August 2000
• George D. Nelson, May 2000
• M. Scott Carpenter, May 2000

Congrats to Parents

Richard McCray

December 22, 2000

I also know that many of you have had to work to support your own education. I have seen how hard some of you have struggled to arrive at this moment.

So to all of the graduates here today: I congratulate you! You have done well.

But, we might ask: has the university done well by you? And how would we know? Let's look at two measures:

• First, have you learned a lot? This is not as important as you might think. Let me give an example. I teach a course in introductory astronomy. More than 80% of the content in that course was not known when I was an undergraduate. Six years ago, we didn't know whether other stars had planetary systems. Today, we have actually found planets around more than 40 nearby stars. I'm confident that more than a billion stars in the Milky Way have planets like Earth. Do they also support life? I'm not sure, but we may find the answer in your lifetime. Such is the pace of scientific discovery.

• Can you learn on your own? Do you have the skills to ask the right questions, and to find the answers?

But how? That's the most interesting question of all.

One possibility that gets a lot of press these days is the Internet. Will the Internet transform the university? Well, there is certainly no shortage of extravagant claims. For example, a few months ago, I read a very provocative article about the future of universities by Dr. Jorge Klor de Alva. Dr. Klor de Alva is the President of the University of Pheonix, which is the world's largest for-profit university. He writes:

"With technology and the Internet have also come globalization and e-commerce, making a virtue of speed, change, customization, and choice ... ... In such a vibrant milieu as this, many of the risk-averse, traditional roles of higher education are beginning to appear not merely quaint but irrelevant ..."

To paraphrase his article, Dr. Klor de Alva says that universities such as ours are dinosaurs, doomed to extinction if they don't change drastically.

He then goes on to describe a brave new university, one that replaces campuses with a massive web presence; one that replaces professors with specialists, some of whom develop content, others who provide instruction, and still others who assess learning.

Does this vision trouble me? Not in the least! Because I don't think we're in the same business as the University of Phoenix. Its primary mission is to train people for careers in business. Our primary mission is discovery. Students come here to discover our culture and their own talents and interests. Professors come here to discover new knowledge and new ways of looking at our culture. And, in our best moments, we do it together.

My own experience using the web leads me to a different vision of how it might help us to improve the university.

For many years, I have taught introductory astronomy by giving lectures to large classes. In a lecture, I could tell the students a lot. But did the students learn a lot? Of course, some did, but most students retained only a small fraction of what I told them.

Why? Well, as any professor will tell you, you don't truly understand a subject until you can explain it to someone else. And what is true of professors must also be true of students.

I found that everything that I might say in a lecture, I can post on the web. Then I can use the entire hour of classroom time to challenge students to think about the meaning of what they have read, and to explain their thinking to their fellow students. And every now and then, something wonderful happens. The students will take the class in a direction of thinking that I didn't even anticipate.

I have also been using the web to enable students to collaborate electronically in small teams to prepare for class discussions and to do team projects. This gives the students the responsibilities, not only to learn the subject matter on their own, but also to help their fellow students understand it. I think it's probably more important for students to learn these skills than to learn the subject matter of any particular course.

Finally – and this has been my most rewarding experiment – I have been enlisting undergraduate students as teaching assistants. I have found that students don't need to be experts to be excellent teachers. They only have to be resourceful learners, and to be able to share their skills with their fellow students. I think that we can engage our undergraduates to better advantage than we do today. By giving them more opportunities to teach their peers, we can train them to be leaders, and at the same time create a richer learning environment for everybody.

Certainly, the web is a powerful new tool, and we are only beginning to realize its vast implications. So, is Dr. Klor de Alva right? Will the web make the traditional roles of our university quaint and irrelevant? I don't think so. If we learn to use it well, and I am confident that we will, the web will not replace our traditional roles. On the contrary, it will enable us to spend more of our time doing what we do best.

In conclusion, I'll return to my first question: has the university done well by you? I mentioned two measures of success: first, have you learned a lot; and second, are you ready to learn on your own. But there's a third measure, and I think it's the most important one of all: does learning bring you joy? If you have learned one fact during the past four years, it should be this: what you don't know is far more than what you do. And this thought shouldn't trouble you at all – it should delight you. So, if you come back 10, 20, 30 years from now – and we hope you will – and if you tell us that you are still learning, and that you are still enjoying it, well then, we haven't done badly at all.

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The Value of Outdoor Living

John Fielder

August 12, 2000

I am so excited to be able to talk all of you, but especially to those of you graduating today. My public speaking engagements provide me an excellent opportunity to recruit "sherpas", the young people who help me transport camping and photo gear into the wilderness areas I photograph. I think I see quite a few strong backs out there today, so I bet I can fill my needs for a few years to come from this commencement alone!

More importantly, I have a message for each of you that will affect your ability to lead healthy, productive lives. It is a message about values and the fate your nest, planet Earth. The fact that we are here today in Boulder, Colorado, a place known nationwide for among other things its recreation opportunities and its land protection ethic, says a lot about you. I bet that many of you came to CU not just for the wonderful education you'd receive, but for the Colorado quality of life defined by clean air and water, solitude, infinite views, tall peaks and deep canyons, cascading creeks and fields of wildflowers. So I may be speaking to the choir, but I know that you will be among the most qualified people to go forth in your lives and help me spread the word about Mother Nature.

Mother Nature? Much of the joy in my life these days derives not just from photography, but from a simple appreciation for the miracle of life. Two point seven billion years of the evolution of life on our planet is nothing less than miracle. I defy you to call it anything less than a miracle, to quantify it, or to even explain it. The little details that you might have seen in my photographs, a single columbine wildflower growing from a crack in a granite wall, for example, impress me more than those amazing scenic views with everything reflecting in a mountain lake. And as I've aged, I find myself ever more distracted by senses other than sight: the taste of winter water on a backcountry ski trip, the sound of aspen leaves quaking in spring, the feeling on my skin of cool August mountain air at 12,000 feet, the smell of decaying aspen leaves in the fall. There are lots of reasons why we should protect biodiversity, but to me there is no better one than protecting it simply for its own sake. I believe that every living thing has a right equal to our own to exist on the planet. Yet terrible things are happening to this miracle as I speak. We have discovered 1.4 million life forms already on our planet, yet the biologist Edward Wilson estimates that Earth sustains 10 to 100 million more individual species that we haven't even found yet. We know that development and deforestation eradicates three percent of our most fertile places on the planet, our rain forests, each year. It is estimated, therefore, that we are losing to extinction 50,000 life forms every year before we've even discovered them! Do you think we might be soiling our nest?

I enjoy classifying the people I know as either anthropocentric or biocentric. It's very telling and easy to do. What are you? Do you believe that those 100 million life forms with which we share the planet are there to merely perpetuate the longevity of our species? Or do you believe that we are just one of many whose genetic integrity is dependent upon the integrity of biodiversity, the web of life? If you are one of the former, get this: 60 percent of all drugs we use to cure our maladies originally were discovered as organic compounds in plants and animals. Being biocentric has other benefits, too. You get along better with your fellow humans because you have more humility than others. Because you aren't the center of the universe, because you are in awe of the miracle of life, because you acknowledge powers greater than your own, you relate better to your fellow humans and the world is better off for it. You live more peacefully within yourself, you handle stress better, because you have a relationship with things permanent, not fleeting. Attach yourself to technology and you live with the insecurity of not knowing what comes next, with a psychological dependency on information. Attach yourself to more permanent things defined by nature, of the earth, of the spirit, and you will better cope with change and uncertainty in a world changing at exponential rates.

You are a talented group and Colorado would do well to have you remain here to make your living. The idealism that foments in young minds would be great ammunition against those people who are more disconnected from all things wild and natural than they should be. This is the most beautiful state in the country, and the most fragile, and powerful human forces abet the disconnection of its ecosystems and the erosion of our unique quality of life. Some oppose the protection of the wildest parts of Colorado's canyon country, others oppose better management of growth. I've seen firsthand the invasion of our mountain valleys by poorly planned development and the loss of tens of thousands of acres of farm and ranch land along the Front Range each year to leapfrog sprawl development. Businesses with high-paying jobs move to Colorado because our unique amenities — clean air and water, open spaces, views, and great recreation — make our communities more livable than Atlanta or Los Angeles. Tourists spend $11 billion each year in Colorado. If we kill the goose that laid the golden egg, we will kill our economy. I urge you to consider your values now, as you choose for whom you work and the values that they hold. Don't be so quick to take the highest-paying job at the expense of your ideals. Consider how a career can be chosen and designed to create a symbiosis between earning a living and damaging your planet as little as possible. Convert your idealism and enthusiasm into advocacy that will reconnect the disconnected with an appreciation for the miracle of life.

Monday morning I am off for a week into the wilderness right over there, Indian Peaks. Five CU students, including my son JT and I — my wife Gigi and I will also send our freshman daughter Ashley to CU this year (I just received both of their first semester statements Tuesday — we need you to buy lots of books and calendars for Christmas this year!) — will hike and photograph the western slope side of Indian Peaks. Such excursions are not only how I make my living, but how and where I can make sense of the excess of responsibilities we humans must accept as members of a fast-moving society. But it always works. Next Saturday I will be back home with a greater appreciation for the miracle of life and a humility that will cause me to be easier to get along with, after I've had my shower and steak, that is! As you progress through your lives, whether here in Colorado or elsewhere, I pray that you and your own children will always have such opportunities, too.

I photographed a book a few years ago about Rocky Mountain National Park. I know that many of you appreciate this place like I do for both its amazing views roadside along the highest continuous paved road, Trail Ridge, in the U.S., as well as its reputation as a bastion of wildness. Along with my color photographs I included historical black and white images made by one of my photographer heroes, Enos Mills. His advocacy through writing, photography, and eloquence in speechmaking was in large part the reason why Rocky Mountain became a park in 1915. One particular passage about parks and natural areas he wrote has been a mantra for me over the years and I'd like to share with you now. Remember, these words were written 100 years ago:

"Everyone knows the value of outdoor living to the individual. Without parks ... the world would be overcome with vice, disease, and crime. The greater use of our national playgrounds will lessen the number of hospitals, asylums, and jails throughout the country ... Parks and nothing else will keep a congesting population safe and sane. Parks will decrease the running expenses of the city or nation."

"Parks are First Aid — also prevention. They prevent more lawbreaking than policemen; cure more than physicians; give more ideas than sermons, more development than schools. The pace and pressure of modern life, its daily duties and examinations, require that everyone must be steadily refreshed, and for this sustaining and ever-invoking refreshment nature is a perennial, cheering source."

"Nature takes mind and body and puts them at their best. Here one comes to know himself or herself and to be the self he or she would like to be. Nature is the lifesaver of the race; the great out-of-doors is the lifesaving station of the nation."

"Probably the best way to delay death, the best medicine to lengthen life, is to take to the woods. This life-sustaining prescription is most effective as a preventive and should be regularly used. Like a sermon it should be taken once in a while whether needed or not. It is Mother Nature's cure-all, and there are no substitutes just as good ... Parks will keep people young and hopeful. In these playgrounds all may hear the arousing eloquence of primeval scenes ... "

Thank you for the honor of speaking to you today!

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To Catch a Little Stardust

George D. Nelson

May 12, 2000

The University of Colorado has prepared more than its share of astronauts. We have been privileged to fly high over the Earth and witness its splendor from space. That speaks well for CU's world-class science and engineering programs. And CU has prepared more than its share of leaders — academic, public, cultural, and moral. Most importantly, CU has prepared more than its share of citizens — business people, teachers, professionals in all fields, parents, and friends who contribute immeasurably to Colorado, the nation and the world. That speaks well for the entire institution.

Of course, CU has also prepared more than its share of great bikers, hikers and skiers!

You are joining quite a 'club' of alumni — and you make it even better.

Welcome!

One does not become an astronaut — or achieve anything else at a high level by accident. You earn the opportunity through hard work and dedication to an ideal. And you work hard because you have a passion — and exercising that passion brings you joy — joy that transcends the long hours, physical discomforts, and the opinions of the 'outside' world.

If I could give you one gift, one that my colleagues here on the stage all share — despite our many other differences — I would give the gift of freedomandwill to pursue your passions.

Henry David Thoreau in Walden described his passion for nature:

"No one ever followed their genius till it misled them. Though the result were bodily weakness, yet perhaps no one can say that consequences were to be regretted, for these were a life in conformity to higher principles. If the day and the night are such that you greet them with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs, it is more elastic, more starry, more immortal — that is your success. All nature is your congratulations, and you have cause momentarily to bless yourself. The greatest gains and values are far from being appreciated. We easily come to doubt if they exist. We soon forget them. They are the highest reality…. The true harvest of my daily life is somewhat as intangible and indescribable as the tints of morning or evening. It is a little stardust caught, a segment of rainbow which I have clutched."

Thank you.

Now, it is an incredible honor for me to introduce the next speaker. When the history of human exploration is studied at CU 1,000 years from today, there will be seven prominent names from the 20th century. The Mercury Seven, the original seven American astronauts blazed the trail that will lead us to the stars.

Scott Carpenter is one of these explorers, a native of Boulder and member of CU Class of 1949 and 1962. It is a high privilege to introduce Scott Carpenter.

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Commencement Address

M. Scott Carpenter

May 12, 2000

I stand close to mid-span in a long line of Colorado university product. My Grandfather graduated here in 1886. My father and mother and her four sisters in the 1920's. I represent the class of 1949 or 1962, or whatever, but by virtue of the long experience that my family has had at the University as well as my own experience here, may I presume to welcome the class of 2000 to our number. I say that I am mid-span because this class of 2000 contains a number of grandchildren of my own classmates. It is a great honor to be able to welcome you to the family of Colorado University graduates. You know of course that you soon become the background and the back bone of this nation.

No one who presumes to speak at a Commencement is exempt from the presumption of giving advice. I will give you, unsolicited, a little of my advice.

I believe that God's finest gift to man is curiosity. Honor that gift, and try always to satisfy your curiosity. A satisfied curiosity is one of life's greatest pleasures.

FDR, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt once said at the beginning of World War II, "We have nothing to fear but fear itself." I take exception to that statement. Fear is not to be feared, it is to be respected, and it is to be conquered; because I know that one of life's greatest treasures is the conquering of a fear. Those are two out of three pieces of advice that I offer you.

The third . . . I took the liberty of copying for you, the words engraved on a sliver plaque I happened to see on a friend's desk. They were titled "Press On" and they read as follows:

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.

Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.

Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.

Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.

Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.

I believe those may be the most important words you will hear. Not because I thought to repeat them to you, but because they have their own intrinsic value.

I will bid you adieu by giving you a salute, maybe one like your pastor at home would say, "Go with God," just another way of saying the beautiful Spanish phrase and song title, "Vaya Con Dios." The space man might say, "God Speed." I will say "God Speed, Good Luck, and Persevere."

I envy you the bright, bright future you have.

Thank you.

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