♪ choir singing ♪
 ♪ organ music playing ♪
Greetings!
Class of 2024, transfer students
Eli Whitney students,
and visiting
international students,
welcome to Yale!
I'm Marvin Chun, Dean of
Yale College
and on behalf of the officers
of the university, the faculty,
the heads and deans of the
residental colleges,
and the deans and staff members 
of the Yale College
Dean's Office,
I am so pleased to
be with you today.
Family members and friends who
are joining us, we extend our
warm welcome to you
and we thank you for everything
you have done to guide
these young adults.
In my role as dean, one of my
jobs is to support President
Salovey's mission
for Yale to be the research
university most committed to
teaching and learning.
What that means for you students
is that I am here to make sure
that you get the best
of what Yale has to offer, in
the classroom or outside of it.
A good part of what you will
learn here will come from the
faculty who will teach you
in the classes you take,
while much will come from
your peers and colleagues.
Taken together, these teachers
of yours will give you the
liberal education that
is Yale's hallmark.
By the time you graduate, you
will have furnished your mind
in the broadest possible sense,
not by pursuing narrow,
specialized fields of study
but instead by searching for
new knowledge, new perspectives,
new ways of looking at the
world, and by adding your own.
If you make good of this place,
you will discover fields of
knowledge that are
completely new to you, that you
haven't even heard of,
and you will open yourselves
to them and learn from them.
You're joining Yale during a
uniquely challenging year
for the institution
and for the world.
The ongoing pandemic
requires us to curtail
in-person group gatherings,
and so most of your classes and
activities will be conducted
online, starting with this
Opening Assembly.
Still, we can be grateful that
in year 2020, modern
technology equips us
to overcome this challenge
better than ever.
Online, we can stay connected,
communicating our ideas,
and sharing our passions.
As a neuroscientist, I can
assure you that to your brain
nestled inside of your head,
sights and sounds from the
world can be as vivid online
as they would be live.
You don't need to be a
neuroscientist to understand
that whether listening with
headphones or from a person
standing in front of you,
the sound waves reaching your
ears are similar; and that
whether the face you're seeing
is on a screen or across
the classroom, the images
you are seeing are comparable.
If not for our agility with
media, which brings us
the world every day,
how could the music, film, and
broadcasting industries be such
a dominant form of entertainment
in our daily lives?
As you imagine the semester
ahead, think about new ways
you will interact with the
faculty and other students,
just as your
instructors will be.
Also keep in mind that the
faculty-to-student ratio is the
best in Yale's modern history,
with more faculty teaching and
mentoring fewer students.
You are entering Yale when its
diverse faculty is the largest
it has ever been,
and at a time when the number of
enrolled students is around
80% its usual size.
One of the unanticipated
advantages of starting your
Yale education now
is the increased attention
you will receive.
Still, with much of the
semester now online,
with fewer people around,
you may be more
easily distracted,
and if you're like me you might
be guilty of occasional
mind wandering.
In fact, my own desire to be
more focused has led to a
research interest in attention
throughout my career.
My lab group uses brain scanners
to measure how attentive a
person is,
and we explore ways to
improve concentration.
So here, let me make good use of
this online moment
to help you be more attentive
to the new ideas
and opportunities that
await you at Yale.
I will now direct you to an
on-screen demonstration
of how you can focus better
to make distractions disappear.
You see a background of
flickering blue dots
with three stationary and
salient yellow dots
forming a triangle.
In the middle is a
white plus sign,
and I'll ask you to just
stare at that throughout 
this exercise.
If you stay focused on the
white plus symbol without
moving your eyes,
you should notice that
the yellow dots will
start disappearing.
It may take a few seconds for
this to happen for you,
especially if you're
distracted right now.
The yellow dots will start
disappearing one or two
at a time,
but for many of you all three
of them should disappear
at some point.
This is a perceptual illusion
called motion-induced blindness
and at Yale, Psychology
Professor Brian Scholl
studies it.
There are many explanations
for why motion-induced
blindness occurs,
but for today's purpose,
just know that you can willfully
make distractions disappear.
With your new found powers of
attention, you not only
can reduce distraction,
you can use it to help you see
new perspectives and new
ways of understanding.
Your have all earned a place
in this community because of the
promise that you have shown
in what you will contribute
to it, and you have so much
to learn from each other.
When you get to know
your colleagues joining
Yale this year,
you will discover that you come
from every possible walk of life
bringing with you every
imaginable talent,
every experience,
every worldview.
Think about how to leverage
your different backgrounds,
views, talents, and interests,
and by learning how to see the
world through each other's eyes.
It takes effort and attention
to put yourself in
someone else's shoes,
and it will be worth it to
empathize with others
and to make
more informed decisions.
Okay, so now let's turn to
another demonstration
to use your mind and volition
to see things differently.
You should see two dots
moving on the screen now.
Do you see them moving
vertically, up and down in
columns?
Or do you see them moving
horizontally, oscillating
between left and right in rows?
Some of you will
see them moving vertically,
and others will
see them moving horizontally.
This simple demonstration shows
a fundamental principle
of psychology:
we all experience the
world differently.
Our perceptual interpretations,
our memories, and our thoughts,
are all constructs of the mind,
and they differ across people
even when they consider the same
object, event, or evidence.
Now I will ask you to see the
dot motions differently using
your mindset and attention.
If you see them moving
vertically, try to see them move
along the horizontal axis,
and if you see them moving
horizontally, try to see them
move along the vertical axis.
It's hard, but you can do it,
and if you can't, be assured
that we still want you at Yale.
But since we don't really have
time now here's a hint.
Use your hand to
cover up the bottom row,
and this will help you
see the dots move horizontally.
Or use your hand to
cover up the right column,
and you will
see the dots move vertically.
Take your hand away
and the motion should stick.
Here's a final example of
how you can view one image
two different ways.
Name out loud what you see.
Did you see a duck?
Or did you see a rabbit?
Can you see it both ways?
Your hand won't help here,
but the duck's bill
forms the rabbit's ears,
and the rabbit's nose
is the back of the duck's head.
Now look at the
cartoon on the screen.
Two armies face each other,
and for the army on the bottom,
find the general at the front
of it, urging his troops
with his sword:
How can we help everyone
understand that they are
serving the same flag?
Yale will expose you to views
different from your own,
and when it does, you can
start by finding common ground
with people when you
don't agree with them.
As Yalies, as our newest
members of Bulldog Nation,
you are all under one flag.
With the sophomores,
juniors, and seniors,
the alumni,
faculty, and staff,
and with each other.
You have common ground,
an immediate shared bond
that goes deep,
to the intellectual curiosity
and the commitment to community
that have brought
you all here.
You have just arrived at a
place that values difference
and actively seeks it out.
It is how
professors and students
find and test knowledge,
and it is how the university
equips its students, that's you,
to become leaders and
citizens of the world.
But here, the value of
seeking difference is
even more than that.
Here it is taken as an
article of faith, it is the
coin of the realm,
it is one of the bedrock
principles that governs us
in and out of the classroom.
Let me assume that you have
come here not only
to find knowledge,
but also to learn how to
live lives of consequence.
If that is true, you have
come to the right place.
As you take your first steps
then, you will need to become
comfortable with difference,
not just to accept it,
or tolerate it,
but to insist on it.
You will find guides everywhere,
in the classes you take,
the activities you join,
and most of all from the
people joining you right now,
your peers and classmates.
All of them are part of the
liberal arts education
that awaits you.
Your life at Yale has started,
and as it does, here's what
I hope you will do.
If you are a duck person,
go find those rabbit people and
find common ground with them.
If you are studying lots of
duck courses, go find
the rabbit courses
and see what they can teach you.
And when you find yourself
rallying around a duck flag
take a good hard look at that
rabbit flag across the field and
the people rallying around it,
and remember that
you are all Yalies. 
Members of the Class of 2024,
transfer students,
Eli Whitney students,
Visiting International Students,
you belong to Yale, and
Yale belongs to you. Welcome!
 ♪ singing a cappella ♪
 Darling, darling,
 darling,
 Won't you stand by me?
 ♪ singing bassline a cappella ♪
 When the night has come
 And the land is dark
 And the moon
 is the only light we'll see
 No I won't be afraid
 Oh, I won't be afraid
 Just as long as you stand,
 stand by me
 So darling, darling
 Stand by me,
 oh stand by me
 Oh stand, oh stand,
 stand by me
 Stand by me
Oh stand by me
 Oh stand by me
Oh stand by me
 Oh stand by me
 Oh stand by me
 When the sky
 that we look upon
 Should tumble
 and fall
 Or the mountain
 should crumble
 to the sea
I won't cry,
I won't cry,
No, I won't 
shed a tear
Just as long
as you stand,
stand by me
 So darling, darling
 Stand by me,
 I said stand by me
 Oh stand, oh stand, stand by me
 Stand by me
 Oh stand by me
 Oh stand by me
 Oh stand by me
 You just call on me brother,
 when you need a hand
 We all need somebody to lean on
 I just might have a problem
 that you'll understand
 We all need somebody to lean on
 Stand by me
 Oh stand by me
 Oh stand by me
 Oh stand by me
 Oh stand by me
 Oh stand by me
 Oh stand by me
 ♪ organ music playing ♪
Hello everyone!
To first-year, transfer, and
Eli Whitney students:
Welcome to Yale!
I also extend a warm welcome
to all the family members
and friends who
join me in recognizing this
milestone in your lives.
Today we begin
a new academic year
at a time of
significant upheaval.
Historically, social conflict
and disease pandemics
have catalyzed change.
And so we should not be
surprised that many are
calling now for further
transformation of our society.
We are dealing with two
parallel crises:
The COVID-19 pandemic 
and the racial
inequality and injustice
rooted in our country's
history of slavery and
still facing us today.
We have all been affected by
these challenges,
especially members of the Black
and brown communities who bear
the brunt of these burdens
I have been giving a lot of
thought to the university's role
in addressing 
difficult social issues.
Much remains to be answered
in this turbulent period,
but what is certain is that the
core mission of Yale is
more relevant than ever.
I am sure each of you
has studied Yale's
mission statement:
Yale is comitteded to
improving the world today
and for future generations
through outstanding research
and scholarship, education,
preservation, and practice.
Yale educates aspiring leaders
worldwide who serve all
sectors of society.
We carry out
this mission through the
free exchange of ideas
in an ethical, interdependent,
and diverse community
of faculty, staff,
students, and alumni.
Research, scholarship,
education, preservation,
and practice are vital
to understanding our past,
building on
hard earned progress,
identifying what
still needs to be done,
and creating change.
You know this;
It is why you are here.
You will be studying with
professors who use their
knowledge and expertise
to improve the world.
Yale faculty members work with
government officials and others
on containing the spread
of infectious diseases,
mitigating health disparities,
transforming policing,
and reforming the
criminal justice system.
While addressing challenges
like these, you will learn
from your teachers
how to analyze problems,
think critically,
and communicate clearly.
Along the way,
you will also be encouraged
to focus on yourself.
Whether fighting a
global pandemic or
the scourge of racism,
global climate change
or economic recession,
we must be willing to be
honest about our own motivations
and open to changing our minds.
Efforts to solve
pressing problems
will not be effective
if they are led by individuals
who cannot feel compassion
nor learn to cooperate,
nor by those who try to achieve
change through manipulation,
coercion, or brute force.
Yale's faculty understands this.
I recently discussed compassion
with Sterling Professor of
Sociology Elijah Anderson.
He has contributed immensely to
the study of racial inequality,
particularly in urban settings,
but he also has put his
expertise into practice
as a consultant to the
White House and to Congress.
I asked him,
how does he teach students who
want to improve the world?
He told me that he shows his
students how to see the world
from the point of view of others
how to have empathy.
Such an ability, he noted,
can help us to be
better scholars and students,
to be more sensitive to the
human condition, and to
be more self-aware.
When we are
motivated by empathy,
compassion, and cooperation,
we can bridge differences,
learn to understand one another,
and enact meaningful,
sustainable change.
Empathy and compassion, 
a willingness to engage those
with whom we may not see
eye-to-eye
and a concern for the
misfortunes of others,
are preconditions
for cooperation.
Cooperation, working together
to solve a common problem,
especially one that we cannot
overcome by working alone,
requires us to listen to
each other charitably,
appreciate
each other's perspective,
and inhibit our desire to
dismiss individuals
with whom we initially believe 
we cannot develop
common purpose.
The enemies of
compassion and cooperation
are fear and anger.
Now I'm not saying that it is
inappropriate to experience
the fear caused by a pandemic of
a novel virus that can be fatal.
And I'm not saying that one
shouldn't feel anger,
indeed, outrage,
at the killing of George Floyd
by former officers of the
Minneapolis police department.
In fact, COVID-19
makes me anxious;
and those former officers,
who took a sworn oath to
protect the public,
they leave me livid.
But although such fear
and anger can be motivating,
I must ensure that they do not
prevent my finding common ground
with well-meaning others
whose approaches to social
challenges are not
the same as mine.
I must engage them rather than
attempt to silence them
to accomplish anything
real and lasting.
Let me provide an
example from politics.
At one time,
women who became pregnant
and men who wanted to take time
off from work to care for
an infant
were at risk of being
fired by their employers.
But in 1993,
the U.S. Senate passed the
Family and Medical Leave Act,
guaranteeing family members the
ability to take a
prolonged unpaid leave
without risking their jobs in
order to tend to a newborn,
adopt a child,
or assist a sick family member.
How did this act,
which was considered revolutiony
at the time, pass?
Well, it was
developed cooperatively
by Senator Ted Kennedy,
among the most liberal
of lawmakers,
and Senator Orrin Hatch,
among the most conservative.
They opposed one another
on many policies,
but in this case, they found
a common cause:
supporting families.
They both felt compassion toward
individuals at risk for losing
their jobs due to childbirth,
and, perhaps more important,
they respected each other
as individuals,
listened to each other,
and placed national interest
ahead of party differences.
Their cooperation led,
ultimately, to significant
social change.
One final thought
about the importance of
compassion and cooperation:
Most of you, members of the
Class of 2024,
are part of Generation Z,
the post-millennials.
I am, well, a Baby Boomer.
Perhaps you have heard that you
and I are quite different.
True, you are the
first “digital natives"
and the only world
you have ever known
has included the smartphone,
texting, and social media.
And you are distinctive
in other ways as well.
Yours is the most racially and
ethnically diverse generation
in American history,
and you also promise
to be the best educated.
But it is not only that we are
different in these ways;
we also are said to disagree.
We are told we have different
views on politics,
music, and work.
I am sure you are familiar with
the stereotypes that
exaggerate our differences.
And stereotyping is another
barrier to compassion
and cooperation.
For example, you fault my
generation for the great
problems of our time.
And my generation too often
fails to understand you.
We pass you on the sidewalk,
mystified by your earbuds
and your clothes.
We tell you to grow up,
to get off social media,
to develop some
real-life coping skills,
and to get out of your parents'
basements and get a job.
And to us you say,
“OK, Boomer”
Thanks to an article I read in
the Wall Street Journal,
a print edition of it, in fact,
I am told this is a
“sly linguistic weapon
of intergenerational warfare."
Well, although such stereotypes
give rise to internet memes and
other kinds of clickbait to get
us to think of our differences
as “intergenerational warfare,"
we are not at war.
Those are distractions,
and they won't help us link
arms in overcoming
what might be standing in
the way of our future,
our shared future.
At the heart of "OK, Boomer" is
the belief that my generation
contributed to the serious,
even existential,
problems in the world that you
will enter and lead.
Your generation sees the
challenges posed by
climate change, disease,
abusive policing, war,
racism, and poverty.
You recognize the
urgency of these problems.
But my generation does as well.
Instead of dismissing one
another's perspectives and
focusing only on difference,
we need to direct our attention
to creating something better
for all who will follow us.
We can only do that
by harnessing our compassion
and cooperating.
Here at Yale,
we learn from each other.
That is why academics like me
enjoy spending their entire
lives on college campuses.
And it is why you
chose to come to Yale.
The passing of knowledge and
the responsibility to
do some good with it
from one generation to the next
is a large part
of Yale's mission.
It is hard work.
So, please:
use your time at Yale wisely.
Let us devote ourselves to
learning together,
to the personal transformation
that the pursuit of knowledge
can create for each of us.
Let us use these college years
to change ourselves,
to become more
compassionate human beings.
And then let us
work cooperatively
on existing and
emerging challenges
to create the world we desire.
Welcome to Yale!
 ♪ organ music playing ♪
My Beloved Yale family,
wherever you might be
I bid you a warm welcome
in the midst of this time
of physical distancing
and many encounters with the
“unknown next” in all our lives.
In his work
“Today Is A New Day”
a piece that is both poem and
invitation to young scholars,
the 2015 U.S. Poet Laureate
Juan Felipe Herrera wrote:
“Today is a new day,
you are that new day!
Today you are that new time,
now visible, now prepared,
now filled with eagerness and
hope, you are that hope,
that wild born vista
of new horizons.”
Students, faculty,
staff, loved ones,
you are, each and every one
part of a new whole at Yale,
a new circle of
scholars and friends.
What Yale was yesterday,
is not what it is today,
or will be tomorrow
because of you,
your questions will emerge
and then bloom
and your fresh intellect will
carry us all to new discovery,
to a new day.
As we ready ourselves to step
out onto new ground,
in this daunting,
yet inspiring liminal space
of the “unknown next,"
we note our anxieties,
but we also lift up
our considerable abilities
and the remarkable fellowship
we will come to share with one
another in a variety of ways.
Let curiosity nourish us and
compassion guide us as
this new creation unfolds.
On this day and everyday forward
may all that is holy shine
upon us and tenderly bless
our every breath.
May we go in shalom, in salaam,
in shanti, may we go in peace.
This is our new day,
light and truth awaits us.
Let us begin.
 ♪ one woman singing ♪
 This is the sound of one voice
 One spirit, one voice
 The sound of one
 who makes a choice
 This is the sound of one voice
 This is the sound of one voice
 ♪ two women in harmony ♪
 This is the sound of voices two
 The sound of me
 singing with you
 Helping each other
 to make it through
 This is the sound of voices two
 This is the sound of voices two
 ♪ three women in harmony ♪
 This is the sound
 of voices three
 Singing together
 in harmony
 Surrendering to
 the mystery
 This is the sound
 of voices three
 This is the sound
 of voices three
 This is the sound
 of all of us
 Singing with love and
 the will to trust
 Leave the rest behind
 it'll turn to dust
 This is the sound
 of all of us
 This is the sound
 of all of us
 ♪ one woman singing ♪
 This is the sound of one voice
 ♪ all, in harmony ♪
 One people, one voice
 A song for every
 one of us
 This is the sound of one voice
 This is the sound of one voice
