(stately music)
(elegant music)
(audience applauds)
(stately music)
(people laugh)
("The Star-Spangled Banner")
♪ O say can you see ♪
♪ By the dawn's early light ♪
♪ What so proudly we hailed ♪
♪ At the twilight's last gleaming ♪
♪ Whose broad stripes and bright stars ♪
♪ Through the perilous fight ♪
♪ O'er the ramparts we watched ♪
♪ Were so gallantly streaming ♪
♪ And the rockets' red glare ♪
♪ The bombs bursting in air ♪
♪ Gave proof through the night ♪
♪ That our flag was still there ♪
♪ O say does that star-spangled ♪
♪ Banner yet wave ♪
♪ O'er the land of the free ♪
♪ And the home of the brave ♪
(audience applauds)
- Art collector and
critic Leo Stein wrote,
"To be intelligent is to be open-minded,
"active-memoried, and
persistently experimental."
This morning, we come
together to celebrate
the achievements of minds
that have opened wide,
memories kept and created,
and of tireless,
imaginative experimentation
reflected in each of the women and men
who are graduating today
from Pomona College.
We take a breath,
pause, and savor this moment.
We are grateful to all who
have helped our graduates
to reach this time,
the family and friends,
who have provided the warmth
of friendship and love,
and the students, faculty, staff,
administrators, and trustees,
who have stimulated depth of thought
and awakened conscious growth.
We honor and celebrate our graduates
for the individual
richness of their talents,
their accomplishments and aspirations,
and the vitality and commitment
with which they have enhanced Pomona,
the Claremont Colleges, and beyond.
We join together in hope and prayer
that they be blessed on this
next steps of their journey.
Oh source of life,
may these graduates be constantly inspired
to develop insightful, mindful awareness
of the world they live in
and to grow in responsive
caring for all its peoples.
May they exercise strength of character
in a world that is desperate
for their ethical leadership.
May they be true to their
deepest spiritual values.
May these graduates
responsibly care for the earth
and all its creations.
And may the wisdom and
compassion they have learned here
guide them to keep their minds open,
their memories active,
and their lives persistently imaginative
so that they may use their
intelligence and their hearts
to create a more just and peaceful world.
(audience applauds)
- Please be seated.
Good morning, on behalf of the trustees,
faculty, and staff of Pomona College,
and especially the members
of the senior class
who will receive their degrees today,
it is my pleasure to welcome you
to the 119th commencement
exercises of Pomona College.
On this occasion, I would like to extend
particular thanks and appreciation
to the family and friends
and especially the mothers
of the class of 2012.
(audience applauds)
You have provided the
support and encouragement
for the graduating seniors
that have brought them to this
turning point in their lives.
Graduation from college represents
a great moment of change.
It is the culmination of
many years of schooling,
initially broad and generalized,
becoming more focused with time.
In your four years at Pomona College,
I hope and trust that you
have discovered and valued
the goals of a liberal education.
First, to think critically and creatively.
Second, to communicate
effectively in speech and writing.
And third, to carry with you
a lifelong joy and passion for learning.
Commencement is a fresh start,
a beginning of a new life
outside these college walls
in which the abilities and
skills that you have gained here
are the added riches that you
bear in trust for humankind.
Each member of the
graduating class of 2012
has fully met the high
standards of Pomona College.
Each has contributed in
varied and wonderful ways
to our community, in the classroom,
through research projects, to campus life,
and through service to those around us.
At yesterday's Class Day award ceremony,
we learned some of the ways
in which members of this class
have distinguished themselves.
At commencement, which is
above all a celebration
of the academic accomplishments
of our graduates,
it has been traditional
to take special notice
of one of these awards, the
Rena Gurley Archibald Prize,
which is given to the member
of the graduating class
with the highest academic achievement.
This year, the Rena Gurley
Archibald High Scholarship Prize
is awarded to Will Rowan Fletcher.
(audience applauds)
The educational mission of
this college relies critically
on close collaboration
between students and teachers.
Pomona College faculty members
are dedicated to excellent
teaching in all its settings,
leading discussions in classrooms,
supervising research projects
in library or laboratory,
coaching teams on athletics fields,
preparing students for concert
or theater performances,
guiding artists in studios.
And so every year at this time
as it awards degrees to its graduates,
the college also honors
those of its faculty
who exemplify teaching at its best,
the winners of the college's Wig Award
for Excellence in Teaching.
This award is granted each year
by a committee of trustees and faculty
on the basis of ballots cast by students.
It is the highest honor the
college awards to its faculty.
Let me ask this year's winners
of the Wig Award for
Excellence in Teaching
to stand as I read their names.
Assistant Professor of
Psychology Jessica Borelli.
(audience applauds)
Associate Professor of
Mathematics Vin De Silva.
(audience applauds)
Roscoe Moss Professor of
Chemistry Frederick Grieman.
(audience applauds)
Associate Professor of
Anthropology Pardis Mahdavi.
(audience applauds)
Professor of Politics David Menefee-Libey.
(audience applauds)
Professor of Mathematics Ami Radunskaya.
(audience applauds)
And Assistant Professor
of Music Joti Rockwell.
(audience applauds)
One lesson that I hope
every graduating student
will take from this college
is that the accomplishments
of people working together
are greater than those
of single individuals,
however distinguished.
Pomona College strives to
foster collaborative work
between students, with faculty,
and the chief goal of its staff
is to enhance the educational experiences
that take place on campus.
On this occasion, we are
connected also to past and future.
Today, we begin a yearlong celebration
of the 125th anniversary of
the founding of this college.
The college that we see today
and that will educate future generations
is here because of the hard work,
distinguished accomplishments,
and generous support
of past members of our community,
the literally thousands of people
who have taught, worked, and studied here
and the donors who have sustained them.
We are particularly honored
to have here with us,
along with faculty, students,
staff, families and friends,
10 members of the college's
board of trustees.
Today, we welcome a new class
into this great fellowship.
And so in each other's company
and in the great tradition
of all those who have taught,
studied, worked, and played at
this college over the years,
let us now proceed to
celebrate the class of 2012
and launch them on their way, thank you.
(audience applauds)
(audience cheers)
- Enough, come on, all right.
Good morning, everybody.
I'd like to welcome the
students, professors,
deans, family, and friends who
have all gathered here today,
especially our mothers;
we know it's Mother's Day.
As my mom said, "It's the only
day that I have to myself,
"and I'm celebrating you."
So here we are, hey, mom.
(audience laughs)
But most of all I wanted to
welcome the class of 2012.
We're about to take our first baby steps
as Pomona College graduates.
I honestly can't believe
that I'm standing up here
and that you're all sitting out there,
and I'm really hoping
that if this past week
that I just spent in San Diego
is any measure of how fast time goes
when I'm not actually taking any classes,
hopefully this speech,
which I'm terrified of,
will also go by very quickly.
Then I won't have to be standing here,
you all won't have to
be sitting out there,
and we can all go do
what we really want to do
and get some brunch.
Maybe that's just me, but
on the topic of brunch,
I recently realized,
and this will probably only
appeal to the students,
but I'm gonna have to start
buying Cholula myself.
(audience laughs)
It's a hot sauce that they
have in the dining halls,
and it's the most delicious thing,
and I slather every meal with it.
And I'm gonna have to spend real money.
I don't know what I'm gonna do.
Cholula should probably pay
Pomona College to be served here
because we're gonna all leave
and spend hundreds of dollars buying it,
that Sriracha brand that they have too.
Anyway, I'm getting a little off-topic.
I had to be careful when I
started thinking about things
that I wanted to say to you all today.
Of course I wanted to have witty phrases
or funny jokes that I could incorporate,
especially because I get
to go before Ben Tumin,
but everything really
reeked of California.
I don't know what's happened to me.
Words like totally, dude,
things that maybe I should keep to myself,
they kept creeping into my speech.
But fortunately my
Pomona College education
has taught me that it's not
okay to get up and say gnarly
in front of a mature crowd,
so I'll avoid the more technical terms.
In all seriousness,
I wanted to talk to you about first times.
It can be really difficult
to find something
that everyone in our class agrees upon
without getting too
boring or too redundant,
so I eventually settled there,
taking risks, trying something new,
being scared but going anyway.
I guess it's a fairly classic theme,
but the one thing that
we can all agree upon
as Andre mentioned yesterday
is that graduation is
really freaking scary.
Let's be honest.
I came to Pomona looking
like a 12-year-old,
maybe 14, but it's questionable,
and now they only sometimes card me
when I go to rated R
movies at the theater.
(audience laughs)
When did I grow up?
When did sophomore year end?
When did they put that walkway
over between Mudd and Harwood
that I had never seen before in my life?
(audience laughs)
Where are my friends
going to be next year?
Where am I going to be next year?
Are we actually graduating, what is this?
But when I was a senior in high school,
I was so excited to graduate.
I was stoked to come to Pomona.
I had applied early,
and I rubbed it in all my friends' faces.
I went to Hollister
and bought those California
t-shirts that were not cool,
but at the time I thought
that they were, oops.
But most of all, I was so fearless.
I looked forward to graduating.
I loved the idea of the next step.
But as my good friend
John Cleese would say,
"And now for something
completely different."
Why would we ever want to leave?
I'm surrounded by my friends, my peers,
people who every day help me to realize
that there's a world of
information out there,
ideas and perspectives that
are different from mine,
and I like the way that they put things.
I like the environment
that we're living in.
I don't want to learn those
things in the real world
because for me right
now, Pomona is just fine.
The problem is
that what the people of
Pomona have really taught me
is that the best person that
I can be is a first-timer.
It's easy to love the
things that you're doing.
It's easy to take classes
in which you excel.
It's easy to stay in bed on
a Sunday morning until noon,
and it's really easy to
go to the CMC Dining Hall
even though Harvey Mudd is
serving steak and salmon.
But dark and difficult times lie ahead.
Soon we must all face the choice
between what is right and what is easy.
That's my pal Dumbledore.
I had to sneak at least one
Harry Potter quote in there
since that's a major mark of
our graduating class, I think.
(audience cheers)
But what I really mean
is that if we always do what's
easy and what's the same,
then we never really get anywhere.
We don't make any progress.
My teachers have gotten me
to take on extra
responsibilities in my classes.
My advisors got me
to finish my med school
applications early,
and that was certainly a feat.
Hell, my friends even got me
to get a bikini wax before
we went to San Diego,
and I was not ready and I was not willing,
but we all do things for the first time,
so I went ahead with it.
(audience laughs)
Maybe the first time you
skated down Mills Avenue
on your longboard and you ate it,
you didn't like it very much.
Or the time that you drank
12 Red Bulls in one night
to finish the final draft of your thesis,
but at least you gave it a shot,
and you learned something.
We might be leaving Pomona College,
but there's so much for us to gain
from what the people here have taught us.
We're great students, all of us.
We're always hungry for information,
and Pomona has only helped
to cultivate that curiosity.
Your progress in the future
relies on accepting who you are.
So step back.
Make sure that you're making the decisions
that truly reflect what you want,
that you're constantly moving
towards the person that
you want to become.
We've all made a home here,
but it's finally time for us to move on.
We'll always have the amazing
memories that we created
within the boundaries of this community.
Our class, our experiences,
those pictures from Move
In Day in September of 2008
that are still on the
internet for some reason,
they will all remain.
As each of you go off into the world,
don't forget the lived experience
that we've had here at Pomona.
Maybe these four years went
by faster than finals week.
But the things that we've
learned from the people around us
can have a lasting effect,
and all you have to do
is let them guide you
as you move forward.
So congratulations, class of 2012.
And to end with my favorite quote,
one that I really hope you
can live by, Hakuna Matata
Thank you.
(audience applauds)
- Good morning, I'm going
to reach inside my robes,
but don't be overly disturbed.
(audience laughs)
The subject of my speech
today is Carrie's bikini wax.
(audience laughs)
Our speeches actually
go very well together,
and I'm just learning that
we have this connection.
(audience laughs)
Watch out, Jeffrey Leveer.
(audience laughs)
I should stop this.
(audience laughs)
Thank you, I too would be
remiss if I were up here today,
and I would also not
have a plane ticket home
if I did not wish all of the mothers here
a happy Mother's Day.
(audience applauds)
So happy Mother's Day to all of you,
and mom, I hope you heard that.
That was twice.
(audience laughs)
Yesterday Andre gave a great speech
that is more than worthy
of recognition here.
(audience applauds)
To augment his words,
there are a few people
I must briefly thank.
First, thank you to the dining hall staff
and the many other
employees of the college
for all of the work that
you have done on our behalf.
(audience applauds)
I must also thank all of our professors
for their hard work and
for putting up with us.
I have the honor today
of sitting next to
Professor Samuel Yamashita
of the history department.
(audience cheers)
And he has very graciously
offered to clean up the drool puddles
that will accumulate around me
over the next couple minutes.
Lastly, I must thank Pomona as a whole
for being so fantastically rich
(audience laughs)
and allowing students like me
to receive an outstanding education
without having to pay
off many student loans.
It is truly a blessing in
such difficult economic times.
(audience applauds)
To be quite honest, I think that you guys,
my classmates, got it wrong.
Andre's speech was far more
enlightening than mine will be
or has been over the past 40 seconds
aside from the Carrie Henderson bit.
(audience laughs)
But now you're stuck with me, suckas.
I can't tell you how tempting it is
for me to speak in Dothraki
for the next 10 minutes.
(audience laughs)
But the truth is a man has
to know his limitations
and the limits of his Dothraki abilities.
I do not think it is
within my capabilities
to deliver some amazing
piece of advice to you today.
I will leave that to Ambassador Munter,
who is wishing he were back
in Pakistan right about now.
(audience laughs)
I can, however, try to
make the rest of the day
more enjoyable for the graduating
class, or at least for me.
My goal then is to change the tone
of our last conversations as graduates,
the hardest of which will
be with our closest friends.
No matter how great our accomplishments,
no matter how many times
we may have become world
champions of the world,
today is tinged with sadness.
There are many here today we
will want to see again soon
but may not be able to.
There are many here today
whom we will never want to see
again but will be forced to.
(audience laughs)
I for one will miss some people here
more than I can express in
these few minutes on stage.
Last conversations,
sometimes in common parlance
referred to as goodbyes,
are strange.
What do you say to a hi-buddy
from your freshman seminar
whom you've not actually spoken to
since the first day of school?
Do you go with a lengthier
version of have a nice day?
For instance, have a good couple years.
I really hope you enjoy
the rest of your life.
See you in a long time.
(audience laughs)
Or is it a confession of sorts?
Jenny Heibein, you have
very long toenails.
(audience laughs)
Jesse Spafford, your
white shorts bother me.
(audience laughs)
Megan Forey, you smell like cat food.
(audience laughs)
That one is true.
(audience laughs)
The bottom line is that the sendoffs
to these types of
relationships are awkward,
and I might add, worth
playing around with.
I think my go-to today will be,
I hope to see you modeling Under Armour
on a billboard in Pakistan sometime soon.
Those are the end of my
references to Pakistan.
(audience laughs)
Unless I start improving,
which I shouldn't.
(audience laughs)
But that awkwardness and
uncertainty is not something
you have to worry about
with your closest friends.
Those relationships, like
pretty much everything else,
do not end today.
Many of us here are guilty
of constructing a terrible,
fear-inspiring deadline
that supposedly arrives in
t-minus two hours, I will say.
But what is going to change about me?
Will I suddenly fall out
of love with Julia Roberts?
Will I begin to hate sleeping and eating?
(audience laughs)
Will I secretly start wishing
that Voldemort had lived
and Harry had died?
I told you Carrie and I are connected.
(audience laughs)
I don't think so.
Really what happens in a couple
hours is like a birthday.
Little is going to change,
and you will still be the same people.
So I'm going to start seeing today
as a giant, collective birthday
for all of us soon-to-be graduates.
Happy birthday, everybody.
(audience laughs)
I do not mean to belittle the
accomplishment of graduating.
This is one of our greatest
and most important successes in life.
Nor do I mean to imply that
we have stopped growing,
that we have reached a point where we can
and will no longer change as people.
I am simply saying that at
this point in our lives,
we should be confident
enough in who we are
to know that our morals
will not waver come tomorrow
and neither will the support
from those closest to us.
The fact is that we are ready to leave.
Yes, we are to varying extents
thoroughly educated in the liberal arts,
especially the very liberal ones
many of us apparently
practiced in San Diego.
We know how to think,
or as David Foster Wallace once
said in a similar position,
we know what to think about.
But the reality is that we
can't stay here any longer.
Our time is up.
Do you want to keep waiting
in omelet lines forever?
(audience laughs)
Do you want to receive another invite
to a Mahdav on the Beach party?
(audience cheers)
Do you want Susan Deitz
to email you everyday for
the rest of your life?
(audience laughs)
For those of you in the crowd
doing what I would do and saying yes,
yes, I want all of those things please,
I want the Pub Lifetime Achievement Award,
I want to receive an
email from Susan Deitz
as I lie on my deathbed,
(audience laughs)
I counter with this.
This is not the place for
you to leave an impact.
This is not the place for
you to change the world.
This is Claremont,
(audience laughs)
a beautiful retirement village.
(audience laughs)
And there is a lot more outside of it.
So as you say goodbye
to your closest friends,
remember that it is time to do so.
But take heart in that fact.
For if there is any reason
you should be excited to leave today,
it is that you have the
opportunity to go and do good
and make those friends proud.
After all, we are the Pomona
College class of 2012, wassup,
(audience laughs)
and it is time we made
a name for ourselves.
Thus I congratulate you
today, fellow seniors,
not simply on what you have accomplished,
but on witnessing the
last complete gathering
of an amazing group of people
who are about to leave a
lasting mark on the world.
Let's make it happen, thank you.
(audience applauds)
(sings in foreign language)
(audience applauds)
♪ My spirit sang all day ♪
♪ Oh my joy ♪
♪ Nothing my tongue could say ♪
♪ Nothing my tongue could say ♪
♪ Only my joy ♪
♪ My heart an echo caught ♪
♪ Oh my joy and spake ♪
♪ Tell me thy thought ♪
♪ Tell me thy thought ♪
♪ Hide not thy joy ♪
♪ My eyes can peer around ♪
♪ Oh my joy ♪
♪ What beauty hast thou found ♪
♪ Show us thy joy ♪
♪ My jealous ears grew whist ♪
♪ Oh my joy ♪
♪ Music from heaven is't ♪
♪ Music from heaven is't ♪
♪ Sent for our joy ♪
♪ Sent for our joy ♪
♪ She also came and heard ♪
♪ Oh my joy ♪
♪ What, said she, is this word ♪
♪ What is thy joy ♪
♪ What is thy joy ♪
♪ And I replied, oh see ♪
♪ Oh my joy ♪
♪ 'Tis thee, I cried, 'tis thee ♪
♪ Thou art my joy ♪
(audience applauds)
- We are so very proud of you.
Marigold Linton was raised
on the Morongo Reservation,
due east of Claremont.
She is Cahuilla-Cupeno
and an enrolled member
of the Morongo Band of Mission Indians.
Raised in poverty,
Linton overcame adversity
to become, in 1954,
the first Indian from a
California reservation
to attend college,
the University of California, Riverside.
There, she earned a bachelor's
degree in psychology,
graduating with a straight A record.
At one point along the way,
incredulous about her
consistently high grades,
she asked the registrar for her real ones.
I have never had a student do that.
(audience laughs)
Receiving official confirmation,
she redoubled her efforts to maintain
that high level of
achievement, and so she did.
Graduate work at the
University of Iowa followed.
Linton's PhD in experimental
psychology was awarded by UCLA,
and her first academic appointment
at San Diego State University
was divided between counseling
and teaching psychology.
During her decade there,
she rose from the rank of instructor
to the rank of full professor,
specializing within psychology
within the field of long-term memory.
In 1969, she helped found
the National Indian Education Association,
a non-profit advocacy organization
that helps to ensure
that American Indians,
Alaskan Natives, and Native
Hawaiian community members
have a strong and national voice
in the education of Native people.
Subsequently at Arizona State University,
Linton directed a variety of programs
that focused on improving
educational opportunities
for American Indians.
Her work included developing
science and mathematics
opportunities for students,
creating a bridge program
for reservation students,
and providing developmental activities
for 29 schools on 19 Arizona reservations.
In 1998, Linton began her service
as Director of American Indian Outreach
at the University of Kansas,
which has worked tirelessly
in partnership with Haskell University
to enhance Native American education
in the biomedical sciences.
Dr. Linton is a founder and
a former president of SACNAS,
Society for the Advancement of Chicanos
and Native Americans in Science,
and remains active in the organization.
In 2009, at the recommendation
of the National Science Foundation,
she was presented with
a Presidential Award
for Excellence in Science, Mathematics,
and Engineering Mentoring.
Of the awardees, President
Obama said, quote,
"Their devotion to the
educational enrichment
"and personal growth of
their students is remarkable,
"and these awards represent
just a small token
"of our enormous gratitude."
Dr. Linton now makes her home in Arizona,
but continues her involvement
in American Indian outreach
at the University of Kansas.
Currently she serves on the
Committee on Equal Opportunities
in Science and Engineering,
a congressionally mandated
advisory committee
of the National Science Foundation.
Her hobbies include
gardening, photography,
reading mysteries, and can this be true,
walking and hiking more
than 50 miles a week.
Mr. President, on behalf
of the board of trustees
and the faculty of Pomona College,
it is my great honor to
present to you Marigold Linton
for the honorary degree
of doctor of education.
(audience applauds)
- Marigold Linton, by
the power vested in me
by the board of trustees,
I confer upon you the degree
of doctor of education
in Pomona College,
(audience laughs)
honoris causa.
(audience applauds)
- I am honored and my heart is full
to be receiving this
degree from Pomona College
with you all today.
Thank you, President Oxtoby
and the Board of Trustees
for making this award possible.
And because I know awards
don't result from magic,
I would also like to
thank those who supported
my receiving the award.
To the Pomona College graduates of 2012,
many of us, parents and loved ones,
have sat where you are today.
One of the things about being older,
we can look back over the decades.
We have accomplished
some but not all of the things we wanted.
I mean, the party in San Diego, I missed.
(audience laughs)
And through the miracle of memory,
we can see ourselves where you are now.
I hope through the miracle of words
to help you see yourselves
where we are now.
When I was some years younger,
I began to dream.
I was looking forward and I was planning.
Although this was long ago,
it wasn't another galaxy
and it wasn't that far away,
the Morongo Reservation near Banning,
just 49.7 miles from here.
I had only a small plan.
I always describe my early
perspective and planning
as being like standing on the
branches of a very small tree
and stretching to see as far as I could.
As that young girl on the
reservation, my plan involved
perhaps the most difficult
action I have ever undertaken,
to leave the reservation
where my family has lived
for more than 100 years
to get an education.
Apparently this was a very hard step
because as was indicated,
I was the first California
reservation Indian
to have ever made that jump.
It was only a few miles, probably 25,
to the University of
California, Riverside,
but it was literally a world away.
I know that some of you
have made leaps that were
as complex and as painful,
and I commend you
for making those
life-changing transitions.
Now at the university, I
was standing on the branches
of a taller tree, and I could see further.
Simply surviving was replaced by getting,
I was gonna say good grades
but apparently great grades.
(audience laughs)
Eventually I could see a PhD,
becoming a full professor,
and having a research
career studying memory.
By this time, I was perched
on a pretty tall tree.
I had them put in the
sycamore so I could point.
(audience laughs)
I was on a pretty tall tree
and had a much broader view of the world.
I had become successfully
far beyond my wildest imagination.
I had proved that I could
succeed in white man's world.
I got married.
I gesture to my husband and my family
(audience applauds)
and have developed a 30-year partnership
with someone who supports my ideas
and who teams with me to make them real.
Do that if you can.
Then to everyone's surprise, I jumped.
Just imagine me as a
middle-aged Ms. Tarzan
leaping high,
from high in my secure tree
to a second tree,
ululating as I swung, Tarzan-like.
(Marigold ululates)
(audience laughs)
I wish that at the time,
I could say I fully understood
why I had done this.
I wish I could say I landed gracefully
on a branch of my new tree.
It was actually more like
splat, and not so high.
As I slowly came to understand my actions,
I realized I was moving to help my people
and that I didn't exactly
know how to do it.
This was in part because
I was chartering territory
where no man or woman
had ever gone before.
I ultimately developed collaborations
between the University of Kansas
and Haskell Indian Nations
where none had existed,
although they stood less
than two miles apart
for more than 100 years.
I learned how to build teams, big teams,
and I learned to write
grants that have yielded
about 30 million dollars in federal funds
to assist American Indians
and other minority students.
I was blessed to be the
president of SACNAS.
(audience applauds)
I was blessed to be
the president of SACNAS
at a time that I was needed,
and although SACNAS is the
Society for the Advancement
of Chicanos and Native Americans,
we serve all people and have
about 10% African Americans
in our membership.
And most interesting to me,
I have done this at an age
where most people have long been retired.
Happily, unlike being a professor
which had its ups and
downs and ups and downs,
you know, pubs and so on,
helping my people
provides me joy every day.
I have learned to do things
that I thought were impossible for me,
who am in my heart of hearts
still a shy little girl
from the reservation.
But how is this relevant to
you on your graduation day?
What is it you see standing
in the branches of your tree?
And believe me, you may
think it's majestic and high.
It's probably about this high.
What do you want to do?
No matter where you start
out, in today's world,
you're going to be leaping between trees
probably several times over
the next 30, 40, or 50 years.
You must plan so that you're
ready for these changes,
and there will be perhaps fewer splats.
When our kid, she's an anthropologist,
said she was learning Vietnamese
and going to Vietnam to study minorities.
I wondered why she couldn't
study our minorities.
But the world is getting smaller.
We must all think globally.
If I were her age now, like
her, I would be worried
about indigenous people around the world.
I would be learning new languages,
perhaps not Vietnamese which is very hard,
and I would be finding
new trees to leap to.
In the course
of these satisfying
problem-solving activities,
I have acquired my adult Indian name.
She walks with purpose,
Miih ama' qay mermerher' nemey.
I'm gonna close with a
quote from Lin Yutang.
"I have done my best."
That is about all the
philosophy of living one needs.
Thank you and the very best of luck
as you find your own tall trees to climb.
(audience applauds)
- David Murray came to Pomona College
at a time when the college was
making a conscientious effort
to recruit bright minority
students from the inner cities.
A lot of other kids
didn't get in that year,
black, white, brown, Asian, red, yellow.
David was happy to be here.
In his year and a half here at Pomona,
he was exposed for the first time
to the older ongoing
tradition in jazz music
all the way up to, at that
point, the cutting edge.
There's some of my
History of Jazz students
now smiling about this. (laughs)
While studying here under the
tutorship of Stanley Crouch
and myself and David
playing in his jazz band,
his interest moved toward jazz music.
I have no idea what his intentions were
when he first arrived as a freshman.
But growing up in Northern California,
David came here with a
strong and rich background
in Afro-Christian church music
and in soul music and in rhythm and blues.
One sacred, one secular,
but two musics very much the same
except for the text,
some equipment that would serve David well
in the future career that waited for him.
He came in 1973.
David left in 1975, saxophone in hand,
and headed for New York.
He arrived in New York, a 20-year-old,
and found jazz in a state of revolution
and much of the society
on the heels of giant figures
like Ornette Coleman and John Coltrain.
He began by taking part
in the now famous
Walk-Up Loft Jam Sessions
and was immediately recognized
by critics and musicians alike
as a brilliant new voice
on the tenor saxophone and bass clarinet.
His career has been nothing
short of a shooting star,
more than a 150 albums
and CDs in his own name,
dozens more as a performer
with other artists.
He's the founder of
the David Murray Octet,
the World Saxophone Quartet,
several other bands in genres
not exactly jazz but jazz-related.
He got the Bird Award in 1986.
He became a Guggenheim Fellow in 1989.
He got the Danish Jazzpar Award in 1991.
Murray the composer has written
for film, theater, dance,
large and small ensemble,
the list goes on.
How has he managed all this
leaving Pomona in the middle
of his sophomore year?
(audience laughs)
We don't know.
(audience laughs)
But we do know some of David's equipment
is that he is a young man,
not so young anymore,
are you, David, right.
(audience laughs)
David has an unerring ear
for tune and time,
a rich vocabulary in the music
that surrounded him in his childhood,
Afro-Christian church music,
rhythm and blues, and soul music.
He's daring.
It took a lot of nerve to
leave here in March of 1975.
That was a hard choice.
Seniors, think about it.
Follow your heart,
but don't leave your head behind.
(audience laughs)
David is here, a circuitous route
to the stage for this degree.
I'm so proud of him, I
can't tell you how much.
Once at a performance in New York,
David said to the audience,
"I have my teacher here on
the bench standing with me,
"and I want to be just
like him when I grow up,"
he said to the audience. (laughs)
Mr. President, on behalf
of the board of trustees
and the faculty of Pomona College,
I am honored to present David Keith Murray
for the honorary degree
of doctor of letters.
(audience applauds)
- [David] David Keith Murray,
by the power vested in me
by the board of trustees, I
confer upon you the degree
of doctor of music in Pomona
College, honoris causa.
(audience applauds)
- Wow, okay, thank you all.
Thank you, Bobby.
Good morning graduates, President Oxtoby,
all of the alumni, and my family,
I'm so happy they all came.
This is an opportunity for
us to have a family reunion.
I live in Paris
with my wife Valerie and our two kids.
So thanks for the family reunion as well.
I'd like to dedicate this
honorary degree to my father,
the late Walter Pendleton Murray,
and my mother, the late
Katherine Hackett Murray,
and also to my stepmother
who's here today, Verna Murray,
and she came all the way from
Middleton, Texas for this.
(audience applauds)
I would also like to thank a gentleman
who's no longer with us, Mr. John Payton,
who originally, I heard
a yell back there, okay.
John Payton,
(audience applauds)
for his efforts and guidance
as the Claremont Colleges'
admissions officer,
who initially recruited
me to Pomona College
from St. Mary's College Prep High School.
Also, Margaret Cohen, who
was my piano teacher here,
(audience applauds)
and her husband who's a
great composer, Karl Cohen,
for their dedication as well.
(audience applauds)
She helped me to excel through
Bela Bartok's creations.
And there's a few friends
here I would also from,
the thing is about these colleges,
I've met so many incredible people
in those few semesters that I was here.
One gentleman, Cedric Johnson, from CMC,
he's just been honored recently at CMC
for his efforts in business.
And also good friends, two
other friends from CMC,
Claris Anthony Bush, who is
one of the head economists
for the FCC in Washington,
and he's here today as well.
(audience applauds)
And also another gentleman from CMC,
friend of mine.
Actually, he really is
more like a brother,
attorney Tim Wright,
there he is over there.
(audience applauds)
Now this gentleman,
he hangs out with people
like Bill Clinton.
He brought me over to South
Africa during the time
they were having a clinical
trial on a cure for AIDS,
and he was spearheading it with funds
from great African American athletes.
He brought me as a music ambassador
to entertain his trial.
So that was wonderful,
and you just never know
the kind of people that you
meet here at these colleges.
Every time I think about it,
it's just amazing how many
great people that I've met here.
Dr. William Russell,
he was the head of the music department.
I'm very happy that he was able to,
Dr. William Russell,
you remember him, yes.
(audience applauds)
He had the vision to just,
I think I might have been
the only jazz musician here.
I mean, like, it's not like, before,
now, people can major in John Coltrain,
but during that time,
you couldn't do that.
So I'm very happy for that.
After three semesters of
absorbing what Pomona offered,
I developed an itch to go
to New York, as Bobby said.
Arthur Blythe, great
saxophonist, had already left,
and so I went to Dr. Russell,
Professors Crouch and Bradford,
who developed some
independent studies courses
for my fourth semester.
Well, as it worked out, as
spring turned to summer,
I found myself totally immersed
in the saxophone studies
and I found myself actually
more like playing my horn.
One friend told me, Dewey Redman, he said,
"Well, you know David,
"I think you'd better put down the pencil
"and pick up your saxophone."
Well, all I knew was that
the window of opportunity
was getting smaller,
as things in New York,
they change very quickly.
Of course, my father and his wife, Verna,
they were upset at my
decision to leave Pomona
and stay in New York, but I had no chance.
After sending them all these
records, all these awards,
and Grammies and this and that,
they were like, "Well, okay."
(audience laughs)
What they really wanted was
this Pomona College diploma.
(audience laughs)
Okay, well, as it turned out,
it just took a lot longer to receive this,
(audience laughs)
thanks to the support of all these
incredibly talented people.
I remember once I got on a plane,
and I don't travel in
first class all the time
but I just happened to be
in first class that day.
And I was sitting, writing some music.
You know, I see a guy, a guy
starts up a conversation,
he's looking at my music.
He finally said his name
was Khris Kristopherson.
I said, "Okay."
Yeah, you know, when I
mentioned that I went to Pomona,
all of a sudden he was my new best friend.
(audience laughs)
These are the kind of people
you meet here at Pomona.
I have another friend, James Newton,
who actually helped me to
get through a very difficult Farley piece
because I couldn't play my
saxophone for the audition
'cause it's not really
a classical instrument.
You know, I had a lot of
problems with just getting in.
So James, he coached me, thank you, James,
for coaching me through that Farley.
I would have never made it.
And it's just amazing how,
the thing that I think
that distinguishes me from other people
is my creativity and originality.
Inside of each one of you,
I imagine that there's
something that's about,
there's something with you
that's different than others,
and I always try to tell my students
to figure out what that
is and just feed that
because that's what's gonna
take you to a higher place.
I remember once I got a
phone call from France.
I was in New York.
And it was this French guy on the line.
He says, "Mr. Murray,
this is Jacques Cousteau."
I said, "Okay, I heard of him."
(audience laughs)
I'm like, how did he get my number?
(audience laughs)
Well, as it turns out, he wanted me to,
he'd heard me play the bass clarinet
and he said that my bass clarinet
was talking to his
whales in the octo-range.
I said, "Okay, yeah, that
makes sense, you know."
(audience laughs)
Anyway, one of his documentaries,
you can hear my bass clarinet in,
talking to his whales, I guess.
(audience applauds)
Anyway, I just really
wanted to say thank you
to all of you out there,
family and friends,
and happy Mother's Day, Verna,
my wife Valerie, Jaime, Janice,
all you mothers out there.
Thank you very, very much.
Thank you, Pomona College, thank you.
(audience applauds)
- With a BA from Stanford and a PhD
in the history of American
civilization from Harvard,
Jonathan Veitch taught
in the English department
at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
But we in the English department here
like to think that we
launched his teaching career
when he was a visiting
instructor with us in 1990-91.
He later joined the faculty
of The New School in New York
where he rose through the ranks
as Chair of Humanities, Associate Provost,
and finally Dean of the
Eugene Lang College.
On July 1st 2009, he
became the 15th president
of Occidental College.
When David Oxtoby asked me to
introduce President Veitch,
I was happy to agree, having long admired
his 1997 study of Nathanael West,
a brilliant book called
American Superrealism.
In it, Professor Veitch
is able to reconnect West,
surely one of the 20th
century's weirdest writers,
with the larger culture and
economic forces of the 1930s
that would forever change our country.
Writing about the psychic displacement
of the Great Depression for instance,
Veitch observes that for most Americans
to confront finance capitalism
was to confront an economic system
that was in some fundamental
ways no longer intelligible.
Sound familiar?
I knew something about Professor
Veitch, the scholar, then,
but less about President Veitch,
the leader of our liberal arts
neighbor, 30 miles due west.
So I did what any self-respecting
researcher would do.
I went to Google.
(audience laughs)
There, I listened to
President Veitch's address
on Occidental's 125th Founders Day
given just a few weeks ago,
in which he explained the value
of an Occidental education
in terms that should resonate
with members of this audience.
"Occidental matters," he said,
"because it has engaged us
"in the highest calling of
a liberal arts education,
"the provision of a
life lived in reflection
"on the questions we must ask ourselves
"and the choices we must make
"in order to flourish as human beings."
Of course, there's also
some traditional rivalry
between these two premier
liberal arts colleges.
In explaining Oxy's
commitment to athletics
in his inaugural address, Veitch boasted,
"We've had a great deal of
success in our athletic program,
"and there are many dead
sagehens to prove it."
(audience laughs)
I don't think he was talking about
indigenous Southern California fowls.
(audience laughs)
But we'll forgive him that surely
as we pause to congratulate him
on his first three years
of leadership at Occidental
and recognize his contribution
to liberal education on a national level.
Mr. President, on behalf
of the board of trustees
and the faculty of Pomona College,
it is my great honor to
present to you Jonathan Veitch
for the honorary degree of
doctor of humane letters.
(audience applauds)
- Jonathan Veitch, by
the power vested in me
by the board of trustees,
I confer upon you the degree
of doctor of humane letters
at Pomona College, honoris causa.
(audience applauds)
- Well, happy Mother's Day.
I want to begin by wishing
my mother Carol Lee
and my wife Sarah happy Mother's Day.
I'm honored and quite moved by this award,
and I want to thank the Board of Trustees,
the faculty, and graduates
of Pomona College.
And I especially want to
thank David Oxtoby, who has,
from the moment of my
arrival at Occidental,
served as both a mentor and a friend.
As you know, he's an extremely busy man,
the leader of a great college,
so the fact that he took
the time to single me out
and take me in hand
means a great deal to me.
Some of you may know
that being David's friend
can be a humbling experience,
particularly if you are on a bicycle.
Not long after my arrival at Occidental,
he took me on a 35-mile ride near Ojai
that left me gasping for air.
He is a tough man to keep up with,
whether on a bicycle or off,
but I have been inspired by his example
and never more so than this past year.
I bring you greetings from
the Occidental Tigers.
I can say with confidence
there is nothing a tiger
loves more than a sagehen,
(audience laughs)
for dinner or just about any meal really.
(audience laughs)
I'm sorry, I couldn't resist, and I'm sure
you would have been
disappointed in me if I had.
As you know, Occidental and Pomona
have one of the oldest
rivalries in college sports,
dating back to 1895,
when Occidental, I'm sorry to say,
defeated Pomona 16 to nothing
in their first football game.
Pomona did win, eventually,
but that didn't happen
until five years later
when the Sagehens took
the ungentlemanly step
of hiring a professional football coach.
(audience laughs)
Some schools will do anything for a win.
(audience laughs)
I take this honorary degree
less as an honor for me
than as a warm endorsement and renewal
of a long-standing relationship
between Pomona and Occidental.
As you know, both colleges
were founded in 1887.
Both institutions are celebrating
their 125th anniversaries this year.
But longevity in and of
itself is less important
than what these two institutions
stand for and represent.
Throughout their history,
Pomona and Occidental
have remained committed
to the transformative power
of a liberal arts education,
and they have done so in a world
that does not always appreciate
or understand its value.
I was reminded of that
value a few years ago
when I was sent by the
Christian Johnson Foundation
to provide some advice
to three fledgling liberal arts colleges
that the foundation had
established in Eastern Europe.
Starting an institution of higher learning
is no small matter,
particularly in an area of
the world that had experienced
the harsh legacy of fascism and communism.
When I asked one of the rectors
why he was so committed to the model
of a liberal arts college,
he told me something that speaks volumes
about the reasons we are here today.
He said, quote, "You forget
that the velvet revolutions
"of Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Poland
"were started by playwrights, economists,
"historians, physicists, and journalists
"who were steeped in the
liberal arts tradition.
"That tradition kept the
flame of human dignity alive
"under the threat of authoritarian rule.
"It sustained a vision of
freedom and a just society
"that eventually led to
our liberation," end quote.
I can't give any better account
of the importance of the
liberal arts than that.
That is why institutions like
Pomona and Occidental matter,
and they matter just as much
in sunny Southern California
as they do under the gray
skies of Eastern Europe.
Perhaps never more so than
in a country like our own,
which is so thoroughly divided
and so much in need of repair.
I am absolutely convinced
that the education you have
received at Pomona College
is the very best preparation
you could possibly have
to address the concerns of a country
that sorely needs your
thoughtfulness, your deliberation,
your character, and your vision.
I wish you well on this fine day,
on the occasion of your graduation
from this very fine
institution, thank you.
(audience applauds)
- The countries in which
Cameron Munter has served
as a United States envoy are
not for the faint of heart.
In challenging postings
in Europe and Asia,
he has distinguished himself as a diplomat
in the service of his country.
As US Ambassador to Serbia,
he led efforts to negotiate
that country's integration into Europe
while managing the Kosovo
Independence Crisis.
He has served in several
capacities in Baghdad, Iraq,
where among other responsibilities,
he established the first ever
provincial reconstruction team
in the city of Mosul.
For two years, he has served
as the US Ambassador to Pakistan.
It is no understatement to say
that Cameron Munter has managed probably
the most challenging bilateral
relationship in the world.
While US policymakers are occupied
with repercussions from
Osama bin Laden's death
and with the endgame of the
troop withdrawal in Afghanistan,
Ambassador Munter consistently argues
that the long-run success of US interests
lies in improving the effectiveness
of aid to the country,
strengthening its
constitutional democracy,
developing the vital
economic infrastructure,
and eradicating poverty and illiteracy.
In debates about policy direction
between Pakistan and Washington,
Ambassador Munter has
brought intellectual rigor,
forthrightness, and a sense
of realism to the discourse.
He believes that the most effective
and long lasting diplomacy
is between peoples and not just nations.
He and his wife Marilyn Wyatt
have embraced the culture
of their host countries
wherever they have served.
An accomplished pianist,
taught as a young boy
by none other than our own Margaret Cohen,
he opened the Belgrade Jazz Festival
when he was ambassador to Serbia.
In Pakistan, his personal
support of the arts
and business and civil society ties
between the two countries
has generated tremendous
goodwill and respect.
Cameron Munter was born in Claremont
and attended local
Claremont public schools.
He went on to Cornell
University for his BA
and Johns Hopkins University
for a doctorate in history.
He taught at UCLA before
joining the foreign service.
Ambassador Munter, we welcome
you back to Claremont.
Mr. President, on behalf
of the board of trustees
and the faculty of Pomona College,
it is my great honor to
present to you Cameron Munter
for the honorary degree of doctor of laws.
(audience applauds)
- Cameron Munter, by
the power vested in me
by the board of trustees, I
confer upon you the degree
of doctor of laws in Pomona
College, honoris causa.
(audience applauds)
- Well, they got ahead of me on this one,
that I was going to claim
that you can get a
degree in John Coltrain.
I was going to claim
that I had the same piano
teacher as Mr. Murray.
I was gonna claim that I
could swing limb from limb.
I was going to claim that I
was with you in San Diego.
(audience laughs)
I was gonna claim a lot of things,
but when you're the last to speak,
those things are claimed for you.
So President Oxtoby and
distinguished faculty members,
distinguished guests,
parents and families,
mom, my wife who's also a mom,
and most of all, to the students
of the class of 2012 at Pomona,
thank you and I also have
to embarrass some people
before I really begin.
With us today is a
undersecretary of defense,
one of my colleagues in the policy issues
that we have to deal with about
with Pakistan, Jim Miller,
because he's seeing Allison
Miller graduate today, Allison.
(audience applauds)
And not to be outdone, we have also
coming all the way from Pakistan,
and believe me, it's a
12-hour time difference.
We have coming all the way from Pakistan
the parents of Mindy Hagen
who work at the American
Embassy there as well.
(audience applauds)
It's an honor really and a pleasure
to stand before you in Claremont,
which is a town which
shall always be for me
a vision of peace and
harmony, a world without end.
After all, this is where I grew up,
where I spent my childhood,
remembering the dappled
sunlight of my youth.
It's a time when I remember
the Village Theater
and Spaghetti Village and Bentley's Market
and the center of my life,
and maybe you're asking
me what do you mean?
There's no Village Theater.
There's no Spaghetti Village,
and Bentley's went bust a long time ago.
Okay, so this will be a theme
that you'll see that things do change.
This Claremont that you
think is here forever,
well, it's not.
You are, you'll be going on
with a bit of Claremont in your hearts,
but the Claremont will change.
But in Claremont, idyllic Claremont,
there are some monuments
that are still here from my past at least.
Here at Pomona College, you may know
that there is a building
called Big Bridges.
It's a splendid symbol of the
majesty of Pomona College.
I don't think Oxy has one of these.
(audience laughs)
Just had to throw that in there.
But it was strong and silent,
looming over your campus
just as it did when I was valedictorian
at Claremont High School and
spoke inside there in 1972.
So every 40 years, I'm gonna
come back and speak here.
But of course, that's not really
what I remember about Big Bridges,
and what I remember is to share with you
what we townies used to
think about all of you
and your institution.
(audience laughs)
So first, name the five
composers, left to right.
Okay, well, Wagner, Chopin,
Beethoven, Bach, Schubert,
right, on the building.
All right, pretty good, huh?
(audience applauds)
I have it written down.
Now I ask you,
(audience laughs)
what's Wagner doing today?
He's decomposing, right.
(audience laughs)
But, I'm sorry, that's okay.
But I digress, I digress.
My favorite Pomona memory
is of a few young Claremont
High School students,
who in the dead of night in
the wonderful year of 1972,
created a styrofoam replica
of a great musician,
his name carved in big
white letters in styrofoam.
And those students who
shall remain anonymous
climbed to the roof of Big Bridges
and placed this stately
visage over Schubert.
It was the visage of Zappa,
(audience laughs)
raised to the pantheon
of all the world to see.
Frank Zappa, who attended
Claremont High School,
I might add.
Pomona may have had Kris Kristofferson.
We had Frank Zappa.
(audience laughs)
So you see, that was the impact
of this institution of higher learning
on my development as a
scholar and a diplomat.
(audience laughs)
Now, you know, who's Zappa, you ask.
Who's Kristofferson?
For that matter, who's Wagner, you know?
And I was gonna ask what do
they teach you guys these days?
Now I thought Pomona was
a Top 10 institution.
Okay, but the laughs indicate
that you do know these people.
I'm encouraged.
When I left Claremont,
I studied in the east and then in Europe.
I was neither blond nor
tanned, and so I was exiled
to places less pleasant,
less calm, less mellow
than this wonderful setting
where you've completed
four years of reflection,
deep introspection,
exposure to the traditions
of science and the arts,
and the Friday night kegger in the Wash.
(audience cheers)
Yeah, I was under 18, I
wouldn't know about that.
(audience laughs)
Coming from California,
where every man and woman
can reinvent himself at will,
I felt a need to study history,
try to sort out and analyze
the permanent signifiers
of meaning in an otherwise changing world.
In fact, I studied so much history
that I nearly became an academic
before I realized that there
was no future in the past.
(audience laughs)
So what does someone like
me do in a case like that?
I joined the welfare system
for overeducated idealists.
It's called the Foreign Service.
(audience laughs)
Now why do I say idealist?
Let me reflect a bit on
my diplomatic career.
In my nearly 30 years as a diplomat,
I've been fortunate enough
to represent the United States of America.
In doing so, I don't just carry a message
from Washington to other countries
or report on the doings
of foreign governments
or dress in the local
caftan, lurk in the bazaar,
and spread wicked rumors
so as to confound our nation's enemies.
I don't do that.
It's true, of course, that I
represent American interests.
Tough and hard-nosed at times,
and if you don't take that
service part of the
Foreign Service seriously,
it's not a career for you.
But one of the great things
about serving America overseas
is that you get to serve a
country that's based its identity
not on tribal membership and
not on cultural traditions
or on a specific language,
but on a set of values.
And imagine a career where
you actually get paid
to be idealistic.
And if you're idealistic
enough, you can succeed,
if then by success you
mean two tours in Iraq
where you get acquainted to the sound
of incoming 107 millimeter rockets,
getting your embassy burned
out from under you in Serbia,
and working long hours in the
dust and monsoon in Pakistan,
a president that President
Obama has told me, quote,
"keeps him awake at night," end quote.
But it still pays better than
being an adjunct professor.
(audience laughs)
And let me not mock idealism
because I embrace it.
Idealism is not just the quality
of believing in the goodness of others
and the ability of reasonable people
to come to reasonable agreements
on difficult issues if the will is there.
Of course, that's what my mom told me.
My mom, Pomona College class of 1947.
(audience applauds)
And that's what my wife agrees with too,
so again happy Mother's day,
that's twice, right, right.
But it's more than that actually.
It's believing in the
purpose of your work,
embodied best by the words
of President Kennedy,
who said that God's work on
earth must truly be our own.
I believe you can make things
better, at home and abroad,
and I believe that idealism,
both in foreign policy and in any career,
can only sustain itself if it's reinforced
and if that reinforcement
comes from a second term,
which is solidarity.
Now my first overseas assignment
as a Foreign Service
Officer was in Poland.
It's a Poland that no longer exists
just like that old Claremont never exists
or doesn't exist anymore,
communist, martial-law Poland,
and the good guys, the solidarity
guys, were underground.
They were idealists
who believed that they could
achieve the impossible,
to topple a dictatorship.
But from those activists, like
Lech Walesa and Henryk Wujec,
we learned that there is no
freedom without solidarity.
In Polish you say (speaks
in foreign language).
There is no freedom without solidarity,
and what did they mean?
No freedom without solidarity means
that it's a good question for
all of you generation Y or Z
or whatever you are kids to think about.
It's not enough to be free yourself,
to follow your individual conscience.
In those old bloc countries,
you didn't just free
yourself from a dictator.
You had to reach out to others,
who are unlike you,
perhaps less fortunate,
so that their freedom
is a freedom that you win
and you share together,
or as the solidarity
activists used to say,
"for your freedom and for ours."
I know that's ancient history, 1989,
back when all of you were
sitting in the queue,
waiting to be born.
And you'd probably tell me
that I sound like a broken
record, speaking of the past,
but besides, what do you guys knows
about broken records, right?
(audience laughs)
Do any of you know what a
broken record is, what, what?
But see, back here, they're laughing.
But let me tell you,
representing American
values in communist Poland
did teach me that we have an
extraordinarily positive change
in living our values and that
we can learn in the process.
Now from there I went to Czechoslovakia.
You remember Czehoslovakia.
No, I guess you don't
remember Czechoslovakia.
You were too busy
writing your first thesis
on quantum mechanics
so you could get into a
good kindergarten, right.
(audience laughs)
Well, you know, I can barely
remember Czechoslovakia myself
although that may have something to do
with the quality of the beer
in that part of the world.
Czechoslovakia broke into two parts
shortly after I arrived in
1992, and at that point,
I realized something else about the world,
that it's not just California
where people reinvent
themselves all the time.
Representing American values,
I was able to contribute
to a process of reinvention
of state and society
whose impressive leader, the
former dissident Vaclav Havel,
placed idealistic concepts
like decency, respect, and generosity
alongside the broader concepts
of freedom and equality and justice.
So to whom did the Czechs look for help?
To the Americans, because
even if others might see gaps
between our ideals and our actions,
we still profess them and
we take them seriously.
They respected our ideals,
and we demonstrated
solidarity with the Czechs.
They expected nothing less,
and the good guys won.
In the following years, I
was involved in projects
that sought to erase the line
that Stalin had drawn on Europe.
The institutions of unity, European unity
are very idealistic.
And so these countries
from the east joined NATO,
an organization based on the notion
that an attack on one is an attack on all,
and what could be a better
expression of solidarity?
They also joined the European Union,
an organization based on lofty ideals,
which seemed like kind of
a good idea at the time.
But what happened to these
permanent signifiers of meaning
in an otherwise changing world?
I was evacuated from my desk
in the White House on 9/11,
pushed out the gate of the
Old Executive Office Building.
This experience taught me two things.
First, that we were
witnessing a huge change
in the way America would
deal with the world,
and secondly, that I was on the B-list
since I wasn't taken to
the undisclosed location
to hang around underground and
give advice to Dick Cheney.
(audience laughs)
It's always good to be
reminded of your limits
and to remain humble.
Along with my striving for idealism
and my commitment to solidarity,
I'd say gaining a little
humility is a good thing too.
So if you remember nothing
else from my talk today,
I hope you'll remember the three words
of idealism, solidarity, and humility.
In recent years, I've left Central Asia.
Instead I volunteered for service in Iraq,
then Serbia, then Iraq
again, and now Pakistan.
I've done this because
those who serve America
and its values in rewarding
settings, like Central Europe,
must be willing to serve
America in difficult settings,
morally difficult and
physically difficult.
Do I sound like an idealist?
I certainly hope so.
So early in 2006,
I opened the Provincial
Reconstruction Team in Iraq
in the city of Mosul.
And during my subsequent tour of duty,
friends of mine were killed and wounded,
not something that I ever
thought I'd experience
as a diplomat.
I learned not only about Iraq,
but something also about
my home country as well.
One night, insurgents briefed
the perimeter of our base
and killed a number of our colleagues.
The next evening, I called together
the team of military and
civilians I commanded,
and we discussed safety.
They asked me, "What kind of
gun do you have in your hooch?"
Hooch is where you live, all right.
I said, "I don't have a gun."
"No, no, no, no, what gun
did you bring from home,
"the one that you own in America?"
And I said, "Well, no, I
don't own a gun in America.
"I didn't bring one."
They said, "You didn't?"
I said, "No."
There was silence.
They said, "Are you a Democrat?"
(audience laughs)
And I said, "Let me tell you four things.
"First, I'm a Democrat.
"Second, Democrats are patriots too.
"Third, I voted for George McGovern,
"who incidentally was a war hero, right.
"Fourth, I'm your commanding officer."
(audience laughs)
There was more silence,
and then they looked at me
and they said, "What are you doing here?"
(audience laughs)
And that was in a broad
sense a healthy question.
What were we doing there, right?
But to my comrades, to
these loyal red-staters,
they seemed to know who George
McGovern was, which was good.
You don't know who George McGovern was.
Parents, listen,
parents, are you sure that
this tuition is worth it
if they, you know?
But the lesson here is
another kind of solidarity,
a solidarity for those
in the United States
who have responded in
the decade since 9/11
in different ways than I have,
maybe others who have different habits,
say, having guns in their hooches,
but who believe just as sincerely as I do
in the same values and remain
committed to the same ideals.
And so in the spirit of humility,
I have to tell you that
in Baghdad and Belgrade,
I single-handedly oversaw
the withdrawal from Iraq,
single-handedly steered Serbia
toward reconciliation with Kosovo
and onto the membership
path of the European Union.
Now when I sent these phrases
to the State Department
to be cleared for this speech,
they said, "Excuse me, Mr.
Ambassador, I'm not sure
"that you successfully
did this all on your own."
And I said, "When you're
speaking to people
"at Pomona College, they understand irony.
"Believe me, they do."
(audience laughs)
I didn't really do it all myself,
and so why do I brag though?
I have to, I just can't help it.
I mean, when you're from Claremont,
that oasis in a sea of harsh
materialism and strip malls,
that perfect gem of a small town America
whose greatest institution,
Pomona College,
is a beacon of light and hope
for this benighted planet
in comparison to other
liberal arts institutions
I won't name, well,
(audience laughs)
can't I be a little bit proud
of that now and then, right?
Maybe I should say it right,
that I've learned pride
in our institutions,
pride in our spirit of generosity
that I still recognize in America,
and pride in those fellow
citizens like you who will live
by the shared values in years to come.
But back to humility.
To teach myself humility really,
I volunteered to go to Pakistan.
Now, Pakistan is a great country.
It has a culture entirely based on eating,
and fortunately biryani
is very good for you,
if taken in moderation.
But the main point about food in Pakistan
is not how it tastes, but
the situation it describes.
Pakistanis eat so they can talk.
Meals are the settings for discussion.
And as ambassador, I go to a lot of meals,
so I hear a lot of talk
and a lot of discussion.
And I love Pakistanis who
preface every sentence
by announcing, "I'm no diplomat
"so I'm gonna be blunt with you."
And in this way, they're
just like Americans,
and like Americans, they
can be very critical.
And over samosas and tea, the
criticism of the United States
is that we're arrogant and unfeeling,
that we don't appreciate
the sacrifice that Pakistanis have made
fighting terrorism over the last decade,
that we somehow like India best,
and a host of other grievances
that go back decades.
And I believe this
criticism is really based
on a Pakistani perception
that in their eyes,
America isn't living up to its promise.
That is, we talk about freedom,
but they complain that innocent Pakistanis
aren't free to travel
to the United States.
So we talk about equality, but somehow,
yeah, we love India better than Pakistan.
That they talk about justice,
and we seem, they say,
to support ineffective
or corrupt governments.
But what they're really saying
is that Pakistan is a
country in which many people
still believe in the idealism
that America purveys,
and even if a sense of grievances
makes America unpopular there,
there's a deep desire to be
friends with the United States,
for America to reemerge
in their imagination
as a country of ideals,
of universal values.
These are not criticisms
Americans like to hear.
And yet with a little humility,
we can learn from these criticisms.
With a little solidarity,
we can commit to work with
Pakistan to address issues,
people-to-people contact,
regional cooperation, good governance.
And with a little idealism,
we can believe in the future of Pakistan.
That doesn't mean unquestioning
acceptance of every detail
in the Pakistani narrative
of grievance and hurt
because Pakistan has to
take full responsibility
for its own mistakes as well.
But it does mean defining the
success of Pakistani democracy
as a success for America.
And more rice please and I'd like the dal.
And let's not forget too that
we're locked in a struggle,
a struggle with those
who would destroy democratic institutions,
stamp out tolerance,
and strangle diversity.
I like to think that I'm a man of peace,
but I want to make the distinction clear.
I'm not a pacifist.
There are times when you have
to fight for what you believe.
And the fight that I've joined
is a fight that you may have
no choice about joining,
is a terrible thing, but it's necessary.
And in this fight,
Pakistan is not the enemy.
Those in Pakistan who believe
in democracy and tolerance
are our natural allies,
and I always prefer to
fight alongside my friends,
America and Pakistan with other friends
against a common enemy.
So my task as a diplomat is
not to shy away from a fight.
It's to make sure that we win the fight,
together with those who share our ideals.
Now there's some of the ideals
that America and Pakistanis
strive to maintain.
What's lacking now is
a sense of solidarity
that like-minded people should have.
From a Pakistani viewpoint,
it's hard to identify with a country
that sent helicopters into its territory
without prior notification
to nab Osama bin Laden.
From an American viewpoint,
it's hard to identify with a country
in which Osama bin Laden was able to live
undetected for five years
in a town not far from the capital.
The mistrust runs deep on both sides.
There are legitimate reasons
for Pakistanis who are thoughtful
to be concerned, if not despairing,
the pressure of the war in Afghanistan
and the daily threat of terrorism,
the weakness of the Pakistani economy,
the extraordinary burden of
looming demographic catastrophe
because in Pakistan, it's going to be
the fifth largest country
in the world soon,
with 60% of its population under 25.
Meanwhile many Americans are unhappy,
and to quote that great philosopher
of the Southland, Randy Newman,
"We give them money but are they grateful?
"No, they're spiteful
and they're hateful."
Now, I know you've never
heard of Randy Newman.
Thank God for YouTube.
It's a version of a quaint institution
we used to refer to as a library, right.
So it's out there.
But in Pakistan, we need
to have wise policies,
in which American security
and economic interests are served,
where we take into account
changes and opportunities into the region,
where the ongoing fight against terrorism
must continue strong and effective.
That goes without saying.
And similarly, we need
to help the Pakistanis
with the necessary economic
reforms to fight corruption,
continue their fight against militants
who challenge the writ of
the state in their borders,
and work with us in the
region east and west.
It's not just a matter of Pakistan
doing what we think is right.
It's a matter of Pakistan
fulfilling its own potential
and America being there to help it do so.
And yet what I've learned as a
diplomat is that wise policy,
difficult as it is to
conceive and implement,
is only a part of what's necessary.
The wise policy has to have
an idealistic component.
Countries who work together on wise policy
must show a sense of
solidarity to succeed.
And these are not qualities you learn
when you study the impact
of the Peace of Westphalia in 1648,
and I would know because I used to teach
innocent young minds like yours
about the impact of the Peace
of Westphalia from 1648.
But I got over it.
To get these ideals
and to recognize and
act on this solidarity,
America and Pakistan would benefit
from a little more humility.
That is the lesson I've drawn,
that if I can't force these things
on my Pakistani counterpoint,
at least I can do my best to
apply them to my own work,
to guide the American
diplomatic mission in Pakistan
by these principles,
and in the toughest of
times in foreign policy,
and believe me, Pakistan these days
is the toughest of times,
to retain the optimism which itself
is an important ingredient
of the success of diplomacy.
That leads to solidarity by example,
decent ethical behavior
that we show every day,
standing ready to follow the lead
of decent and ethical Pakistanis
who want the same thing for their country.
So thanks for the wonderful
meal, and let's talk again.
From this illustration,
then, let me take you,
to return to you, then,
the graduating class of 2012 in Pomona.
And I urge you to consider,
whichever path you choose to take
as you make your way down
Indian Hill Boulevard
into the mean streets of post-college life
after that last French
Roast at 42nd Street Bagel,
the importance of humility.
And as a diplomat, I've
learned the skill of listening,
at least trying to listen,
putting myself in the shoes
of someone who thinks differently,
and not yet losing my
convictions and beliefs.
I've been fortunate enough to
be able to apply my learning,
as you surely must, to
principles such as solidarity,
which has helped me grasp
how deep the distance is between people
and how bad it can be in
challenging situations,
how those situations cannot be overcome
unless solidarity is expressed.
And most of all, I've learned
through a number of experiences
that you may not have expected
that your ideals not only
remain intact but can even grow,
as they have in my case.
I believe now more in the
values that I did 30 years ago,
and it's probably the greatest gift
I've gotten from my career.
I suppose I make this path of mine sound
like it's the best of all possible worlds,
something right up there at the level
of the combination dinner
number seven at Tropical Mexico.
It's hardly that.
I've seen a great deal of suffering.
I've sometimes felt crushed
by the weight of our own bureaucracy.
I've ensured, through this
nomad existence as a diplomat,
that my wife and children
have no place that they can call home.
But these challenges are not
unique to the Foreign Service.
These challenges will find their ways
into your lives as well
in varying ways and at varying times.
I've tried to cope with these challenges
by renewing my faith in ideals,
in finding common cause with others,
and reminding myself that I'm not unique,
that everyone is finding
his or her own path.
And that's where I end up
after all these years
so far from Claremont,
when I first sought the
permanent signifiers of meaning
in an otherwise changing world.
And whether I found them
in the winters in the Pripet Marshes
or in the scarred sands
of the Nineveh Plains
or in the muddy banks of the Indus River,
you'll find your own paths
as I know that you'll describe
to your parents later on
and no matter what I say to you today.
But I ask, may you all
benefit, as I believe I have,
from the wisdom of ideals,
solidarity, and humility
in the years to come, thank you.
(audience applauds)
- We will now proceed to
the conferring of degrees.
(audience cheers)
- [Announcer] Will the members
of the class of 2012 please rise?
(audience applauds)
Mr. President, upon the recommendation
of the faculty of Pomona College
and by vote of the board of trustees,
I have the honor to
present these candidates
for the degree of bachelor
of arts in Pomona College.
- Now, by the authority vested in me
by the board of trustees,
I confer upon you as you
individually present yourselves
the degree of bachelor
of arts in Pomona College
with all the rights and
privileges appertaining thereto.
(audience applauds)
(audience cheers)
- [Announcer] Shunwei Fan.
(audience applauds)
Alexander Toby Irvine.
(audience applauds)
Elizabeth Ann Cocomoor.
(audience applauds)
Elizabeth Nitsan.
(audience applauds)
Kelly Jiyoon Park.
(audience applauds)
Jeffrey Edward Pinpraise.
(audience applauds)
Erin Dorothy Phelps.
(audience applauds)
Stephanie Lynn Saxton.
(audience applauds)
Alexia Nicole Aguilera.
(audience applauds)
Nelly Ajuwa Bina Ajuman Jemsi.
(audience applauds)
Emily Marie Allen.
(audience applauds)
Roberto Carlos Almega Junior.
(audience applauds)
Samantha Marie Alvarez.
(audience applauds)
Myra Amesqua.
(audience applauds)
Nathaniel Wallander Anderson.
(audience applauds)
Sarah Holm Anderson.
(audience applauds)
Leslie Kathleen Appleton.
(audience applauds)
Samuel Aysen.
(audience applauds)
Caroline Ann Bacon.
(audience applauds)
Luke Ari Ball.
(audience applauds)
Erica Karen Bacon.
(audience applauds)
Paul McClintock Baumer.
(audience applauds)
Jessica Berry.
(audience applauds)
David Baum.
(audience applauds)
Julian Michael Beach.
(audience applauds)
Stephen Andrew Benedict.
(audience applauds)
Diamond Louise Berg.
(audience applauds)
Silas John Berkowitz.
(audience applauds)
Ramsey Gordon Bernard.
(audience applauds)
Grace Elizabeth Bialecki.
(audience applauds)
Jason Alexander Blauvelt.
(audience applauds)
Robert Brian Boder.
(audience applauds)
John Adam Bonacorsi.
(audience applauds)
Jackson Wasim Bretner.
(audience applauds)
Daniel Arthur Brown.
(audience applauds)
Elizabeth Alex Brown.
(audience applauds)
Nathaniel Healey Brown.
(audience applauds)
Adam Lane Zuchowski Bukose.
(audience applauds)
Olivia Rose Buck.
(audience applauds)
Lauren Budenhoser.
(audience applauds)
Lucia Goodwin Burgess.
(audience applauds)
Jasmine Ray Burns.
(audience applauds)
Gabriel Carl Byburg.
(audience applauds)
Christopher Lucas Byington.
(audience applauds)
Ann Kiyono Cailiff.
(audience applauds)
James McDonald Campbell.
(audience applauds)
Zoe Ray Carlberg.
(audience applauds)
Anjali Jessica Cirra.
(audience applauds)
Emily Sue Chang.
(audience applauds)
Stephen Min Chow.
(audience applauds)
Han Chemal.
(audience applauds)
Kayu Chin.
(audience applauds)
Samuel Delona Cheeney.
(audience applauds)
Shelly Renee Chessler.
(audience applauds)
Lauren Elizabeth Chidse.
(audience applauds)
Tyson Akira Calehaola-Tihara.
(audience applauds)
Erin S. Childs.
(audience applauds)
Peter William Hatten Chenman.
(audience applauds)
Elaine Choi.
(audience applauds)
Thomas M. Christiansen-Solomay.
(audience applauds)
Ian Chua.
(audience applauds)
Alexis Lee Dropnik Chuck.
(audience applauds)
Sungjun Chung.
(audience applauds)
Paul Donald Chusolo.
(audience applauds)
Brian B. Clark.
(audience applauds)
Cornelia N. Clark.
(audience applauds)
Thomas Josiah Cleveland.
(audience applauds)
Evan William Cody.
(audience applauds)
Jordan Nikva Cohen.
(audience applauds)
Deborah Elise Colentoni.
(audience applauds)
Camille Lions Cole, summa cum laude.
(audience applauds)
Rosemarie Comadoran.
(audience applauds)
Jessica Berenise Corea.
(audience applauds)
Meredith Marie Course.
(audience applauds)
Anders Gustav Crebow.
(audience applauds)
Diana Dau.
(audience applauds)
David Devilia.
(audience applauds)
Gabriel Ryan Daley.
(audience applauds)
Bridget Depay.
(audience applauds)
Joel David Detweiler.
(audience applauds)
Eric McVoy Dodes.
(audience applauds)
Elizabeth Emory Donovan.
(audience applauds)
Salif Dubarre.
(audience applauds)
Daria Brianna Dulin.
(audience applauds)
Hilary Helen Eggers.
(audience applauds)
Rachel Ingrid Eckereb.
(audience applauds)
Brett Kathleen Ertspalmer.
(audience applauds)
Raven Evans.
(audience applauds)
Alejandra Fabian.
(audience applauds)
Daniel Clifford Falbe.
(audience applauds)
Erica Suzuki Falsgraff.
(audience applauds)
Ari Rice Filip.
(audience applauds)
Joel Nathan Fishbein.
(audience applauds)
Will Rowan Fletcher, summa cum laude,
Rena Gurley Archibald High
Scholarship Prize recipient.
(audience applauds)
Sheckna Fofana.
(audience applauds)
Aaron Fong.
(audience applauds)
Megan Forey-Dick.
(audience applauds)
Andrew Wallace Foster.
(audience applauds)
Christopher Frederick Fowler.
(audience applauds)
Melanie Cate Fox.
(audience applauds)
Jasmine Marie Francis.
(audience applauds)
Kendra Lee Francis.
(audience applauds)
Jennifer Marie Franks.
(audience applauds)
William Harry Frick.
(audience applauds)
Clara Daniel Fried.
(audience applauds)
Gabriel Nathan Friedman.
(audience applauds)
Paloma Elizabeth Garcia.
(audience applauds)
Salvador Garcia.
(audience applauds)
Alice Bains Garfield.
(audience applauds)
Alexander Vincent Garver.
(audience applauds)
Wenty Zarabrook Gabroo.
(audience applauds)
Mitchell John Gerard.
(audience applauds)
Aliana Bryant Gordsman.
(audience applauds)
Anna Sofia Lintini Gibson.
(audience applauds)
Asha Nicole Gibson.
(audience applauds)
Frank Stewart Hiron.
(audience applauds)
Lyla Alani Glick.
(audience applauds)
Max James Gold.
(audience applauds)
Alex Goldman.
(audience applauds)
Jasmine Gonzalez.
(audience applauds)
Nora Rebecca Janet Gordon.
(audience applauds)
Eldridge M. Green Junior.
(audience applauds)
Rose Imani Green.
(audience applauds)
Rosa Winston Greenberg.
(audience applauds)
Kyle Micky Grossman.
(audience applauds)
Alexander Eugene Growth.
(audience applauds)
Shinyi Guo.
(audience applauds)
Mindy Vale Hagen.
(audience applauds)
Megan Ann Haley.
(audience applauds)
Anna Maria Brooks Hall.
(audience applauds)
Jamie Dichristofaro Hall.
(audience applauds)
Gator Halpern.
(audience applauds)
Coren Hunter Hamilton.
(audience applauds)
Robert Westfall Hammett.
(audience applauds)
Jordan Elizabeth Hammond.
(audience applauds)
Natasha Mahair Haradevala.
(audience applauds)
John Dorian Harewood.
(audience applauds)
Harry Harris.
(audience applauds)
Matthew William Hasling.
(audience applauds)
John William Hassy.
(audience applauds)
Owen Bradley Hawkins.
(audience applauds)
He Jishi Lucy.
(audience applauds)
Jennifer Nicole Hebai.
(audience applauds)
Matthew Eric Helm.
(audience applauds)
Stefan Christopher Helms.
(audience applauds)
Evan Andrew Himsley.
(audience applauds)
James Muyung Hiyo.
(audience applauds)
Caroline Elizabeth Height.
(audience applauds)
Samuel James Holden.
(audience applauds)
Kristin Nicole Holstead.
(audience applauds)
Kaylie Jo Howe.
(audience applauds)
Roger Scott Huddle.
(audience applauds)
Sandra Hurerta.
(audience applauds)
Scott Thomas Humbarger.
(audience applauds)
Summa cum laude.
William Yoshida Hummell.
(audience applauds)
William Joseph Hunkler.
(audience applauds)
Nicholas Rafael Hurwitz.
(audience applauds)
David Matthew Itacawa.
(audience applauds)
Ryan Javitz.
(audience applauds)
Kelsey Marie Jenson.
(audience applauds)
Scott Davies Jesperson.
(audience applauds)
Jennifer Julia Jones.
(audience applauds)
Tara Janeele Jones.
(audience applauds)
Iris Jong.
(audience applauds)
Julie Juarez.
(audience applauds)
Jinia Rose Cohn Lang.
(audience applauds)
Jameele Hassan Karim.
(audience applauds)
Jane Kasavin.
(audience applauds)
Ilona Romanova Katz.
(audience applauds)
Andrew Katutsky.
(audience applauds)
Deho Kim.
(audience applauds)
Yoon Hiyung Sarah Kim.
(audience applauds)
Stella Sehee Kim.
(audience applauds)
Sara Elizabeth Kinicky.
(audience applauds)
Adam Spencer Kinard.
(audience applauds)
Katherine Elise Kissler.
(audience applauds)
James Kyle Shields Klinginsmith.
(audience applauds)
Jack William Knauer.
(audience applauds)
Michael John Kaynig.
(audience applauds)
Sukjin Ko.
(audience applauds)
Marina Grace Kusnick, Kusick.
(audience applauds)
Jaren Kwong.
(audience applauds)
Joseph Mark Labriola.
(audience applauds)
James Nicholas Lambert.
(audience applauds)
Zach Lazner.
(audience applauds)
Katherine Elizabeth Laurence.
(audience applauds)
Max Lion Lebow.
(audience applauds)
Joyce Lee.
(audience applauds)
Uh-oh.
(audience cheers)
(audience cheers)
Rachel Minji Lee.
(audience applauds)
Amber Lena.
(audience applauds)
Brittney Ann Leonard.
(audience applauds)
Heidi Leonard.
(audience applauds)
Jeffrey Allen Leveer.
(audience applauds)
Benjamin Bradshaw Levin.
(audience applauds)
John Edwin Louis.
(audience applauds)
Fung Thomas Lee.
(audience applauds)
Heejung Lee, Hinjung Lim.
(audience applauds)
Kristin Marie Lindberg.
(audience applauds)
Denise Liriano.
(audience applauds)
Albert Lieu.
(audience applauds)
Christian Lopez.
(audience applauds)
Tui Min Lee.
(audience applauds)
Jack Jessie Maximiliano Madrigal.
(audience applauds)
Joseph Mar.
(audience applauds)
Martha Elizabeth Merrich.
(audience applauds)
Molly Ann Mather.
(audience applauds)
Benjamin Erin Mayser.
(audience applauds)
Jennifer Palm McCartney.
(audience applauds)
Hannah Binwa McConnell.
(audience applauds)
Ellen Roof McCarmick.
(audience applauds)
Paul James McCarmick.
(audience applauds)
Daniel Owen McGuiness.
(audience applauds)
Keith Michael McHugh.
(audience applauds)
Timothy Lloyd McKey.
(audience applauds)
Andrew Michael McKinney.
(audience applauds)
Mara Rose McMillan.
(audience applauds)
Matthew Vars McMorris.
(audience applauds)
Christina Rue McUmber.
(audience applauds)
Emilio Louis Medina.
(audience applauds)
Madav Mekhta.
(audience applauds)
Tulsie Sanil Mekhta.
(audience applauds)
Roberto Mendez.
(audience applauds)
Iliana Gabriela Mendoza.
(audience applauds)
Catherine Bishop Metcalf.
(audience applauds)
Ryan Meier.
(audience applauds)
Thomas Eric Meier.
(audience applauds)
Allison Northey Miller, summa cum laude.
(audience applauds)
Courtney Elizabeth Miller.
(audience applauds)
Kelly Francis Miller.
(audience applauds)
Claire Min-Vinditi.
(audience applauds)
Emily Charlotte Minor.
(audience applauds)
Rahul Mishra.
(audience applauds)
Richard Allen Mitchell.
(audience applauds)
Sumira Mokorala.
(audience applauds)
Jaren Mattias Moller.
(audience applauds)
Daniel Montouza.
(audience applauds)
Colleen Bernadette Moore.
(audience applauds)
Natalie Caroline Moreno.
(audience applauds)
Erin Freeburger Morgan.
(audience applauds)
William Arthur Morrison.
Whoa.
(audience cheers)
William Allen Mulaney.
(audience applauds)
Weijun Muhn.
(audience applauds)
Kellyanne Marie Murphy.
(audience applauds)
John David Nackle.
(audience applauds)
Francis Gufan Nan.
(audience applauds)
Celia Nustat.
(audience applauds)
Ellen Catherine Ng.
(audience applauds)
Simone Elise Nibbs.
(audience applauds)
Nina Gladys Nirema.
(audience applauds)
Benjamin Peter Normitt.
(audience applauds)
Chase Robert Olson.
(audience applauds)
Chrisanthy Patricia Oltman.
(audience applauds)
Samuel Waking Pang.
(audience applauds)
Nicola Rose Parizi.
(audience applauds)
Matthew Park.
(audience applauds)
Sarah Ann Patzer.
(audience applauds)
Andre Mark Pecheron.
(audience applauds)
Kyle O'Brien Pekorney.
(audience applauds)
Rebecca Lee Potts.
(audience applauds)
Evan Edward Preston.
(audience applauds)
Andrew Quinn, summa cum laude.
(audience applauds)
Emmett William Radler.
(audience applauds)
Maria Joanne Ramirez.
(audience applauds)
Kizann Ransik.
(audience applauds)
Caress Brianna Reeves.
(audience applauds)
Brittney Chantal Reins.
(audience applauds)
Tyler Patrick Roche.
(audience applauds)
Dustin Thomas Rodriguez.
(audience applauds)
Suh Yung Ro.
(audience applauds)
Luca Gabriel Rohas.
(audience applauds)
Gabriel Aaron Romero.
(audience applauds)
Leonardo Rossetti.
(audience applauds)
Caroline Senten Ruben.
(audience applauds)
Alexander Hennegan Ruche.
(audience applauds)
Wylie Jared Rush.
(audience applauds)
Adam Erlich Russell.
(audience applauds)
Arianne Elizabeth Russell.
(audience applauds)
Elaina Sains.
(audience applauds)
Daliqa Saul.
(audience applauds)
Adeline Frederick Solomon.
(audience applauds)
Williams Brahms Savage.
(audience applauds)
Nathan Jack Shower.
(audience applauds)
Max Rubinoff Sholton.
(audience applauds)
David Kanimalu Schwartz.
(audience applauds)
Ariel Marshan Shanholt.
(audience applauds)
Kathleen Margaret Shay.
(audience applauds)
Andre Garland Shetley.
(audience applauds)
Lauren Leslie Sherman.
(audience applauds)
Amina Yasmine Simmonds.
(audience applauds)
Uday Singh.
(audience applauds)
Ian Alejandro Sinnett.
(audience applauds)
Thomas Pierce Slade.
(audience applauds)
Timothy Karim Smedley.
(audience applauds)
Elaine Smith.
(audience applauds)
Hannah Marie Greenlick Sneider.
(audience applauds)
Jennifer Ann Summers.
(audience applauds)
Qunwei Song.
(audience applauds)
Jessie Elias Spafford.
(audience applauds)
Nathaniel Siever Spielberg.
(audience applauds)
Jaycee Walls Spivey.
(audience applauds)
Brian Secabira Simbajawe.
(audience applauds)
Jessica Alice Gould Stern.
(audience applauds)
Jeremiah Maloney Stoyterman.
(audience applauds)
Zachary James Stewart.
(audience applauds)
Annie Stoller-Paterson.
(audience applauds)
Jessica Russell Stoneman, summa cum laude.
(audience applauds)
Adrian Evelyn Dutcher Stormo.
(audience applauds)
Sam Thomas Strossman.
(audience applauds)
Max Scott Straeder.
(audience applauds)
Timothy Charles Stutz.
(audience applauds)
Hau Tang.
(audience applauds)
Julius Plout Taronto.
(audience applauds)
Christina Francis Taylor.
(audience applauds)
John Robert Thomason.
(audience applauds)
Ashley Toscano.
(audience applauds)
Samuel Walter Trackman.
(audience applauds)
Annie Marie Tran.
(audience applauds)
Joseph James Tsee.
(audience applauds)
Katlyn Ulrich.
(audience applauds)
Prabhava Upadrushta.
(audience applauds)
Jessica Idsdel Valenzuela-Mareras.
(audience applauds)
Laura Valerio.
(audience applauds)
Corey Ann Vandergeest.
(audience applauds)
Kirk Lee Vandergrift.
(audience applauds)
Lauren Unell Ventrudo.
(audience applauds)
Ermelinda Villagomez.
(audience applauds)
Johnny Wang.
(audience applauds)
Pauline Lee Wang.
(audience applauds)
Niger Sahil Washington.
(audience applauds)
James Evan Watts.
(audience applauds)
Maria Karen Whittle.
(audience applauds)
Katherine Ann Wilka.
(audience applauds)
Amanda Marie Wilmson.
(audience applauds)
Matthew Brandon Wolfson.
(audience applauds)
Paige Wheaton Wollstonecraft.
(audience applauds)
Anderson Charles Wright.
(audience applauds)
Christopher Lyle Wright.
(audience applauds)
Gregory Hayward Wright.
(audience applauds)
Shayla Don Wright.
(audience applauds)
Julie Diabin Wu.
(audience applauds)
David Wyman.
(audience applauds)
Zhin Jane Xu.
(audience applauds)
Jin Lin Yi.
(audience applauds)
Stacy Yuan.
(audience applauds)
Evan James Zaneizer.
(audience applauds)
Shariar Shapoor Zerashar.
(audience applauds)
Jessica Perim Zellinger.
(audience applauds)
Felix Zhong.
(audience applauds)
Tina X. Zang.
(audience applauds)
Lauren Elizabeth Zilski.
(audience applauds)
Benjamin Tumin.
(audience applauds)
Caroline Jordan Henderson.
(audience applauds)
- The class of 2012.
(audience applauds)
Okay. (laughs)
In thinking about my charge
to the class of 2012,
I kept returning to the voice
of someone we lost this year, John Payton,
mentioned already by David Murray,
a member of the class of 1973
who was a trustee of
the college since 2005
and a friend from our first
meeting a year earlier.
Seven years ago, John
was the principal speaker
here at commencement,
where he called on members
of the class of 2005
to recognize diversity as an
indispensable democratic value
in a post-September 11 world.
Arriving on campus as one
of only five black students
at the college in 1964,
John recognized that
change needed to happen.
He was centrally involved
in the establishment
of what we now know as the
Office of Black Student Affairs
and the Intercollegiate
Department of Africana Studies.
A mathematics major at the college,
he took several years
off before graduating
to build the Black
Student Admissions Program
for all the Claremont Colleges.
After graduating, John spent a year
on a prestigious Watson
Fellowship in Africa,
received a law degree from Harvard,
joined a major law firm
where he became a leader
in civil rights law.
One of his most important accomplishments
was to develop the strategy
for the successful defense
of college and university
affirmative action programs in admissions
in the University of Michigan
Grutter and Gratz cases,
including arguing the former
before the Supreme Court.
John led a number of other
critical civil rights cases
as the head of the
NAACP Legal Defense Fund
before his untimely
passing earlier this year.
I give this biographical background
not to single out one
particular career trajectory
as a model for all of
you in the class of 2012,
but rather to talk about the qualities
that enabled a Pomona graduate
to shape a life that made
a difference in the world.
What can we all learn from this example?
The first lesson is to act passionately.
Find a cause or an issue
that really matters.
Discover a way to make a difference,
perhaps on the local level or
occasionally on a large scale.
Some of you will eventually
move into leadership positions
that will have national
or international impact.
Others will be actors
on a more modest scale
within your workplace, your families,
your circles of friends.
John Payton's commitment throughout
to justice and equal rights
under the law shaped his life.
Let your passionate commitments
shape the lives of meaning
that you will live.
The second lesson is to think critically.
Think critically about
the world around you.
Challenge the way things are.
Imagine how they might be different.
But another part is to think
critically about yourself,
to look at your own motives and actions
and see whether they are
helping to move things forward
in the most constructive fashion.
John Payton was an idealist, yes,
but he was also a pragmatist,
looking at a situation or a case,
figuring out the strategy
to achieve the best possible outcome
given the present flawed
system in which we all live.
A key to his successful
affirmative action strategy
for the University of Michigan
was to bring the armed services in
to testify to the importance
of diversity in their ranks,
not because the armed services
were paragons of behavior,
but because they could help him achieve
his particular pragmatic
goal of winning the case.
I've recently been reading a book
called Thinking Fast and Slow
by psychologist Daniel Kahneman,
who won the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economics.
Kahneman's work explores
the central question
of how our brain works,
how we answer questions, make
decisions, and take actions.
He argues that we have
two systems within us.
System one involves thinking fast,
reacting instinctively to
a situation or question,
using rough rules of thumb
based on our experiences
and our intuition to make a decision.
System one is our primary way
of thinking about the world,
and its quickness has evolved over time
because of the need to
react immediately to danger.
It serves us well as a
primary way of thinking,
but it can also lead us
into mistaken and irrational approaches.
System two, on the other
hand, helps us to think slow,
analytically explore alternatives,
use logic carefully,
question our gut feelings,
bring evidence to bear
in a thoughtful fashion.
Kahneman calls system two lazy.
It takes effort to engage it,
but it helps to keep us out of traps
where our instinctual response
from system one can lead us.
A simple and classic
example given by Kahneman
is the Linda Problem.
Consider the following description.
Linda is 31 years old, single,
outspoken, very bright.
She majored in philosophy,
maybe at Pomona College.
As a student, she was deeply concerned
with issues of discrimination
and social justice
and also participated in
anti-nuclear demonstrations.
Now Kahneman asks a
question that I pose to you.
Which is a more probable
statement about Linda?
First, Linda is a bank teller,
or second, Linda is a bank teller
and active in the feminist movement.
Think about this for a moment.
Most of you probably immediately responded
that the second description,
a feminist bank teller, is more likely.
The first statement, that
she's simply a bank teller,
seems inconsistent with our stereotype
of what activist students turn into,
whereas adding a detail
about Linda being a feminist
seems to make the story more plausible.
But our instinctive system
one reasoning is wrong,
and a careful system
two analysis will show
quite simply that the set
of all feminist bank tellers
is wholly included in the
set of all bank tellers.
Specifying that she's a
feminist lowers the probability,
as my mathematics and
computer science colleagues
can all attest.
So that's a very simple example
of the failure of system one
and the need sometimes to step back
and take that extra analytical
look at a situation.
To be effective in the world,
we need to engage both our
instincts and our pragmatism,
to confront each situation not
only by acting passionately
in response to our deepest values,
but also by questioning our assumptions
and thinking critically
about our actions and the
effects they will have.
Issues of immigration law and
work authorization documents
have been at the forefront
over the last year at Pomona College.
Commencement is not a time
to repeat the whole story,
but we all grieve about
the unfortunate outcome,
the termination of the
employment of 17 employees,
many of them staff members of
long standing at this college.
I am proud that members of this community
cared enough about the
personal impact of these events
to question, challenge,
and protest the actions that were taken.
Here, I wish to ask a few
questions about choices
that were made by different
people around this issue,
by myself, by trustees, by
members of the community,
students, faculty, staff.
Were we, in each case,
thinking both fast and slow?
Following our instinctive judgments,
but also challenging our own assumptions,
reflecting on the
consequences of our choices?
Most important, how can we ensure
that such a situation
of personal devastation
for the 17 most directly
affected will not happen again?
What changes can we make
within this college,
in the ways we make decisions
and discuss difficult issues
to learn from our mistakes?
And how can all of us work to
change the deeply flawed laws
in our country in this arena?
Passion and pragmatism,
instinct and critical thinking.
To make progress on the
big issues that face us,
we need to bring to bear
both systems of our brain
and like our fellow alumnus,
the late John Payton,
to think fast and slow
about how to further change in our world.
Thank you and best wishes.
(audience applauds)
(stately music)
(audience applauds)
(audience cheers)
(elegant music)
(audience members applauds)
