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Parting Words
Excerpts from commencement remarks around the
campus
July/August 2008
For the first time in many centuries, power is moving
East. China and India each have populations roughly double those of America and
Europe combined. In the next two decades, these two countries together will
undergo industrialization four times the size of the USA’s and at five times
the speed. … Most of all we should know that in this new world, we must
clear a path to partnership, not stand off against each other, competing for
power.
Tony Blair, former British prime minister, at Yale
College’s Class Day
Always keep in mind that neither you nor art need
enemies that have been gratuitously made by arrogance or indifference. First
and foremost that includes those among whom you live but who have no more basis
Robert Storr, Dean, School of Art
The phrase “the best of times, the worst of times” is
overused, but it is very appropriate for the times you are now entering as
graduates. It’s the worst of times because the climate and other environmental
threats you will be facing are unprecedented. But it’s also the best of times
because the level of environmental concern and awareness here and abroad is
reaching new highs; the prospects for environmental politics are getting
brighter and brighter; and the greening of business is broader and deeper than
Gus Speth '64, '69LLB, Dean, School of Forestry &
Environmental Studies
You enter today as students, but you will leave as
doctors. You will leave today as future interns with patients' lives in your
hands. You will leave today as a critical component of this country's
healthcare workforce. … People have many needs, but eventually all realize
that their most important possession is their health and you will be respected
Robert Alpern, Dean, School of Medicine
Creativity involves, even demands, risk. Most of you
have walked from the dew line of society’s manicured lawn into a forest where
you forged a path. Whether going
for the high note or standing in front of a class for the first time, one is
Robert Blocker, Dean, School of Music
The Epistle [to the Hebrews] also conjures up the
image of a pacesetter, that Galilean prophet and sage, elusive but provocative,
who stands at the heart of our traditions. … My prayer is that you find the
strength, the imagination, the perseverance, in short, the heart, to run the
race that God sets before you—a race to preach good news, to bring healing and
comfort to the afflicted, and, on occasion, to afflict the comfortable, a race
Harold Attridge, Dean, Divinity School
You are graduating in a moment where you will be
challenged almost immediately, whether it’s in financial services, the
environment, the nonprofit sector, the changing and sometimes hostile
geopolitical climate, the regulatory environments of new markets, shortages of
food and fuel. The list goes on. But, as I said, the timing could not be
better, because I submit to you that adversity creates tremendous opportunity
for those who are willing to address it head-on, with creativity and
discipline, with compassion and skill, with personal commitment and
Joel Podolny, Dean, School of Management
All lawyers want to tell their clients yes. What is
harder is to tell your client no. We have all learned about two groups of
justice department lawyers, both of whom included Yale Law School graduates.
One group was asked to approve an illegal program, at the hospital bed of an
ailing attorney general. Their
answer, and the attorney general's, was simply “No.” Another group of justice
department lawyers was asked to write a legal opinion authorizing American
officials to torture detainees. Their job was to say no. It is illegal and it
"Here’s how.” That was the wrong answer.
Harold Hongju Koh, Dean, Law School
Like it or not, and I think you like it, as a group
you are counter-cultural: you stand for liveness and argument; you have worked
as adults to recapture the imaginative freedom you had as children; you are
trained in unmeasurable and ambiguous workings of the human mind and heart; you
are devoted to real human expression in front of a live audience, in a time
when the world is seeing more mediation of human experience than ever before;
and above all, in this conservatory, you have embraced a commitment to process
James Bundy '95MFA, Dean, School of Drama
Who we are as nurses began within us, but what we
become in nursing began here amongst our peers, our professors, and most
importantly, our patients. If we could capture the faces of those people—the
ones you will never forget, the ones who took you on that privileged journey
with them. If you could recall the challenges they faced within the context of
their care then I would think this is what their photograph would say to us: Better
health care for all people. As the Yale School of Nursing motto, it could not speak more
Sylvia Parker '08MSN, student speaker, School of
Nursing
I suggest you keep in mind the motto of [former
architecture chair] George Howe, who did so much for our school over 50 years
ago, setting us on the path of excellence we are still following. Howe’s motto
was this: non illigitamus carborundum est—which translates pretty much as “don’t let the
”
Robert A. M. Stern '65MArch, Dean, School of
Architecture
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