2005 Spring Commencement / University of Wisconsin-Green Bay

Presented by William Laatsch,
UW-Green Bay professor of Urban and Regional Studies (Geography)

(Watch a video of this speech at http://www.uwgb.edu/commencement/video/laatsch.wmv)

Thank you, Chancellor Shepard, and let me add my welcome to Regent Connolly-Keesler, and congratulations to Rachel Abhold, Mrs. Leona Cloud, Mrs. Nancy Stiles, and our Emeriti recipients, Joyce, Ron and Joan. You have enriched our lives beyond your knowing and you are going to be missed. And Sylvia, thank you for your thoughtful comments. And welcome all.

A hearty congratulations, graduates. Let me get something off my chest immediately. Frequently commencement speakers will say to graduates - Well, now you are about to enter a new phase of your lives, work and perhaps a family. COME ON. How many of you work 20 hours a week or more? Show your hands. How many of you are married and have a family? You understand that the educational experience is a process, a journey, not a prescribed four or five-year encounter. Learning is a lifelong enterprise, and if we have taught you to learn we will have succeeded. Today, after years of study, research and discovery, you are beginning a new phase of learning. You are proud and excited - and you have every right to be. You are perhaps a little nervous - and that's OK. You are full of hope, and we are full of hope for you.

Enjoy this special moment, but don't dwell on it - for it is but one of many memorable days ahead. Remember the effort both you and your families made to get to this day, and then take that effort and commitment into your communities and your careers.

When I told a friend, a college president, that I was speaking to you he reminded me that no one will remember what I say, but only how long I took to say it. Therefore, I will attempt to be brief but also say a few words to the Class of 1970, and the Class of 2005. To the Class of 1970, your class and the year 1970 are a benchmark. We have had some 70 graduations since then, but you provided us with a seal of authenticity. We held a commencement. We really were a university. We now had alumni.

I think we should remind ourselves of those early years. UW-Green Bay was founded as a unique, no, a radical institution. With an emphasis on interdisciplinary problem solving in an environmental context, with traditional courses in the disciplines, and with broader interdisciplinary courses emphasizing problem solving. We still do that. An additional component of the academic plan was a general education requirement that had imbedded in it a four-year sequence of liberal education seminars - LES. Many of us - the faculty - will agree that these courses were the most challenging and the most rewarding ever taught. We are addressing that. In addition, the 4-1-4 calendar encouraged special studies in January and the opportunity to offer travel courses. In fact, in the early '70s about 200 students and faculty left on a chartered plane to Europe with then University of Wisconsin President Fred Harvey Harrington to see them off. Finally, there was the communiversity concept - to create a symbiotic relationship between the community and the university to benefit both parties.

In the late '60s and early '70s, UW-Green Bay was the focus of education innovation in the United States and the world. Articles appeared in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Newsweek, Science and Seventeen. An article in Harpers describing us as Survival U. was widely read and provided a catchy term for the media and was often repeated. We were getting international recognition in the foreign press, and we welcomed a steady stream of prominent educators who were curious about our structure and curriculum. Our founding Chancellor Weidner became a celebrity in international education circles and was recognized for his revolutionary ideas and innovations: an honorary doctorate from Sweden's Linkoping University, the outstanding achievement award from his alma mater, the University of Minnesota, and perhaps his most significant honor, an appointment to the Governing Council of United Nation's University - a world institution of postgraduate study and research.

Those years were remarkable for UW-Green Bay. It was a period of unmatched creativity, innovation, and hard work. We - the faculty, administration, staff and students - shared a common vision to which we were passionately committed. As one prominent writer on the national scene noted, "UW-Green Bay was light years away from anything ever tried before in Wisconsin or elsewhere....truly a radical innovation, not only in purpose but in its internal structure and methods of teaching." Another one wrote that the "Green Bay concept was probably the most significant innovation in higher education in the 1960s." A student then, a circuit judge now, Patrick Madden described this place at that time as our "Camelot Period." If imitation is flattery, then we should be blushing. Interdisciplinary programs and an environmental message are present in virtually all universities and colleges today. We were a quarter of a century ahead of the wave.

We have changed over the years. Budgets are becoming more restrictive, there was merger, and the enrollment caps have stifled growth. Nevertheless, we continue to attract bright, exciting younger faculty members who are innovative and have demonstrated enthusiasm for teaching. There are many others, but I am aware of these outstanding individuals: Profs. Bryan Vescio, Kris Vespia, Steve Meyer, Terri Johnson, Allison Gates, Steve Mutzako, Scott Ashmann and Rebecca Meacham. In addition to faculty who carry on a tradition of innovation, the University has been innovative and creative with the addition of programs designed to meet student and regional needs, especially in Adult Education, Graduate Studies, and cooperative courses and programs with Northeast Wisconsin Technical College, St. Norbert College and UW-Oshkosh. I can become nostalgic about those Camelot Days when all of us shared a vision for what we saw as the Common Good. But after three decades we are now an institution - and now change is more difficult. But like the Phoenix, we can rise up and have another Camelot.

To the Class of 2005, you are the recipients of this dynamic history. You have the ability to think critically, to view and seek solutions to problems from a variety of perspectives. Your sensitivity to different cultures and ethnic groups has increased. You can communicate effectively. You have worked individually and in teams. And many of you have applied your studies through internships. You are prepared to move on.

When I asked our children - Ann, 38, and David, 32 - what I should say to you they responded, "Tell the students what you told us when we completed college." So here goes. "Can I help you pack your belongings?"

But here are a couple of things. One of you, Theresa Okokon, described her professors as incredibly passionate about teaching. Be passionate about all that you do. Embrace life with enthusiasm. Have intense and positive feelings for your family, job, volunteer activities and recreation. You don't have to have extraterrestrial experiences like Robin Williams, but identify with his intensity. Get your endorphins moving. Find a career about which you can have a passion. And if you can't, have courage and seek a fulfilling job. Follow your bliss.

Secondly, deal effectively with change. Just think what the Class of 1970 was not exposed to. In popular culture, they did not have SpongeBob Square Pants, or Martha Stewart, reality TV, or SUVs.

In a much more serious vein, since 1970 world population has doubled with the vast majority living in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia. There are three billion more mouths to feed resulting in dramatic changes in land use. Deforestation accelerated in the '70s at the rate equal to 20 football fields every minute. Associated with deforestation is the disruption of the carbon cycle, the hydraulic cycle, increased soil erosion, extinction of species and desertification. The Class of 1970 did not study global climate change.

The Class of 1970 did not have PCs, I-PODs or cell phones! How did they survive? In 1970 there were 127 independent nation/states in the world. Today there are 191. The last half of the 20th century was a period of self-determination and the world became further divided along language/religious/and ethnic lines. At the same time, globalization became individualized. It is not just something for monarchs or multinational corporations, but now is driven by individuals, many of whom are non-western and non-white. It is not simply about how governments, businesses and people communicate, but the emergence of completely new social, political and business models. The application of new models of living will require change.

Globalization brings with it increased flow of individual contacts and an alarming increase in the diffusion of infectious diseases, AIDs, polio, Ebola and the Malberg virus, and flu bugs mutating faster than vaccines can be developed.

Change presents challenges and opportunities. Don't become victims of change, but influence change, vote, volunteer, be an activist, insist on accountability from our government officials, business leaders, the professions, including educators.

I want to close by acknowledging a debt of gratitude to the graduates. The words from The King and I are correct: "By your pupils you are taught." Your presence challenges us. Your questions stimulate us. Your learning satisfied us, and your growth sustains us. So to you I say, thank you. (Prof. Laatsch also said "thank you" in the languages of other nations represented: Japan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Oneida, Menominee, Brazil.)