University of New Hampshire Commencement Opening Remarks
Dr. Ann Weaver Hart
Saturday, May 24, 2003
Good morning everyone. Thank you for joining us on this auspicious occasion. This is the 133rd Commencement for the University of New Hampshire and my first as its president. It is an honor to welcome you here today to recognize the members of the Class of 2003 and to celebrate their many achievements.
This is a large and accomplished class. You number nearly 3,000 strong this morning and hail from 47 states and 29 countries. The youngest among you is 19, and the oldest is 63. Some of you have reached this juncture quickly and some of you have taken a road less traveled and arrived here later in life. Whatever your age, and whether it has been three years or 30, you have arrived at a point in your lives where you truly deserve the recognition this day brings.
According to an Irish proverb, it is in the shelter of each other that people live. As I look at the happy gathering that stretches out before me, I can see that this is true. You are here in the company of faculty and administrators, family, and friends whose knowledge, talent, support, and love have helped to bring you to this important day. These are the members of your university community who have invested with you in your future. It is within the context of this community that your hard work, resolve and dreams will soon take flight.
Today is the day we celebrate your transition from scholar to citizen,
from apprentice to leader. It is the day we gently and lovingly nudge
you out of the nest, from the relative safety of student life into a larger
world that is filled with new and exciting possibilities.
What path will you take? It has been said that leaders grow; they are not made, and I agree. (The Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management, "The Leader of the Future," © 1996.) Whatever your chosen field or area of continued study, I believe that tomorrow’s leaders are here with us today, because the University of New Hampshire has provided fertile ground for your growth. I am confident that along with the knowledge and skills that you have learned here, the emphasis that we place on public service as the third element of our land grant mission is now a part of who you are. Engagement in your community as a way of applying, as well as enhancing, that knowledge is a critical part of the education you take with you from the university of New Hampshire. Knowledge, when combined with the desire for a better society, often translates into great leadership.
In her wonderful book, "Longitude," Dava Sobel describes the struggle and genius that led to John Harrison’s solution of the longitude problem, allowing explorers to find their position on the fragile and beautiful globe on which we live. She noted that: "For lack of a practical method of determining longitude, every great captain in the age of exploration became lost at sea despite the best available charts and compasses (p.6)." Harrison’s marine clocks "tested the waters of space time" and linked the "points on the three dimensional globe" (p. 175). With the establishment of a prime meridian at Greenwich, exploration could then take place without relying on the "willy-nilly" forces "of good luck or the grace of God" (p. 6).
I deeply hope that you also have made strides in your years at UNH in establishing a personal prime meridian and internal moral clock that will help you find your way in your new explorations.
I offer my most sincere thanks for the role that each of you has played in the growing strength of the University of New Hampshire as a center of academic inquiry and discovery. And I offer my warmest congratulations to you. You have worked hard for this day and you have every reason to be proud. We share your pride and offer you our best wishes for a wonderful, fulfilling, exciting, and productive future.
