WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION
Thank you, Caroline, for that kind introduction.
Welcome to the parents, families, and loved ones joining us here on the quad on this beautiful day. It’s like this 364 days a year in Boston. [Laughter] And those joining via livestream, whether from campus or from around the world.
Thank you, trustees Ted Tye and Marianne Youniss, for joining us today on stage as we welcome our newest Jumbos.
And welcome: Tufts University Class of 2029! [Applause]
How I envy you! When you look back on this day in 20 years, trust me when I say that you probably won’t remember how nervous you felt, or how embarrassed you were with the behavior of your parents. [Laughter] Instead, what I expect you will recall the most is that sense of pure, unadulterated excitement. I encourage you to hold on to that feeling and let it be your guiding light—not only during your time at Tufts, but throughout your life.
Matriculation addresses are, of course, designed to dampen that excitement. They tend to be long and tedious, replete with platitudes and clichés. In that spirit I would like to devote a significant portion of my address to the class I have taught, under various titles and guises over the past 30 years. A simple way to describe the essential course content is “Decision Making over Time.” Picking a path for a robot negotiating a crowded room, or deciding which drug to advance into clinical trials, are both examples of making decisions over time. The key feature of the decisions made is that their outcomes cannot be predicted with certainty. We learn more about the consequences of our decisions as time goes by.
Of course, as any academic who is overly steeped in their own interests, I consider the theme of my course as a good metaphor for life. As Søren Kierkegaard, the Danish philosopher, wrote in his Journal:
It is really true what philosophy tells us, that life must be understood backwards. But with this, one forgets the second proposition, that it must be lived forwards. A proposition which, the more it is subjected to careful thought, the more it ends up concluding precisely that life at any given moment cannot really ever be fully understood; exactly because there is no single moment where time stops completely in order for me [to understand]: going backwards.
Other than as shameless self-promotion of my course, why bring this up at Matriculation? And Kierkegaard of all people! It is because, starting today, you are freer than you were ever before. There are many different freedoms and nearly all of them converge on the university campus: freedom to satisfy your curiosity and explore, freedom to develop your own identity, freedom to worship or not, freedom to pursue ideas wherever they may lead without undue interference and, of course, the freedom to quench your thirst for knowledge.
A natural counterpart to freedom is the need to make decisions of course, how and when to exercise those freedoms. You have made decisions before, including the excellent one to come to Tufts. You will have plenty more choices to make. Some of you already have a “sound plan,” which has worked out courses, and internships, and future careers, and so on. Others intend to “go with the flow.” Make no mistake – choosing to go with the flow is a decision, nonetheless. I stand before you to argue against both alternatives.
Arguing against planning? I can already see the angry emails and social media posts from the parents. I am not arguing against all plans, just those that want to “make the most of every day,” towards a very definite end. First of all, this doesn’t feel like fun to me. And I am a big fan of fun. Come to think of it, I may have had a bit too much of it in my college years.
Second, this approach doesn’t take advantage of what Tufts has to offer. I like to say that Tufts is big enough that you can achieve anything, but it is also small enough that you can try anything. To not take advantage of all the choices, the freedoms, that Tufts offers seems shortsighted to me. How do you know, as an Electrical Engineering major, that a philosophy course won’t prove beneficial? Kierkegaard does help understand dynamic decision-making.
Finally, and most importantly, a sound plan undervalues exploration. To go back to my course, a robot cannot negotiate an unfamiliar room crowded with people, by picking a path upfront and sticking to it. It has to venture down a path, learn along the way, and stop and back-track when necessary. At times, it might seem like the robot is doing something goofy, but there is value to that goofiness, in the form of learning and adaptation.
We are, of course, not robots. In my mind, that means we must value learning and adaptation more, not less. Doing what you have done before or what seems easy, speaking and listening only with those who agree with you, hanging only with those you are comfortable with may all seem like good choices in the short term. But believe me they will let you down in the long run.
The best decision I have made in my life, understood as Kierkegaard said with the benefit of 35 years of hindsight, was to turn down a prestigious and well-paying job with one of India’s preeminent companies to instead go to graduate school. To be entirely honest, I did it mostly because I hated the job. But I did jump into the uncertain, knowing that, at worst “I would learn something.” That willingness to explore and take risks has served me well. If you had said to me 35 years ago that this day would come when I would be speaking to you as a university president, I would have simply dismissed you, thinking that you needed to consume fewer controlled substances. [Laughter]
I realize that what I've said so far may give you the impression that I’m preaching. But in reality, I’m also reminding the university—and, by extension, myself—of the responsibility we have to provide you with transformative experiences that will challenge you, broaden your horizons, and question, rather than reaffirm, your beliefs. And we cannot tell you to do these things if we are unable to do the same ourselves.
Over the next several weeks, we’ll be making some announcements about how the university will be taking steps to better support academic freedom and a plurality of perspectives on campus. Through these actions, we will be demonstrating our commitment to creating an environment in which a wide range of voices are heard and can flourish. I encourage you to engage with these perspectives—and contribute your own viewpoints to the conversation as well.
These perspectives and opportunities don’t always have to be serious. As I said before, I am a big fan of fun. Pursuits can simply be fun. So, before I conclude my formal remarks, I would like to announce a call for proposals for funding events. This is the third year I would have asked for such proposals. Successful proposals will have the cost of an event covered if they are:
- Good, clean, and safe
- Not profligate. As you’ll soon learn, I am incredibly cheap. [Laughter]
- Open to any member of the Tufts community
- And most importantly, they have no purpose other than simply being fun.
Anything that reeks of utility will be denied. [Laughter and Applause] In the past, events that were funded included a private screening of the Taylor Swift movie (I didn’t see it), an EDM competition, and last year a dance showcase on the President’s Lawn. I can’t wait to see what you will cook up this year.
Today marks the beginning of an exciting journey, as others have reminded you, but I want to tell you that it’s a privilege for me to be part of it. I look forward to getting to know you during your time here, and I can’t wait to see what you will accomplish.
What else is there to say now but: Congratulations, and welcome to Tufts University! [Applause]
You are Jumbos now and you will be Jumbos forever! Thank you. [Applause]