Office of the President, CSU, Chico
Publications & Speeches
Commencement Address 2006
Paul J. Zingg, President
Trustees Roberta Achtenberg and Bob Linscheid, fellow members of the platform party, faculty and staff, parents, children, relatives, and friends of the graduates, and, the reason we’re here, graduates of the California State University, Chico, Class of 2006.
I am very honored to have been asked to give this year’s Commencement address. And I want you to know that I know a few things about such addresses.
First, I know that the ice is melting, so I need to keep this short. Second, I know that your future is awaiting, so I need to keep this relevant. Third, I know that you’ll hardly remember anything that I say, so I need to grab your attention.
So, to the task.
First, everyone stand up. Moan, groan. Come on, everyone stand up. Dean Houpis, grandma, everyone.
OK. Reach for the sky. A big “Yes” you’ve
done it. Now, pat yourself on the shoulders. Good job. Now a big Chico “C. ”
Now, bring your hands together over your head for a round of applause.
Not bad. OK, now before you sit down, let me thank you for enabling me to win a bet just now. I bet I could get you all to do the “Y-M-C-A” to a standing ovation.
Royce, can you help me out?
Y-M-C-A.
Now, my YMCA is a little different than what the Village People sang about. That's probably a relief to many of you. Mine’s a bit more local and contextual. It’s about this place.
YMCA
Yes, My Chico…Always!
For, hopefully, something important, something that will last always, has occurred to you during your studies and your time in our and each other’s company. More than anything, I hope you have acquired a sense of serious daring in your lives and found joy in that discovery.
No, not the daring that you’ve just seen demonstrated – the president of your university doing something ridiculous.
But I hope that you’ve come to realize that the essence of education is self-discovery and that that cannot be a passive journey.
People do not just find themselves. Rather, they create themselves through their actions and accepting the consequences of them. Women and men achieve personal identities only by making decisions that require forethought, intention, and, at times, courage. You must look beyond what is known and tried to what is, as yet, unknown and untried. You must search out alternatives, consider their consequences, and then confront these choices. In a practical and ethical sense, half the jobs for the mid-21st century haven’t even been invented yet. Can you anticipate them? Can you define them? Will you fill them?
To arrive at these choices, I urge you always to seek the truth. Think. Study. Weigh and measure. To do otherwise may mean that you will become enslaved to falsehoods. And those who know the least are the most willing to obey shallow signs and dangerous deceptions.
I urge you to continue to seek meaning in your own life. This may require an act of faith when faced with the chaos and complexity, and even the insane brutality, that exist in parts of our world today. But stay close to your family and friends, find solace in nature, be kind to one another, and recognize that your spirit, no less than your body, requires nourishment.
Mohandas Gandhi, whose social and political activism was grounded in hope and service, defined several spiritually perilous conditions, when he warned of
- Wealth without work
- Pleasure without conscience
- Science without humanity
- Knowledge without character
- Politics without principle
- Commerce without morality
- Worship without sacrifice
I urge you to build a life of virtue, which rejecting these deadly sins will enable, and, particularly, to make sure that justice informs all of your actions. Practice charity and forbearance in your daily life. Embrace the example of the many among you who helped with the Hurricane Katrina recovery, who raised funds and hopes for the children victims of cancer, who devoted countless hours of service to the Chico Boys & Girls Club, Habitat for Humanity, a cleaner environment and a sustainable future, who tutored the less fortunate, provided company to the lonely, and fed the hungry. Examples like these not only reflect a generous community, but also reveal that you and I, and all peoples, even the weakest and least advantaged among us, share a common humanity and potential for goodness.
In these matters, I urge you to understand the dignity of human aspirations. The ability to hope, to dream of a brighter future, underscores what it means to be human. We cherish this quality in ourselves. You must see to it, then, that the dreams of others are not destroyed by prejudice and discrimination, by poverty and ignorance.
And, finally, I urge you to think kindly of this place – this community of noble purpose, this community of extraordinary people – which has equipped you and encouraged you for the daring journeys ahead – whether they be occasional forays or deep commitments, whether they test boundaries or cross borders, whether they are intellectual or attitudinal, spatial or spiritual.
We hope you leave us more autonomous, more tolerant, more curious, more imbued with habits of the heart, than when you first joined us. And we hope these qualities will always characterize you and define us.
We are better because you have been with us. We will become even better as you stay in touch with us as an active member of a growing and enthusiastic Chico State Alumni Association and that you will share with us your journeys and decisions always, we hope, on the side of the true, the beautiful, and the virtuous.
Yes, my Chico, always. Congratulations and best wishes.