Graduation Address

"UNB Graduates (continued from Page 1)" Daily Gleaner (18 May 1979): 2. Extract

University of Toronto president James Ham, guest speaker at the convocation told graduates that the usefulness of the "university in our troubled society resides precisely in sustaining a probing balance between the instrumental and the humane."

He warned, that while practical and occupationally useful studies have influenced student at the university level to turn away from the arts and humanities, "we must beware of becoming dominated by the merely instrumental."

Using the example of engineering, a subject he spoke extensively on, he said "good engineering education has and must be concerned with human purposes as well as technical means."

Turning his attention to national unity, Dr. Ham said that universities share a will to "search for truth" and to develop the talents of young people. He described this as "an expression of a unity that is part of what Canada is."