1983 Saint John Spring Convocation
President's Address
Delivered by: Downey, James
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT (27 May 1983 - UA RG 285, Box 1, File 4)
It is a pleasure to welcome all of you to the 9th Spring Convocation of the University of New Brunswick in Saint John. For my own part I rejoice in the good fortune that has brought me to this institution at this time to preside over its affairs, to share pride in its achievements, and to participate in its traditions. To greet the members of the graduating class of 1983 and, in the name of the University, to admit them to their degrees, as I shall presently do, is a singular honour and pleasure.
That honour and pleasure are further enhanced by the opportunity to confer honorary doctorates upon two people for whom I, in common with many others, have great respect and affection. In the world of scholarly editing and publishing Francess Halpenny has an enviable record of achievement and leadership. In the world of finance, Murray Vaughan has exhibited a genius for the creation of wealth and an enlightened social conscience in its distribution. In different but equally important ways, UNB owes a debt of honour to both of these distinguished Canadians -- a debt we gladly acknowledge today.
Your Honour, Madam Chancellor, it is said that the art of convocation speech-making lies in knowing how to stroke a platitude until it purrs like an epigram. Being a modest man I shall, in the few interminably long minutes I have allowed myself for these remarks, be content to stroke a small litter of clichés in the hope that one or two of them may purr like a platitude.
My first cliché is that graduation is both an end and a beginning. It is an end of what four or more years ago seemed a long road but, in retrospect, was scarcely long enough for the ground that had to be traversed. There's a story about a tourist in Ireland looking for the road that led up to a famous stately home. When he finally found it, with the help of an old Irish farmer, he could barely see the house in the distance. He remarked that it was a very long road, to which the farmer replied: 'Sure then, 'tis a long road; but if 'twere any shorter it wouldn't reach the house.' The road to a sound education is a long road; indeed, it is a road of many beginnings but no proper end; there are only places along the way where you can pause, take stock of how far you've come, and plan where you go from here. Today you take such a pause.
In taking it you should not allow uncertainty about the direction or condition of the road ahead to keep you from finding pride and satisfaction in what you've accomplished thus far. As university graduates you will be part of what is still a small minority of the Canadian population. And despite the difficulties our society - like others - is experiencing at the moment in employing the talents and energies of our young people, you should know that you do have skills and knowledge and training that are vital to Canada's development as a humane and prosperous nation. Someone has said that 'predicting is difficult, especially when it involves the future.' While this may be true, there is reason to believe that there is light at the end of the recessionary tunnel. (One hopes, of course, that it is not the light of an oncoming train!)
If your education to date has been successful, it has left you with a desire to know more, and it has equipped you with the skills and knowledge to go on learning without the necessity of professors to stimulate and guide you. Unlike most graduating classes of the recent past, many of you will not very quickly find jobs tailored to your training or intellectual interests. Keeping keen and sharp that training and those interests, so that they continue to enrich your own lives and the lives of those around you, may be a crucial challenge. There was a man in New York who lost his way in Manhattan, stopped an old lady and said: 'How do I get to Carnegie Hall?' The old lady replied: 'Practice, practice, practice.' I hope that, among other things, you have learned at UNB the value of that advice. Practice, of course, is not mere repetition. It is the process of building on skills and training and knowledge to achieve higher levels of competence and performance and, in doing so, to achieve higher levels of satisfaction.
In the years ahead you will be challenged to learn many new things in order to be as tease in a world going through a phase of accelerated technological change. But you will find, as you confront these challenges, that the discipline and discernment of mind you have been encouraged to develop here will help you not only to acquire new knowledge but, what is more important, to assess its worth. Oscar Wilde said that the value of the telephone is limited to the value of the conversations carried over it. He might have said the same thing, with equal truth about the new cybernetic technology. It is the business of education to help people to distinguish between means and ends. If we at UNB have succeeded in helping you do that, then we are content.
Finally, Your Honour, on behalf of the Board of Governors, the Senate, the faculty, and everyone at UNB, I should like to express congratulations and best wishes to all our graduands. It is our wish for each of you that you will know in your lives and careers the satisfaction that accompanies growth and achievement.
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