Graduation Address

"Spring Convocation Address" (1979). (UA Case 67, Box 2)

A few months ago, in conversation with President Anderson, I told him I was anxious to find a million dollars from some urgent projects at Mount Allison and did he have any suggestions as to how to raise that kind of money. He said one way was to buy a Loto Canada ticket and hope, but that there might be another way that he was learning about at that time and he would let me know when he could. So when he and Dr. Condon called me a few weeks ago I thought they were about to provide the secret formula. But instead they confessed that time had been flying by so fast that they realized it was too late to get anybody good as a speaker for this Convocation and would I do it. They promised an honorary degree in return, but they were a little vague about that and asked me to keep the whole thing quiet. I realize now that the name "Bertrand Russell" on my certificate is proof that they had to get min in under an assumed name.

Of course, to be quite truthful, I am very flattered by this honour, and weak enough to allow flattery to turn my head. However, I’m not so weak that I do not recognize that this honour acknowledges a Saint John boy by way of paying tribute to a sister institution. I happily accept the degree on these terms and wish to express appreciation publicly to your senate for this kindness. I am most happy to share this occasion with Stuart Trueman and I know that Dr. Trueman joins me in this declaration of gratitude.

Old Stephen Leacock story ----- Dr. Trueman and I have agreed to begin a jogging program so that when our opportunity arrives we will not be beaten out by a man of the cloth.

I said that I am a Saint John boy, and I am. I was born on Mecklenburg St., grew up on Cliff St., went to Centennial and Victoria schools and Saint John High School before going off to university. As a matter of fact, I almost did go to U.N.B., on a Beaverbrook scholarship, but somehow got sidetracked at the last moment. If I had gone to U.N.B. I might have actually earned a U.N.B. degree. However, getting in via the back door is the next best thing, and I am indeed proud to be a U.N.B. alumnus after all these years. I’ve had a very long association with U.N.B., beginning in those days of dim past of the late thirties when I participated in the athletic contests of that era between M.T.A. and U.N.B. It seems hard to believe, but I have known ten presidents or acting presidents of U.N.B.: Jones, MacKenzie, Trueman, Gregg, Baird, MacKay, Argue, Dineen, Pacey, Anderson – and soon it will be eleven.

May I at this point say a word of tribute to your president, John Anderson. During the past four years it has been my privilege to work with and to consult with him on many occasions. I have found him absolutely honest, open, and frank, always helpful, fully informed, a most pleasant companion and completely dedicated to U.N.B. He will be greatly missed by this university and by all of the sister institutions in the Atlantic universities.

I recall asking John Anderson once how U.N.B. had gained its prestige as a great storehouse of knowledge. He replied that in all likelihood it was because the freshmen brought so much of it and the seniors took so little away.

Here is a statement I noted the other day:

"We are reminded by universal profiteering on the one side and world labour unrest on the other that there never was a time in the world’s history when men were so eager to get something for nothing as they are today. The tendency is ever to covet another man’s goods and to discover short cuts to a competence without work."

That quotation is from an address to graduates given at Mount Allison by Dr. Byron Crane Borden in 1921.

It thus appears that things don’t change, yet we know that change is a permanent, ever-present characteristic of our world. What is it, the, that doesn’t change? It is a considerable collection of fundamental and basic laws which seem to order our universe, whether they be mathematical or scientific or laws of human nature and behaviour. It is the application of our knowledge of these laws which makes for change. And this is where the role of you graduates will lie – in making changes for the betterment of mankind. Do you realize that by the turn of the century you will be in your early forties and will have in your hands the construction of the human future. Will you be prepared for this task? You have a good start if you have had the right kind of education here, and I trust that you have.

Ideally you would have had a liberal education, and by now you would have freed yourself from the fetters of your own particular background and opened your heart and mind and spirit to the world about you.

If indeed you have had a balanced course of study you would have acquainted yourself with the great streams of knowledge. You would have a sensitivity to and some understanding of our magnificent and varied heritage – classical, literary, musical, artistic, scientific, mathematical, religious. You would realize that thought processes and habits are more important than the particular curriculum which exemplifies them. You would appreciate the necessity for analysis, for orderly theory, for experimental verification of predictive laws. You would too, accept the validity of experience through the arts and letters where a total message is carried by an amalgam of intuition, mind, and spirit.

When you look back on your years here, you will probably never be satisfied with what you were able to accomplish. You will be surprised though, from time to time, at the residual effects of your experience, many of which you didn’t know existed. – College is like laundry – you get out of it what you put into it – only you never recognize it.

Being exposed to the communication media, you would be aware of the political, economic, and social conditions of our world, and you would have, through your understanding of self, developed a compassionate sense of others. You would recognize your obligation as a citizen of your municipality, your province, your country, and of the whole world – an obligation which you must activate soon in order to provide a sensible universe for your children and mine and those of your brethren across the globe.

You may say: "It’s all very well to talk about developing my mind and reading my emotions and caring for others, but just what is my place in that rapidly changing society out there? Is there anything there for me? Do they really want me? Or need me?" Let us be perfectly honest – the world doesn’t owe you a living – it never has – and the reason is that you yourselves are the world. Your university can’t guarantee you a job. The university’s business is to traffic in modes of thought rather than particular competencies. The essence of the university is freedom – freedom to enquire, freedom to express ideas, freedom to make choices, without fear of reprisal except by way of discussion and counter-argument.

So you’ve had access to this forum. It is not your duty to be creative. Go out there and be an entrepreneur. Try out your imagination. Take a menial job that’s available – or invent one – and earn your way up. Flexibility of spirit is needed in this world. And your education should have provided for you the capacity to adapt and adjust to a changing environment, because you are schooled in fundamentals. Leadership cannot emanate from a rigid or fixed or narrow mind or from technical capacity alone. It requires thought and thoughtfulness, initiative, and humane concern.

I know that wherever you are headed – whether to graduate study, to the professions, or directly to the market place, you will take with you that mark of quality characteristic of U.N.B., and your vitality and performance will be a source of pride to your alma mater here in Saint John. I know also that you will remember that the citizens of New Brunswick and those friends who have supported and built this fine university will have earned your gratitude and loyalty and your commitment to provide, for succeeding generations, access to the nobleness and wisdom of your forefathers.

And if perchance, discouragement tries to pursue you, take cheer in these words written by a YMCA worker seventy-five years ago:

Look up, Take hope,
The sun still shines,
Though clouds at times obscure it;
The man who cries, and mopes, and pines,
Will add to woe, not cure it.

Look up, God lives,
God loves, God reigns;
Take heart, nor brood on sorrow;
A bit of courage often gives
The strength to meet tomorrow.