Valedictory Address

“Valedictory of UNB 1949 Given Today by E.O. Fanjoy, BSc in Arts” The Daily Gleaner (13 May 1949): 12. (UA Case 68, Box 1)

Your Honor, Mr. President, Fellow Graduates, Friends:

It is a source of deep regret to us here today that our Chancellor, Lord Beaverbrook, is unable to be present. Those of us graduating, along with the rest of the students know what Lord Beaverbrook means to the University. We owe him a great debt for his kind and generous interest in U.N.B.

It is difficult on this great day to fully express our regard for the University. We have been most fortunate in having Dr. Trueman as our President in this, our last year Up The Hill. We have been most happy that his valuable services have been given, and we hope will continue to be given, to the University of his native province. Already his leadership has meant progress. With our thanks to Dr. Trueman, we add our best wishes for a long and successful period at U.N.B. May our University play an ever-increasing role in enriching the life of the people of the province and country.

On behalf of the class, I say thank you to the members of the faculty for all they have done for us. The short-comings and failings which we possess are not due to them: they are our own. If we have any merits they must largely take the credit. The professors have helped us tie up loose ends, to put things together, and to see connections where none seemed to exist before.

For four years Fredericton has been our home, and it has been a grand home. The city has one more than “put up with us”—we have become a part of it—so much so that we hate to leave. Sometimes we have been a bit adolescent, but Fredericton was understanding. To Fredericton we extend sincere thanks.

No thank you would be complete without including the mothers and fathers who helped make “going to college” possible. For this class it would include also many wives who in many instances took on outside jobs in order to make ends meet, or to perhaps typed essays in the evening while the husband looked after the children. To all those close to us we say thanks.

It is especially appropriate that Dr. Gregg is here with us today. His stimulating address will long be remembered. Dr. Gregg holds a special place in our hearts. His human understanding and guidance was invaluable in our first two years at U.N.B. It will be a source of pride to us that we have had the opportunity to study under two such outstanding presidents as Dr. Gregg and Dr. Trueman.

Today, as the saying goes, is a “red letter” day in our lives, not only for those graduating, but also for those parents, wives and friends gathered here today. It is a Day of mixed feelings. On the one hand we look forward into the future and in that sense it is a day of hope.

But then too, as human beings, we are sentimentalists. Four years have gone quickly—too quickly. These past four years have been a chapter in our lives that today is drawing to a close. The four years that four years ago seemed so long now seem so short. They have been rich years and will be remembered as among the happiest in our lives. Most of us commence now with a new life—a more serious life with problems of making a living, raising a family and assuming necessary responsibilities of citizenship in a democratic country. Never again will we have so much time to browse, to think, to dream, to discuss, to question, to argue.

We take with us not only what education we have managed to pick up, but also many friendships and associations which we shall always hold dear.

As graduating classes go there is something different about this class. I don’t refer to its size, although this is by far the largest class ever to graduate from U.N.B. I refer to the fact that a majority of its members are veterans of the past World War. Members of this class took part in every major engagement of the Canadian Forces in the war. High school graduating classes back to the early 1930s are represented in this class. For the first time parenthood has been combined with scholarship. It has proved to be a good combination. One of the outstanding features has been that the veteran has forgotten he was a veteran and the younger student that he wasn’t. All have been classmates working together toward the same goal. The only distinctions have been those of an age difference such as receding hairlines or perhaps a baby carriage.

It is well that we remember here today that many, very many of us would have been unable to attend university without the aid from D.V.A. Here at U.N.B., as it has been all across Canada, the rehabilitation plan for university training has been successful beyond the most optimistic expectations of us all. The veterans deeply appreciate this help that has been extended to them.

Two months ago, a Veteran’s Bursary and Loan fund was established at U.N.B. by the students to help needy and deserving students attend University. Already nearly $6,000 has been pledged by both veterans and non-veterans alike. This has not only been done as a mark of appreciation to the University for what has been done for us; it has further been an indication of the feeling that more should be done towards giving every young Canadian, if he has the desire and the ability, the opportunity of obtaining a college education.

A hundred years ago we were striving for a fuller democracy by bringing opportunity for an elementary education to every citizen. Later it was secondary education. We have now come a long way toward the attainment of both these goals. Now I believe it is time we extended this same principle to education on the university level. I feel that it should be our goal to make opportunity for education to the full limit of ability the birthright of every Canadian.

I don’t suggest that an overall plan for all Canadians be instituted on the same scale as the Veteran’s Rehabilitation plan. That plan has been far more generous than any permanent program could possibly be. It was designed to meet a special situation and it has met it well. But the aim must be to make higher education possible on the basis of scholastic aptitude rather than the limits of the father’s pocketbook. Let us help to give a college education to those who have proved their right by ability rather than those who simply have the money and who sometimes just come to college to take up time or fill in space.

This area of Canada is quite rightly noted for the large number of men who have become leaders in our national life: men who have struggled hard for an education and have become better men for that struggle. But many worthy people have been left behind. In the words of Thomas Gray—

Full many a gem of purest ray serene
The dare unfathomed caves of ocean bear;
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.

Today higher education is becoming even more restricted to those in the higher income brackets. Tuition fees have been rising steadily, and it is becomingly increasingly difficulty for a student “to work his way through college.” It has been estimated that over one-half of the superior students in high school are precluded from University either by excessive cost or their own economic disability.

It might be said that such a proposal is beyond our means— that we can’t afford it. If we are to extend and enlarge our democracy toward equality of opportunity in all fields we can not afford not to. Do we have to have a war to produce the incentive to give our young people the opportunity for a higher education? It would be a sad commentary on our thinking if such is the case. The principle of governmental assistance has now been established. The veterans’ plan has shown that the economics and mechanics of helping to provide a higher education for every qualified boy or girl is within the bounds of practical policy.

I would not be so presumptuous as to suggest what the special purpose and proper content of university education should be. That is for our educationalists to decide. I would assume, however, that the more education we have in a democracy and the more equality of opportunity we have for that education, the happier and more progressive will our people be. Education alone cannot solve all our problems but it can help. It is a straightforward case of “the more the better.”

It is difficult for a valedictorian to speak on behalf of his class, just as it is difficult for any individual to speak on behalf of any group. Unanimity is seldom achieved—that is one of the most attractive things about our way of life, where we can agree or disagree. This question of education, regardless of our views, is one of the many that we shall have to face, along with many other problems. We should think straight through to the centre of this issue and all issues without regard to prejudice and pressure on either side. For in the long run it is the private thinking of each one of us that will determine public attitudes.

We, as young Canadians have been so fortunate as to have had the opportunity for an education, have a unique chance to work toward that ideal community. No generation has had a better chance. It must be a country where people help each other to live together without hatred and without antagonisms. It would have schools where all our children could learn to play to enjoy themselves and to co-operate with other; where teachers were respected, well paid and able to meet the varied needs of each child. It would have colleges to which those qualified might go regardless of who his father and mother were, or the size of their bank account.

In short, we have many challenges to face. We have directions to determine and courses to plot. Let us make our decisions with vision, imagination and an intellectual capacity of the highest order. Perhaps then we shall prove worthy of the degrees we have received today.