Mary Robinson Delivers Keynote Address

Good morning, President Marshall, members of the trustees of Wheaton College, members of the faculty, fellow graduates of 2004 and their families, ladies and gentlemen. I am very honored to be the Commencement speaker today and indeed to receive the degree of Doctor of Laws and Honoris Causa from Wheaton College in the company of your distinguished president, Dale Rogers Marshall.

At a very enjoyable dinner last night, I learned a great deal more about her, and this morning it was I think very well captured by your president of the Class of 2004, Nicholas Nahas. From everything I have learned, she has shown what leadership is all about and in particular that leadership is about bringing others with you, bringing them to express their full potential and to enjoy doing it and to enjoy being part of a college with a spirit that Wheaton College demonstrates, because this is a day of joy and celebration but also of reflection and stock taking.

Before I come on to the stock taking, I should say how much I appreciated the music played, "The Connaughtman's Rambles." In fact, for those of you who don't appreciate this, that was magic music to make sure it doesn't rain today. We are very good at that in Ireland. We actually have to do it quite constantly.

But as I say, as well as a day of joy and celebration, today is also a time of some uncertainty, as I remember from my own graduation. And I know that many of you are feeling that way today. After all, the moment between completing one chapter in life and beginning the next generally produces a mixture of reflection, relief and, yes, regret.

Reflecting now, nearly 40 years later, of my own feeling of uncertainty then, I can see it was also due in part to the uncertainties and turmoil of those times. They too were days of great questioning, in my native Ireland as well as here in the United States. They were times marked by the Vietnam War and struggles in this country for civil rights.

As your class president emphasized, you too have gone through your years of higher education during uncertain times. The terrible attacks in this country of the 11th of September 2001 and their aftermath have left the people in this country and around the world less secure, less able to say with conviction that the world is becoming a more peaceful place, less confident that the future will be better than the past. And yet I hope like me you have a sense that studying here for four years during such a period has deepened your sense of understanding and appreciation of the world around you.

As your commencement speaker it is my privilege to offer some words of guidance on how best to steer your way through the uncertainties of today and those that will surely come throughout the rest of your lives. You might wish that I could provide you with a simple road map for life, a set of tried-and-rue rules that will show you the way, but as you know, the reality is that each one of you will need to rely on your own moral compass to find your path.

When you look back many years from now, I believe you will realize how formative the experience of being here at Wheaton was during these times in developing your own inner sense of direction, your own sense of obligation to yourself, to your family and community and to the wider world around you.

You have been able to experience the unfolding of a new century with all its opportunities and challenges within an environment where the pursuit of knowledge was the ultimate aim. Thanks to the guidance of your professors and to the exchange of views and experiences with your fellow students you have been able to dig deeper and hopefully bring forth richer insights into the probing issues of our day.

You have been given a great gift, one which several thousand million people on this planet will never receive. After all, some 120 million children never go to school at all, never see the inside of a classroom, and very, very many never go to third level education. So you have been given time and a space to examine your beliefs and to see the world in all its complexities, not just through your eyes but also through the eyes of others.

You have had the opportunity to develop that moral compass which can guide you through life and help you to stick to your principles.

Professor Martha Nussebaum of the University of Chicago talks about this vital role of the university in her book Cultivating Humanity. She argues that a fundamental responsibility of the university is to ensure that every student is exposed to the basic skills needed for citizenship. First, an education that inculcates the capacity for critical examination of oneself and one's tradition for living what, following Socrates, we may call the examined life.

Second, a curriculum that provides students with a greater knowledge of nonwestern cultures, of minorities within their own, of differences of gender and sexuality. And, third, the cultivation of narrative imagination, or the ability to think what it might be like to be in the shoes of a person different from oneself, to be an intelligent reader of that person's story.

It's worth taking some time today, even as you rightly celebrate your achievements and look forward to new challenges ahead, take time to consider the extent to which you feel you are now equipped with those skills of citizenship and that moral compass, and what role they will play in your futures.

From what I've learned of the curriculum here at Wheaton, it has prepared you well. I have learned that a key aspect of the college's education program is called "Connections," which offers students sets of two to three courses that approach a topic or problem from the perspective of diverse academic disciplines, such as art and mathematics or biology and literature.

I'm aware that the college's academic Connections program complements Wheaton's long-standing emphasis on linking academic study with real world experience, in my view an essential link. You must also know the realities of people's lives, and I understand through the Filene Center for Work and Learning the college encourages students to put theory into practice, facilitating internship and independent field research projects and community service initiatives both around the world and around the corner.

And I note that the Center For Global Education has very good links with universities and colleges around the world, and I'm very pleased to see that one of these is the University College Cork in Ireland, so hopefully you will continue to hear some of this magic music to drive away any unfavorable weather condition.

It's important that the curriculum here at Wheaton made explicit the need to infuse global perspectives throughout the four years of your academic experience. This commitment to global education will have prepared you well for the divided, unfair, and unequal world that you will live in. It's time we thought more about how to bridge these divides.

It was borne in on me in my travels, particularly as high commissioner and before that as president of Ireland, that it is unacceptable that we live in a world where the divides are so stark. We tend to see these divides in statistics. We learn that over a billion people, some thousand million people, live on less than one dollar a day. We learn from UNICEF that more than 6 million children die of hunger in our rich, resourced world. And yet what we need to do more is to think not so much in terms of statistics but in terms of individuals and their families and their community.

And it was also borne in on me that the governments of the world have committed to legal treaties, covenants and conventions that are to address these divides—be it to eliminate torture or have fair trial or freedom of expression or freedom of religion or be it to aggressively implement the right to food and safe water and education. And what is needed is to hold these governments to accountability, and that's where you, the Class of 2004, come in.

I learned that Eleanor Roosevelt, who is a great heroine of mine, addressed Wheaton College in her time, and I'm sure that she referred to her own belief fundamentally that in order for human rights to matter in small places close to home, you need what she called concerted citizen action. Concerted citizen action—being aware of and doing something about it.

So, I would like to hope first of all that you as the Class of 2004 will find that this international legal framework that governments have subscribed to provides the rules of the road for a fairer and more equitable globalization. And I want to challenge you because I've learned of the enormous potential that your president of the class spoke about, whether it is the Bulls or whoever it may be, I want to challenge you to actually go and make a difference, bring what you have learned into the reality of the lives that you see around you, have the courage to following the leadership of your distinguished president Dale.

So go forth and make a difference in whatever paths you choose—and warmest congratulations on what you have achieved.

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