Freshmen Convocation Address
Louis Caldera
Wednesday, September 03, 2003
SUB Ballroom
Welcome to the University of New Mexico. I am delighted to have the opportunity to address you, the Class of 2007, as you begin your collegiate studies here at UNM. We've attempted to gather you all here today for the first time as a class in order to congratulate you on the fine work you have done to date that has earned you a spot at this university. Even more importantly, we also want to express our high hopes for your future. Each of you individually, and all of you collectively, have the potential to contribute to this university and to accomplish so much with your lives.
As a new President, I hope that we will be able to create the kind of spirited campus environment and class unity that leaves you looking back fondly on the time you spent here. As a new President, I will consider this my freshman year too and your Class will always be special to me for that reason, because we are going through this together.
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So it is my hope that you will begin to think of yourselves as the Class of 2007, a community of diverse, bright, engaged learners who have a commitment to each other's well being and a vested interest in each other's success: whether in the classroom, on the playing fields, in the studio, on the stage, or wherever else your passions and interests lead you to leave your mark at UNM. If you come together and share this experience as a close community of students, the friendships you form here throughout your college years will be some of the most enduring in your lives.
I am delighted to have the opportunity to welcome you today to this UNM community in the company of the scholars you will learn from. Many of our staff and faculty, all dedicated to your success are here today to welcome you to UNM as well. Let me tell you how fortunate you are to have such a distinguished faculty to learn from. As incoming freshmen, you may regard them as an intimidating lot, but as you come to know them and learn from them, particularly as you begin to master the subjects they have spent their lives investigating, you will begin to regard them more as mentors and fellow travelers on an incredible intellectual voyage of discovery.
That you have the opportunity to learn firsthand from this world-class faculty of researchers and professors should be a source of unending joy and satisfaction. It may well be a source of frustration and anxiety at times, for their standards and expectations will be high. But they will not be unattainable. Yet how many students in New Mexico or anywhere else in America, or in the world for that matter, get to learn from the faculty of a highly regarded research university? Very few indeed. That is why I urge you to recognize how fortunate you are that of all the young men and women of your generation, you have the rare opportunity to have your lives transformed through the educational opportunities that lie before you and a responsibility to make the most of them.
What do I mean by saying your lives will be transformed by attending UNM? I mean literally transformed. Changed. So altered that when you finish your formal education here you will have capabilities and opportunities you did not have when you started and could not have but for this educational experience. I do not mean simply that you will have accumulated more knowledge than when you began your studies here, for those kinds of straight facts and bits of knowledge can indeed be gained merely from individual study or reading of books. I mean you will develop a whole new, different way of looking at the world and addressing the questions it raises for you than you had before.
What does it mean to be an educated person? Richard C. Levin, the President of Yale has said "The essence of liberal education is to develop the freedom to think critically and independently, to cultivate one's mind to its fullest potential, to liberate oneself from prejudice, superstition and dogma." In the challenging times in which your generation is coming of age, to think critically and independently means not only that you must have the ability to reason logically, but that you must be able to reason logically about highly complex subjects for which a strong foundational knowledge of mathematics, the life sciences, physical sciences and social sciences is a must. It means you must have excellent analytical and communication skills, both oral and written, that permit you to read and comprehend complex materials and arguments, then respond to them and the questions they raise lucidly and persuasively.
It means you must know and understand how the forces of history, culture, religion and economics shape the world we live in. The education you receive at UNM will not give you the answers to the pressing questions facing your generation, but it will help you appreciate why these questions must be raised and why you must help answer them. The ideas, concepts and ways of thinking you will be exposed to by our faculty and will explore in our libraries, classrooms and labs will better prepare you to address the questions of personal and national importance that will define the world you live in and that your children will live in.
Think simply of the many issues our nation is wrestling with today.
What are the moral and ethical implications of pursuing scientific discoveries that in the wrong hands can unleash human and environmental devastation?
When do considerations of race, gender and wealth in the allocation of educational and economic opportunities contribute to creating a more cohesive and just society and when do they diminish it?
How well does democracy serve the common good if the pursuit of economic self-interest leads to a breakdown in the commitment of succeeding generations to sacrifice in order to provide for the needs of the next?
Is the security and well being of our families and the future of our country best served by a foreign policy in which the U.S unilaterally pursues its own sovereign interests, or are our interests best served by recognizing the growing economic and political interdependence of nations and working to promote multinational efforts to solve humanitarian and political crises around globe?
These are just some of the questions already before you that your generation will have to answer. You may have other, more personal ones, of your own that you are already seeking answers to. What does it mean to be fully human? What is the nature of beauty? How do I understand myself? How do I understand others? How do I understand the physical forces, or the social forces, that shape the world I live in? How do I change the world?
For many, an important question will be "Can I discover these new ways of thinking and being - and find new ways to consider the world I live in - without giving up who I am and where I came from?" Your education here in the classroom and away from the classroom will help you find ways to think about and address these questions. Your ability to think critically and independently, your foundational knowledge of the world and how it works, the specialized knowledge of a subject you work hard to master thoroughly, all these will prepare you not just to be informed citizens but to make the most of the opportunities that will lie before you once you graduate.
I said earlier not to forget that as you sit here today you are indeed the fortunate ones. For you get to wrestle with the questions that have animated the human spirit and fueled a passion for human inquiry since man first began to reason. That is a special and rare privilege, so make the most of it. Dedicate yourself to the greatest extent possible to your studies. There are no shortcuts to knowledge and understanding. And no matter how great the temptation to put off school and work longer hours may be, it will detract from your once in a lifetime opportunity to immerse yourself in the process of developing the habits of mind you aspire to have as an educated person.
As you think about what the educational journey that you have embarked upon means to you and how to get the most out of it, never forget that most of your fellow human beings who inhabit this planet will never have the luxury to spend any time, much less a significant portion of their lives, dedicated to cultivating their minds to their fullest potential. I ask you to draw three conclusions from that fact. First, promise yourself to make the most of this opportunity. Promise yourself that you will work harder than you have ever worked before and that you will not ever give up.
Second, recognize your responsibility to give something back to those less fortunate than you. We were all of us blessed by accidents of birth and good fortune to have been encouraged at some point in our lives to develop our intellectual abilities in ways others never are. We could easily not have been. Be one of those who, recognizing what you were given, share this good fortune with others.
And third, use your time and talents well, as students and, some day soon, as graduates. Be good stewards of all you have been given. Many people believe in you and your potential to contribute to the common good. Prove them right.
Let me say again, I am delighted to welcome you, the class of 2007 to the University of New Mexico. I wish each and every one of you well in the years ahead and look forward to traveling this road with you.
Godspeed and Go Lobos!
