NFL Hall of Famer and Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Alan Page stood before some 1,300 graduates and their guests at Ithaca College's 113th Commencement on May 18 and asked, "What's wrong with this picture? How is it that we have a former football player speaking at a commencement ceremony? After all, we know that football players are nothing more than dumb jocks."
Page answered his own question by reminding his audience that athletic achievement and academic performance are not mutually exclusive, citing himself as a prime example. Voted to nine consecutive Pro Bowls as a defensive lineman for the Minnesota Vikings, Page is also the first African-American to be elected to the Minnesota Supreme Court. In 1988 -- the same year he was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame -- he and his wife Diane established the Page Education Foundation to motivate and assist young people of color in pursuing their educational goals.
"The simple fact is, long before I was a football player, my parents, who knew and understood the importance of education, made sure I knew and understood it as well ... They, along with other family members, were my role models, my heroes, and as role models and heroes, they made it clear to me by both word and deed that if I were going to have a better life than they had, I had to be educated, and I had to be a good citizen."
One of the cornerstones of good citizenship, said Page, is being able to work with others to build a better society. And building a better society starts by living in racial harmony.
"Clearly, much has changed for the better," said Page. "I no longer have to sit in the back of the bus or drink from a separate water fountain ... Although we have eliminated the state-sponsored apartheid Dr. King talked about, we have yet to reach his promised land of racial equality ... While we may be better at covering up our biases, making bias harder to detect is not the same as making it go away."
The only way to honestly address the issues of race that confront us, Page said, is to look inward and eliminate our own biases. We can do that by making sure our feelings about other people are based on the individual rather some perceived characteristics of a racial group.
Page told the new graduates that student loans, rising gasoline prices, and uncertain job prospects are not valid reasons to dismiss their responsibility to society at large.
"Because the problems we face are complex, we tend to think in terms of complex solutions. Or we make it someone else's problem. As a result, individual effort seems insignificant. But I believe that the steps we take as individuals can be significant."
Whether it's volunteering in a homeless shelter, assisting the disabled, or working with children in the schools, individuals do have the power to change the future. "You don't need to be a supreme court justice or even a football hero to make change happen," Page said. "Everyone here ... has the ability, the opportunity, and I believe the obligation to make this world a better place. All we have to do is act, and act we must."
The ceremony began with Bill Schwab '68, chairman of the Ithaca College Board of Trustees, and Kathleen Rountree, provost and vice president for academic affairs, naming President Peggy R. Williams as president emerita and awarding her with an honorary doctor of letters degree. The two honors recognize Williams for her outstanding accomplishments, exemplary leadership, and many contributions to American higher education. She will retire at the end of May after 11 years as the College's president.
"Our community has benefited greatly from a leader with unmatched energy and a staunch belief in public service, who has increased the institution's prestige and national reputation, and who has been a role model for women throughout higher education," Schwab said. "In recognition of her unequaled contributions to this institution, we extend our enduring friendship to Peggy and [her husband] David, and our heartfelt wishes for health and happiness."
The assembly also heard from senior class president Tiffany Casale, who joined her fellow class officers in presenting President Williams and Steve White '66, trustee and past president of the Ithaca College Alumni Association, with the class gift. In addition to $15,987 to be used for various allocations, Casale and her classmates raised $25,000 in support of the Class of 2008 Scholarship for Experiential Learning, which will provide financial assistance for students doing unpaid internships.
In addressing her fellow graduates and their guests, Casale talked about the importance of developing maturity and insight. "These past four years have been about choices, chances, circumstance, and change," she said. "Around every corner is an opportunity to gain just a little more perspective on what life is all about. College is an experience like no other."
That experience has come to an end, Casale said, and graduation day is a time to remember it fondly. However, Casale added, this is not a time to dwell on the past but to look ahead for new ways of learning.
"Ithaca College has been a comfort to us," Casale said. "We have grown to love it, rely on it, need it, but ... it is time to let it go ... Trying something new is scary and uncomfortable at first, but in reality, it is inevitable, and there is something adventurous about the whole process."
Peggy Williams then spoke to an Ithaca College Commencement audience as president for the final time, directing her comments to the inscription on the medallions traditionally passed out to the graduates before they enter the stadium. This year the quotation is from His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, who visited the College last October: "With realization of one's own potential and self-confidence in one's ability, one can build a better world."
The Dalai Lama's words reminded Williams of the address she gave at her 1998 inauguration, when she expressed her hope that all Ithaca College graduates would develop their inner resources and individual potential, while at the same time fulfilling their responsibilities to their families, friends, and the larger society.
"The development of each of these capacities is equally good and important," Williams said. "These capacities are not contradictory. They are not mutually exclusive. However, they must be kept in balance ... We must guard against an overemphasis on development of one's individual potential at the cost of neglecting the development of the capacity for citizenship."
The value of a college education, Williams added, comes from imparting the wisdom needed to achieve that balance. "This is what the words of His Holiness tell us -- the development of potential and of self-confidence is the foundation upon which a better world will be built. Because of your considerable efforts and achievements here, you are well prepared to provide the compassion and intelligent leadership this world needs and the Dalai Lama is asking us to give."
Nearing the end of her remarks, Williams acknowledged that, for the first time in her tenure as president, she would be joining the ranks of new graduates as they embark on a path leading away from Ithaca College.
"You are not done," Williams said. "Commencement means beginning. As you leave here today, carry with you the words ... on your medallion and the ideas which they proclaim. Commit yourselves to reflect upon them from time to time, and to assess the extent to which you are living up to those words and those ideas. I, too, will carry these words with me as I, too, am not done."
https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/20080518162542288