Posted by I’ve been to at least four University commencement ceremonies in my lifetime (not including my own). The list of keynote speakers is pretty impressive, I think – the Secretary for HUD under President Bill Clinton, Bono and Jodie Foster at UPenn and some other notable at Johns Hopkins. They all gave fine speeches, stressing the privilege & responsibility that comes with a college degree; extolling the virtues of academics and that the graduates would soon become the leaders of the world, etc.
I don’t remember who gave the keynote speech when I graduated from Pitt. He was some wealthy and successful alum, I’m sure, but he wasn’t Bono. However, he gave me the proudest moment I ever had in my four years at Pitt. He was saying much of the same that the others had said – privilege, responsibility, learning, scholarship, etc. But then he said something that I’ll never forget (and I’m paraphrasing), “Some of you are the 2nd, 3rd or even 4th generation in your family to earn a college degree. But a good many of you, like me, are the first in your family ever to go to and graduate from college.”
And a roar went up from the crowd! So many people immediately stood up and started cheering and clapping. One of my friends, whom I was sitting beside and have known since 6th or 7th grade, stood up on the seat of his chair and start whoopin’ and hollerin’.
That made me realise how much of a privilege it really is to go to college. For me, I almost always thought of it as a right; something that was inevitable. But it wasn’t necessarily a given for my boy. He worked his way through Pitt; he did it on his own and I know a few from Pitt who did the same. Some of them even took a few extra semesters to graduate because they had work and go to school at the same time.
Oh sure, there are those who work their way thru the “elite” univerisities like UPenn or Harvard or Cal Tech. But I wonder how much of a reaction Bono would’ve gotten if he’d said the same thing at UPenn. It wouldn’t have been a roar, I assure you of that, maybe a smattering of applause. College is a place where some of us go to make sure we can maintain or increase the already high standard of living that our parents gave us. But for many more, it is a place to go to uplift their lives.
Although there is no deficiency of high scholarship at a state school like Pitt, its greatest purpose is provide a college education to those whose means might preclude them from paying “Ivy League” tuitions rates. If we are to endeavor to live in a society that places its highest ideals in scholastic merit and social & economic opportunity, then let us pause the next time someone talks about the superiority of places like UPenn, CMU or Harvard.
LET’S GO PITT? D*mn right!
