Commencement only marks beginning of education

On behalf of the UCLA faculty, I would like to congratulate all
of you who are completing your bachelor’s degrees. The
ancient Greek writer Aeschylus suggests in his
“Oresteia” that we must suffer into knowledge. It has
been our privilege as faculty members to help you to do that. We
trust that your college experience hasn’t been all pain, and
we hope to have assisted you in gaining perspicacity. We wish you
well as you embark on the next phase of your lives, whether you are
going immediately into your working careers or continuing your
educations. We know that the friends you made during your
undergraduate days will continue to provide comradeship and support
for the rest of your lives. We hope that you will also stay in
contact with your UCLA mentors.

When you walk in your commencement ceremonies in a few days, you
will move from being our students to being our colleagues. You will
take the knowledge, wisdom, idealism, pragmatism and tenacity that
you learned at UCLA and use them to contribute to a larger
community ““ both national and global. Most importantly, you
will leave UCLA as informed citizens who understand some of the
issues involved in areas like global warming or stem cell research,
ancient Asia and contemporary Latin America, film, art and music;
you can converse and read literature in dozens of languages, and
you have insight into diverse cultures of the world and complex
secrets of the physical universe. Many of you will become mentors
in your turn.

To commence is also to begin a new phase of your lives. Remember
the good times at UCLA, but also remember the tough times, the
professors who wouldn’t let you settle for less, who demanded
your best and let you know when you were just coasting. We hope to
have challenged you to become the best scholars, citizens and
persons you could be. And we hope those challenges will serve you
well as you face new opportunities and possibilities. Remember
UCLA’s people, classes, activities; most of all, remember the
wisdom ““ not of your professors, but the wisdom you developed
here yourselves.

I was asked to provide some tips for your lives in the
“real world” beyond Westwood. They will sound familiar
““ even cliched ““ but my tips are these. Care
passionately; work ceaselessly; win humbly; lose graciously ““
and enjoy all of it. Never be afraid to express your own opinion,
but be even more fearless in defending the right of others to
express theirs. Don’t hesitate to change your mind if wise
arguments convince you to do so. Intelligence doesn’t consist
of always being right, but rather of being willing to think through
an issue, to consider all of its complexities and ambiguities.
Whether you came to it through Kafka or Einstein, you have learned
that what one sees depends very much on the position one occupies.
Be willing to shift your positions a little to find out how someone
else might see things. You may return to your first opinion, but
you will understand better why you hold it.

Don’t waste time worrying about what you can’t
change, but do change for the better whenever you can. Don’t
wait to pursue your passions. This is the rest of your life. Decide
what you really love, and then find a way to earn a living doing
it. If that means more education, pursue it. If it means starting
your work life, do that with enthusiasm and determination.

We hope, as your teachers, not so much to have given you all the
answers, but rather to have given you all the tools you need to ask
the right questions and wrestle out your own solutions.

Believe that you can change the world; you have the tools you
need to do it. Use them well.

Komar is the 2004-2005 chairwoman of UCLA’s Academic
Senate.