NYIT - Office of the President

	Slouching Toward A Global University: The Enlightenment 2.0
	Opening of the 2009-2010 Academic Year, Nanjing Campus
	NYIT 2009 State-of-the-Institution Address: Transformation Revealed
	Salute to the Class of 2009, Amman
	Salute to the Class of 2009, Abu Dhabi
	Salute to the Class of 2009, Bahrain
	Salute to the Class of 2009, NYCOM
	Salute to the Class of 2009, New York: Celebrating Knowledge Capital
	A Welcome to the U.S. Secretary of Education
	Opening of the 2008-2009 Academic Year, Nanjing Campus
	Universities and Technology: Models and Experiences of Innovation in the Education Process
	Renewable Energy Energy-Efficiency: Designing and Implementing Sustainable Energy Projects
	NYIT State-of-the-Institution Address
	Welcome Address at NYIT's International Water Conference at the United Nations
	Banishing Barriers and Borders: 21st-Century Classroom Technology and the Changing Face of Students and Professors
	Salute to the Class of 2008, Abu Dhabi
	Salute to the Class of 2008, Jordan
	Salute to the Class of 2008, Bahrain
	Salute to the Class of 2008, New York
	A Conversation about Educational Globalization

Salute to the Class of 2008, New York
05/18/2008

Thank you, thank you, and good morning to everyone.

First things first: I am proud to begin by celebrating why we are here by congratulating our graduating students on completing a long but rewarding course. Congratulations, 2008 Graduates! Bravo.

There are many reasons to celebrate today.

The 9,000 or so of us here have journeyed from around the corner and around the globe. Among today's graduates are some who traveled to study with us from Jericho and Japan, from Brooklyn and Bhutan. Nearly 300 of our new graduates here today studied at NYIT sites abroad or in cyberspace, and we are happy to welcome them to Old Westbury, N.Y., a home they can always count on.

In all, you represent 50 states and 98 nations. Worldwide, this academic year NYIT is graduating 4,453 students; 45 percent have earned undergraduate degrees; 55 percent are getting graduate and post-graduate degrees.

What a weekend for us. Hooded yesterday at our ceremony at Lincoln Center and with us today are 281 new osteopathic physicians, who will take good medical care of us, included among them 28 émigré physicians - that is, practicing physicians who emigrated to the United States from far and wide and went back to school for years to become licensed to practice medicine here.

Also, yesterday afternoon on the athletic field that our graduates just lined up on, right outside this tent, NYIT hosted the NCAA Division II men's lacrosse championship semifinals. I am delighted to report an NYIT victory. Good luck, gentlemen, when you play for the national championship next Sunday in Massachusetts at Gillette Stadium. The game will be televised on the CBS College Sports Network. Go Bears!

It was one rich and thrilling Saturday at this vibrant 21st-century university.

Just as today is vibrant. And let's say hello to all of those who are watching this ceremony via webcast or on big-screen TVs at our global campuses.

It is a privilege to recognize the seven members of the NYIT Choir who opened our program with their rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner. And our student marshals.

Recently, at a graduation dinner I was speaking with one of the choir members up on this dais. She was born and raised in Hong Kong. I thought to myself, well, that's the world today. Five years ago, she probably did not know a single word of the anthem, perhaps had never heard it played, and at her college graduation 8,000 miles away from home, she's singing it to thousands of people.

At the same dinner table was one of our student marshals who is the co-winner of one of our highest awards, the Dorothy Schure Memorial Award, which recognizes students whose extracurricular activities reflect dedication to the community at large. She is from Pakistan. Well, not exactly. Her parents are Pakistani and so is she, but she was born in Egypt and raised in Zambia and Malawi.

These are but a few of the many remarkable stories inside this tent.

Here's the relevant point, however.

I'm sure 8 or 10 years ago, these students and their families could never have imagined this moment. New York is far from their homes in more than distance. Graduating from an American university in New York and standing on this stage were simply not among conceivable projections.

All of you graduates cannot envision the special opportunities that will come your way, in 8 or 10 or 30 years, or predict the future, or envision the changes and possibilities that will shape your lives in the rapidly evolving 21st century.

You are, however, heading out into a world with tremendous opportunities.

Seize them because you never know when others will emerge.

Don't let fear dictate your life choices.

I hope the little I have said thus far demonstrates how extraordinary a university you are graduating from with more than 100 undergraduate concentrations and more than 25 graduate programs. An institution of higher learning that is rooted in the great traditions of the academy but is forward-thinking and a prototype of a global university for our times.

Today's occasion, of course, celebrates the ending of a phase of your life and academic years and the beginning of a new phase. That's why it is called a commencement. Before I grant your degrees and repeat the telling associated statement: "with all the rights, titles, privileges, and responsibilities pertaining thereto" … and before the faculty and I send you out into the world, there is one last hurdle that each student class must surmount. It's the peculiar but time-honored tradition in our academic culture of sitting through a commencement address. We're doing fine, though, it's one third completed.

Let me confess that I do not recall who spoke at my undergraduate commencement or anything he or she said. More embarrassing to me is that I do not even remember who the president of the university was. Well, at least for today I hope you know who the president of your university is.

But I do have some strong memories of that day. And I submit that virtually everyone here on the dais and those of you who have ever taken part in a graduation ceremony have today reflected on your own graduation. Whether that day was four years or 40 years ago, I am confident we all shared the same emotions our graduates are feeling today: excitement, pride, impatience to get on with life, hope and optimism for a bright professional and personal future, but also fear and uncertainty about the future. Some of it financial, some of it personal.

Looking back, I was too young to recognize fear. I was full of optimism and curiosity.

I had some anxieties though; it took me until the middle of my senior year in college to figure out what I wanted to do after graduation. Frankly, I was more curious and concerned about where and how I would live than what I would ultimately become. Becoming a university president certainly was not on any personal radar screen.

Life is lived in episodes or stages, and you are passing out of one phase now, and there are many to come, so don't worry too much about your distant future. No one can predict the future.

Because we award more graduate than undergraduate degrees at NYIT, the average age of today's graduates is 28 years old. When I was 28, I had earned a Ph.D. and had already found my way to New York Institute of Technology as a full-time faculty member. Surprised me. But still no blip of a university presidency had crossed my imagination.

On the personal front, I was recently married to a well-educated European, and she was sorting out some life choices in America and operating on the low rungs of a business career.

As some of you know, my wife Mireille went on to become a high-profile corporate CEO, and if that wasn't enough, most recently an internationally best-selling author. Amazing.

At 28, neither she nor I could have foreseen these opportunities or outcomes. They were simply unimaginable … but turned out to be real. You never know.

So, in returning to an earlier theme, let me offer a quote from my favorite French philosopher, Mireille, who has written:

"Don't let fear be a barrier to achieving your ambitions. Too often we become paralyzed by worry over the worst things that can happen. We lack confidence, self esteem and security, panic over financial risk, get locked into careers and lifestyles that are not what we dreamed for ourselves or can achieve for ourselves. Our passions get displaced. Remember, life is lived in stages. And your success is not defined by others' expectations for you, in the end it is you being true to yourself."

As you enter the next stage of your lives, graduates, this century is the age of education without borders. It is one of the unanticipated changes that this global digital revolution has spawned.

In our global economy, ideas know no borders and human capital is no longer seen as the domain of a few developed nations. The fact that universities endure points to their special place in society as serving the collective good. Their place has never been more vital to our world's future.

At the university level, we are gearing up to teach 100 million students worldwide, in a world where only one in six humans live in a developed nation. We are inventing new paradigms and erasing old notions of geography. It's fun, it's a challenge, it is good, it is essential.

You have a role to play as well. With the "rights, privileges, and responsibilities" of the NYIT degree you will be awarded today comes the charge to use your knowledge and skills toward making the world a better place.

To work collaboratively to meet some of our greatest challenges - whether environmental, medical, educational, social, or political.

In this age of communications, today's superhighways are digital, facilitating new connectivity and collaborations that bridge continents and cultures. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates notes that "the emergence of low-cost personal computers gave rise to a powerful network that has transformed opportunities for learning and communicating."

He said that "the magical thing about this network is not just that it collapses distance and makes everyone your neighbor … It also dramatically increases the number of brilliant minds we can have working together on the same problem … and that scales up the rate of innovation to a staggering degree."

The challenge for those brilliant minds - and many of those minds are on our faculty, in our classrooms, or in the audience today about to enter the NYIT alumni pool - is to dedicate themselves to solving our biggest problems.

Graduates, do take up that charge. You certainly have your work cut out for you.

You will witness incredible things if you embrace innovation, collaboration and technology. Bandages and emollients that heal instantly. New cures for cancer and other life-threatening diseases. Medical advances aimed at drawing us nearer than ever to the legendary fountain of youth.

You will probe new worlds, scour the Milky Way for signs of intelligent life, and who knows … perhaps establish contact.

Down here on the ground, you will continue the search for clean and efficient renewable energy.

You will finally solve the conflict between economic progress and the preservation of the planet. You will capture the power of the sun, the waves, and the wind. Feed the poor, create new economic, political and social systems.

Globalization and technology will transform what it means to be "at work" or "at the office."

You will make room in your life for pesky robots. Come face to face with brain chips.

Put silicon in the museum. Repeal Moore's Law. Replace the Internet. See the end of garbage as we know it …

You will also see nanotechnology "zapping" tumors with molecular-level machines.

Through it all, it's technology that will be the wind at your back. Used properly, it will serve, rather than limit you. You already have a deep appreciation of technology. You chose to attend New York Institute of Technology, didn't you?

So no matter how cool the latest gadgets may be today, whether it's the Nintendo Wii or the iPhone, they will soon become the technological equivalents of the wooden paddle and rubber ball tied together with a string. I used to like that. By definition, technology is about invention and reinvention.

We cannot conceive of what the next decades will bring us, but where there are vast unknowns, there are vast opportunities.

Today, you can take pride that you are graduating from a 21st-century university that understands and strives to address the primary challenges of this century … we do so in our classrooms, in our research labs, on our campuses … and hopefully in our lives. We understand that universities are where ideas are created and shared, that it is our obligation … our very purpose …to develop human capital while preparing you for jobs and as stewards of the environment and healthful living.

Today, you can take pride that you are graduating from a 21st-century university that has long understood the need to develop sustainable energy initiatives, well before it was the popular thing to do … long before Al Gore was giving speeches and Sheryl Crow was doing bus tours publicizing the perils of global warming.

We've done so with hybrid cars as far back as the 1970s and more recently with our students designing and building two cutting-edge solar homes. Others at NYIT are engaged in ongoing research in photovoltaics and solar carports.

Today, you can take pride that you are graduating from a 21st-century university that has long understood the need for new approaches to traditional medicine and delivering medical care to underserved populations.

Universities must not only play a role in medical research and training doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals, but they must also function as public servants to their communities. And they must recognize and serve the ever-aging population. (That's a personal appeal.)

So, graduates, the future 2.0, 4.0, 8.0 awaits.

As you join 73,000 alumni worldwide, remember that NYIT is both your alma mater and a point of origination as you navigate those digital roads … that while your higher education grew up here, education is truly a lifelong pursuit that will take you anywhere you really want to go.

Go out and explore. Create. Remake the world, and enjoy yourselves as you do it.

In closing, let me share a few simple guidelines I've offered to graduating classes before you.

When you leave here today, always remember to: Think deeply, speak gently, love much, laugh often, work hard, give freely - especially to NYIT - pay promptly … and be kind. Congratulations to our 2008 graduates. We salute you.