Hillary Clinton's Commencement Speeches

Thank you and good morning. I am so deeply honored and personally delighted to be here for this first commencement. There is no place I'd rather be than here with all of you; not only wishing you well for the future, but thanking you for being pioneers on behalf of excellence in education, on behalf of this great historic university, this absolutely wonderful city that we love and our country.

And I have to thank the Chancellor for his very kind introduction. He was such a visionary about what needed to be done. And also, Terry Schmidt, thank you and all of your trustees for what you have also seen as en essential part of educational excellence and opportunity now manifested in this graduating class. And to the faculty who made sure all who have put into practice the vision, I salute and commend you.

I join also in acknowledging and thanking everyone who has been apart of this extraordinary adventure because it has been. There was no guarantee that this would be the great success that it has turned out to be. There was no guarantee when each of you decided to forego opportunities to pursue your college education elsewhere, and decided instead not only to stay in the city, but to take a chance on this new Honors College.

It is appropriate that we would hold this ceremony in this great hall. I think a little bit of historical context is in order. This great hall here at the Union is one of the places that served as a debate and discourse center for our country, located here in New York City. It has a storied legacy. It was the platform here that served to inspire and motivate some of the earliest campaigns on behalf of workers rights, on behalf of the NAACP, the women's suffrage movement, the American Red Cross, teachers, and senators, and audiences of decades past were gathered here. Moved by concern and hope that they should be part of changing this city, this state, the country, indeed the world.

So many distinguished Americans have stepped to this podium, and some are particularly well know for the speeches they gave from here. We all remember the famous speech that President Abraham Lincoln gave here that really tried to outline the importance of pursuing our highest ideals as the country was splitting apart over the question of slavery. Other presidents have also stood here, Grant, Cleveland, Taft, Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and of course Bill Clinton. In fact, President Clinton spoke here on May 12, 1993 about the importance of dealing with the federal deficit. And we'll have to hear that speech again.

When we think back to your decision to come here, that's really what we celebrate today. The history, the contributions of the CUNY system are almost beyond description -- they changed and opened the doors of opportunity for successive generations of Americans. Many of them were like many of you, the first in their family to attend and finish college.

But when the idea for the Honors College and University Scholars first took birth, there were some who argued against it, some who believed it wasn't necessary, some who thought that students of your caliber and your ambition should find somewhere else to go to school. That CUNY had a different mission. But as we heard from Chairman Schmidt what's been unique about CUNY throughout its entire life has been it's commitment of dual purposes of opening the doors to educational opportunity and pursuing the highest level of academic excellence. That is where all of you come in.

When you made the decision to enroll in this new idea, you were audacious, and you were subversive. You took a big chance; I know something about taking chances and you can never predict what will happen when you take these chances. I took and chance and the people of New York took a chance on me when I ran for the Senate.

But life is filled with opportunities taken, differed, or regretted. You took the road not only less taken, it had never been taken. And it was your class that has truly created this Honors College. For all the work the faculty, and the administration, the supporters who hoped it would be a success, none of them bore any of the responsibility that you did. You seized this opportunity, and you have acquitted yourselves individually and together extraordinarily well.

Fewer than 800 students applied to be members of this inaugural class, but thanks to you, to your accomplishments, to your spreading the word, to your family's pride now we've seen more than 2500 applicants to be part of the CUNY Honors class of 2009. So I congratulate you not only for all the work that you yourself did to charter your own future, but for being a part of this experiment.

And this experiment is in the tradition of CUNY and is in the tradition of this great city. America is particularly New York; it's always in a process to reinvention. People come here from all over the world, not just foreign countries, but places like Washington DC; and Arkansas; to chart a new course for their own lives.

As I look at this audience of proud families and friends, I know that for many of you New York would also be a place of dreams. But dreaming alone is not a basis for life. Dreaming has to be connected to preparation and perspiration. It has to be part of an idea of what you can become by following the course you set.

Now clearly that course can take some detours. You can decide you want to change your major from bio to creative writing. You can conclude that what you thought would be your life's work would be an avocation instead. You can have an internship or experience in the City that opens your mind to new people and new ideas that you would never have encountered in your family, in your neighborhood, or in your previous education. And it's through that process that you evolve as a human being, that you do ask the hard questions. Many of life's harder questions are never answerable, it is the searching, it is the commitment to asking those questions that counts.

CUNY was that kind of commitment for previous generations of New Yorkers and Americans. And it was part of a rather amazing decision on the part of Americans back in the 19th century to open up higher education more broadly than it had ever been envisioned in any other society in the history of the world. At that time and still today in so many places, higher education was only for the elite. Oh, meritocracy might enter in if when someone was extraordinarily gifted and those gifts spotted and nurtured. But by and large, higher education was for a relatively small, select few.

Abraham Lincoln in his very first announcement for political office at he age of 23, when he decided to run for a seat in the Illinois general assembly, spoke primarily about the importance of education. Here was a man who was largely self-taught. Stories of him reading by the firelight or the candlelight, walking miles to borrow and return books was part of his legend.

By the age of 23, he realized that education was the most important subject not just for him, not just because it enabled him to move beyond his parent's lives, but it was important for society. Here's what he said: "Upon the subject of education, not presuming or dictating any plan or system affecting it, I can only say that I view it as the most important subject which we as a people may be engaged in."

Now Abraham Lincoln lost that first election, in fact he finished 8th in a field on 13, but he never lost his commitment to the importance of education. In the middle of the civil war, which killed more Americans unfortunately and was certainly the bloodiest conflict in our nation's history, he decided to ask for legislation and funding to create a system of land grant colleges. Now one would think that a president, particularly in those early years of the civil war when it didn't look for certain that the union would be preserved, would be focused completely on issues of war. But he understood something that some leaders forget: that in America we have to be investing today for a better future tomorrow. And there is no greater return on any investment than that of education.

So we began this effort in the United States to create a system of higher education which has been one of the reasons for America's economic, political, and social success. There may be some arguments about whether it is the top reason or the second reason, but there is no doubt that it is one of the most significant reasons.

We didn't give a test to our children at the age of 12 or 13 or 16 to decide some were suited for higher education, but most were not. We tried to not only create this broad based system of public and private institutions, but also then to provide support, financial support so that students from families of modest means would be able to attend college. And look what we have achieved as a nation.

But I don't think there has ever been any system of higher education with greater claim to fulfilling the mission of providing educational opportunity and academic excellence to as many students as possible as the CUNY system.

And what is so unique about this system, is that it has community colleges, and it has an honors college, and it has everything in between. 450,000 students, by far the largest system that is placed in one area with a common administration that does so much for so many.

We have to nurture this dream of higher education. We're so proud of this class, and they have deserved not only our plaudits, but they support they have received from family, from faculty, and from generous donors.

But for many of our young people in America today, and right here in New York, it is getting more expensive to go on to college, to graduate within 4, 5, 6 years. The financial pressure on so many families of modest means is pricing a first-class college degree out of their reach.

So in addition to your being pioneers, you're also living reminders of why we as a city, a state, and a nation must continue to keep faith with the promise of higher education.

I think of each of you in this class as not only being pioneers for what you have achieved thus far, but bearing a special responsibility going forward. You will go out and pursue additional education, professional responsibility. But I also hope that you will consider ways you can be outspoken voices for the importance of public education, of the level of excellence you have received here. And you will remind those with whom you come in contact that this city took a chance on you, and you didn't let us down. You decided that you would take this opportunity that has been offered to you and make the very most of it you could.

You did it at a point in the history of the city and our country when many are asking questions about what the future holds for the United States. The events of September 11th marked your class just as it marked the city and the country. Each of us have asked ourselves, what are our obligations to one another. How do I pursue a life of meaning and success, but also one that makes a contribution so that perhaps we can move together into a more positive future?

It is this change, this contract of commitment and contribution that has enabled our country to grow. But it depends upon each generation picking it up, committing themselves to it and moving forward as a gear in force. City engagement as always been important, from CUNY, to this great hall, to this city that stands both as a beacon of liberty and as a refute to those who still believe people from everywhere with so many different belief systems, so many different experiences can live together. Stop for a minute and contemplate how miraculous it is that 8 million people live in relative peace and harmony, pursuing their lives, pursuing their hopes and dreams all together.

When we look across the world today, we see the continuing stress of ethnic, and religion, and racial and other kinds of conflict. We see people who believe that they have the truth and they shouldn't have to ask or answer any questions. That they have somehow tapped into the divine and are there to tell the rest of us what to believe and how to live. What your education has equipped you to do is to hold onto, while you are seeking deeper into, your values and your beliefs. But also to open your arms to the world very much unlike perhaps your own thoughts, beliefs, opinions and values, but with which we must live and work.

That is why more than perhaps in a long time in our country and in our world, we need you. We need your ambition, your motivation, your intellect, your character.

We need you not only to pursue your life dreams, but to be part of renewing the American dream. And there is no place that better represents itself than New York City. There is no place that demonstrates more clearly what is best about America and what is possible in the world. So I am grateful to join with the many who are here to today to applaud you, and also to thank you. Thank you for being this pioneering first class that will set the standard and the tradition for those who follow.

But I am also here to challenge you. Continue to take risks and chances, continue to reach out and embrace the wider world. Continue to pursue both your personal ambition and your dreams for a better, more hopeful future.

One of my great personal heroines was Eleanor Roosevelt. The more I know about her, the more I admire her. A woman who may have come from privilege but had very little support in the family in which she was born. Who in a very American way invented herself. She once said: "You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the things which you think you cannot do."

You have done that. You came here, you took that chance. You looked around you and saw other students who were just as bright and just as motivated, you took a deep breath and you forged ahead. Don't forget that feeling; don't forget that step of accomplishment. There is no way to predict what life's journey holds for you. But you are now well armed. In time a time of almost constant and overwhelming change, we cannot stop change. We cannot turn the clocks back on time. We cannot turn the clocks back on the extraordinary movement of great and historic significance called democracy and this mirror image of nihilism sweeping the world.

But what we can do is decide that we will be prepared to do what we can to ensure that change works for us in what we value and what we believe. And the best insurance policy in a world of constant change is a good education.

So you are ready, and I wish you well. And I hope that our paths cross sometime in the future. You will be asking questions and you will be moving with your hopes and dreams and preparation intact to make this city, this state, this country and this world worthy of those dreams and those hopes. God speed the class of 2005.