Chancellor’s Remarks: Winter Commencement

Chancellor John D. Wiley
Sunday, December 23, 2001, Kohl Center

It gives me great pleasure and pride to welcome you to the 148th commencement of the University of Wisconsin–Madison and to say, on behalf of the faculty and staff of this university, congratulations to the class of 2001. We also welcome and thank all of the parents, family and friends of the graduates. We know this occasion is as important for you as it is for the graduates themselves.

Graduates, we come together today to recognize and celebrate your achievements and the knowledge and experience you have gained during your time here. We wish you well as you start your careers. The world is a very different place today than it was when you first enrolled here. The atrocities of September 11 have changed the economies, the assumptions and the traditions and security, not just of this country, but of every country on Earth.

I’m proud to say that in the months since September 11, you have given abundant evidence that UW–Madison students have what it takes to face these challenges.

In the days following the attacks, thousands of you joined faculty and staff in lending support to your peers, analyzing the events of the day, and trying to make sense of something so senseless. You turned out by the thousands to participate in memorial services and in pledge and blood drives that provided tens of thousands of dollars and hundreds of gallons of blood to those in urgent need. A great many of you, through listening sessions, e-mails and conversations on the street, offered me you advice on ways to make this campus a safer and more welcoming place for everyone.

You, the graduates of 2001, chose not to ignore the new challenges, but to learn more about them and to begin crafting effective ways to approach and eventually solve them. These are the characteristics of future leaders and doers, and I know I speak for the entire university community when I tell you we’re very proud of you.

Recent events have illustrated dramatically how the world can change in the blink of an eye, presenting you with new circumstances. You must be willing to step up and lead when those changes happen. You must use your undeniable abilities to think and to analyze, trying to anticipate not just the immediate consequences of your choices, but the downstream consequences as well.

Sometimes you’ll be wrong, despite your best efforts. In those cases, too, it will be your ability to analyze and to learn that will put you back on track. That’s why we have such great confidence in you.

As you leave this building today, you’ll be joining nearly 400,000 alumni who live in every state of the U.S. and nearly every country in the world. Make the most of that. I encourage you to stay connected to your local alumni chapters wherever you are. Through the (Wisconsin) Alumni Association, you will be able to network, to stay current about happenings on campus, and to provide valuable feedback to us on how we’re doing – what we’re doing right and what we’re doing wrong.

On behalf of the entire university, I thank you for helping to improve this institution while you were here, I congratulate you on completing your courses of study, and I wish you great success along whatever paths you follow in the future.