MIT Commencement Program 2002 - Includes Address by James D. Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank Group
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SAMUEL J. KEYSER: For those of you who are watching this throughout the world, the umbrellas are not because it is raining. We're just very sensitive to the sun.
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We're going to take you, now, to the graduates. Look over at the large projection screen, and see if there's anyone you recognize. Graduates, can you hear us? Wave to your family and friends.
Great. Now, family and friends, wave to the graduates. They're all waving. Listen, guys, it's wet out here. And you're all dry in there. So hurry on over!
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Hello everybody, we're back in Killian Court, where it's drizzling a little harder. But it's still a drizzle. So we're going to take you now to the graduates.
MARK D'AVILA: Welcome back to the ice rink in Killian court. I'm now standing here with Erika Brown, who's graduating today with a master's in aeronautics and astronautics, and Ahron Herring, who's graduating with a dual degree, with a master's in business administration and a master's in real estate development. Erika, what was the most challenging thing you did while you've been at MIT?
ERIKA BROWN: I think so far, the most challenging thing, Mark, has been working with a group, the Mars Gravity Bio Satellite. It's interdisciplinary. We get to mix science, and engineering, and business, and law, and technology. And we get to work with an international group of students, which is absolutely incredible. MIT just opened so many doors like that.
MARK D'AVILA: Well, that sounds incredible. And Aaron, what's your fondest memory of being a student at MIT?
AHRON HERRING: I have to say, it must be sailing on the Charles, seeing the sun dappling the trees, and the buildings of MIT and Boston. And you get to meet people from all over MIT, not just from the departments that you're in. So it's just memories like that will stay with me for the rest of my life.
MARK D'AVILA: Sounds incredible. Erika, is there anything you'd like to share with your family and friends before we precess out there?
ERIKA BROWN: Well, I'd like to say hi Mom, hi dad, Hi Andy. Thank you so much for sitting out there in the rain and cold. I appreciate you both being here, all of you. Dad, I'm so glad I could come to your graduation. I'm grateful that you could at mine, thanks.
MARK D'AVILA: And Ahron.
AHRON HERRING: Well, I think Erika said it quite well. Mom, Dad, thanks so much for coming. Jani, especially, glad you're here representing the rest of the family. I know what it meant for all of you to come out here. So thank you.
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SAMUEL J. KEYSER: Ladies and gentlemen, the academic procession led by the Chief Marshal, will now enter Kilian Court.
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Ladies and gentlemen, the guests of honor, the class of 2002.
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ALEXANDER V. D'ARBELOFF: Corporation and the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are now declared convened together with this assembly on the occasion of the commencement exercises of this institution for the conferring of its degrees. The stage assembly and audience will please rise for the invocation by Reverend John Wuestneck, and remain standing to join the MIT Chorallaries in the singing of one verse of the Star-Spangled Banner.
JOHN WUESTNECK: Let us pray together. In our own voices and in our many tongues, we have countless, wonderful, and mysterious names for our God, the source of all being, great spirit, the one who is never fully known, the one who is ever present, Allah, Yahweh, the Christ, names which are as varied as this gathered community today.
And so we invoke our God this day, not bound by any name or image, and yet with us in our celebrations together. We are all grateful for the occasion of this commencement, for our individual accomplishments, achievements, and fulfillments. In our prayers, we thank those who have taught and guided us.
We hold dear our families and friends. We lift our colleagues and partners in our prayers. And after this day, we go to our parts of this planet we call home. There and then, we will continue to struggle to learn how to live together as the people of this world.
May all beings be safe and free from harm. May we be dedicated with all of humankind to find peace, joy, compassion, and justice, amen.
CHORALLARIES: Oh say can you see, by the dawn's early light, what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming. Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight o'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming, and the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave? O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave.
ALEXANDER V. D'ARBELOFF: Please be seated. I am pleased to welcome to the platform Mr. James D. Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank Group, and the honorable Michael A. Sullivan, mayor of the city of Cambridge. Mr. Wolfensohn will now give his address.
JAMES D. WOLFENSOHN: Chairman D'Arbeloff, President Vest, members of the corporation, the faculty, the administration, graduates, your families and friends, let me first say how deeply honored I am to be here in what is essentially a family celebration, a celebration for each of you on your achievements, a celebration at a very important moment in your lives, a moment when you are reflecting, a moment when you're looking forward. I feel deeply honored to be here, particularly as when I came this morning I recalled with my own personal pleasure my first visit from Australia in the mid-'50s, when I came past this wonderful building looking to buy a copy of Paul Samuelson's book on economics to try and help me get through a course a little bit down the road.
And this was an occasion for me when I for the first time put reality to my expectations and hopes derived in Australia about academic excellence, about opportunity, about a chance to come and work within a great country and in a great community, and to do so with the possibility of developing my own career. This is, indeed, a great institution, an institution that has enormous achievements in sciences, in social sciences, and achievements which have been marked by many previous commencement speakers and by the world at large.
But it's also an institution which is engaged very much not just on its past achievements, but on its future. And we, at our institution, feel very privileged to have relationships with you, and in particular on what I think may well be the most significant advance that this institution will ever have-- the advance in relation to the opening of your courses in the MIT OpenCourse program, in which we're engaged not just with our African Virtual University, but hopefully as the years progress in making possible the underlying knowledge, experience, and education forces that there are in this university. Let me say that from my point of view working in the bank, dealing with the issues of development, that this contribution may well be the greatest thing that you've ever done. And I congratulate you and applaud you for the opening of this prospect, not only to this country, but to the world.
I have come here this morning, as you might gather, a little bit nervous-- nervous because of the reaction to the World Bank, nervous because I see being held up grade cards with F on it. I'm particularly nervous about that, I might tell you, because, personally, I got too many of them when I went through university. And I thought that at this stage my record would be forgotten. And to be reminded of it as I come here today is a cruel blow.
So I would ask you just as a matter of personal dignity, if you'd turn it the other way. It will allow me, at least, to recognize that in the last 40 years I've come some distance. I've come some distance not in terms of academics, but in terms of being able to take some of the values, some of the experience, that I learned in this city, and have had the opportunity to apply it to a world that has been ever-changing and different. And it's to that I'd like to address just a few remarks to you this morning.
When I came to the United States over 40 years ago, I conceived of the world as a bipolar place, as a place in which there were the rich and the poor, a place in which there was the developing world and the developed world, the north and the south, a world that was divided. I conceived my own career as something that I reviewed in essentially personal terms. I wanted to get a graduate degree.
I wanted to deal with the issues of my own personal poverty. I wanted to deal with the questions of building a career. And I also thought, because I came from a distant country and I knew just a little about development, that it was the right thing, the moral and ethical thing, to take an interest in those less fortunate in the developing world. I felt comfortable on my graduation day, as I'm sure you do today, in my achievements.
I felt comfortable that I was behind the wall, that I had made it, and that I was now going to advance with all the sense of confidence that you get from the sort of achievements that you have remarkably made this day. And I thought of this other part of the world as being a world to which I would give part of my life. And then I'd come back and develop my life behind my wall.
I've learned in the last seven years that the world is not bipolar and simple, that the sort of thing that many of your students this morning were talking to me about, and cause some reaction very often to my own institution, the notion of globalization, the notion of the shrinking of the world, has occurred most significantly in this 40 years since my graduation. And, today, the world is a different place. For any that thought that you could live behind the wall, September the 11th was a moment when re-appraisal had to take place.
This was a moment when our country, and indeed the world, were shocked and shaken to recognize that events in Afghanistan, events in distant parts of the world, events in Islam, events in those areas where people were under pressure and disadvantaged, were not issues that could be conveniently kept outside a wall, but in fact were issues that impacted on us, that are part of the developed world, that the notion of two worlds is no longer real, that whether be it environment, or in health, or in crimes, or in migration, or in drugs, or in communications, or in terror, issues in one part of the world become issues in another part of the world.
And for my own organization, which focuses so much on the question of poverty, for our organization the question is, what is it that is the question of equity and social justice in that other part of the world? And how does it affect us in the privileged world? Well, if ever one had doubts, September the 11th, I believe, made us recognize the reality that was there on September the 10th, which is that poverty somewhere is poverty everywhere, that global issues are local issues, that issues of development are issues not just in developing countries, but issues for us.
The numbers are compelling we have a planet of 6 billion people. 5 billion of the people live in developing countries. 3 billion of the people live under $2 a day. And inequity is very clear. I have just come back from a trip to East Timor, Mongolia, China, the Middle East, through Central Asia. Each of these countries is different.
But each reflects a sense of inequity, uncertainty, although a burgeoning area of hope for many people. But for all too many, the question of inequity finds its evidence and finds its manifestation in hostility, in reaction, in a sense of abandonment. And that is an issue not just for those countries. Its an issue for us.
And as we look forward to the lifespan that you will have over the next 25, 30 years at least, our world becomes a world of 8 billion people. 7 billion people will be in the developing and transition economies 25 to 30 years from now. This is not a static situation. This is a situation where the 5 billion has 20% of the global assets and earnings.
And it's not a situation that can continue. It's a situation which is, essentially, unstable. And it's not a distant issue.
And so my message to you today is really a single and simple message. It's a message to say to you that whatever you judge of institutions like the Bank, or contributions of people of my generation, your challenge is the challenge of planetary equity. Your challenge is the challenge of taking the experience that you have had, of the education that you've had, of the careers that you're seeking to build, and view them not through the lens of a world that exists behind a non-existent wall, but to look at your future as a world in which your aspirations, your dreams are interdependent with those less fortunate wherever they are.
It is not an issue you can avoid. It's an issue that you not only can grasp, but to which you have been trained to advance. Let me give you just one minor example drawn from a different institution, and try and put in perspective what you have learned.
I was in Georgia with a recent graduate in the field of development and agricultural technology. We visited a farmer in a field. And this rather confident young man getting out of the car went to the farmer, and in pretty good Georgian, and said to him, if I can tell you how many sheep are in your field, will you give me one?
And the farmer in equally good Georgian responded, yes, I'll be glad to. And my young graduate friend looked around, and with a quick review said there are 873 sheep in your field. And they're healthy.
And the farmer said, that's the most amazing thing I have ever seen. You're correct. Take one.
He bent down, picked up an animal, started walking to the car. When the farmer said to him, sir, if I could tell you which university you went to, would you give it back? And my colleague said, yes.
He said, well, you went to Harvard. And he said, you're right. How did you know? He said, well, you picked up my dog.
And my concern, ladies and gentlemen, is that you don't pick up the dog, that you use your education with humility, and with openness, with concern. And because the issue of poverty, the issue of development, the issue of equity, is your issue. You cannot avoid it.
It is the issue of peace. And you, all of you here, have been trained to make our world a better place. I have great confidence that you will do that. And I hope that as you go forward you will give thought not to the World Bank, but to the issue of equity, social justice, poverty, and peace. Thank you so much.
ALEXANDER V. DARBELOFF: Now, Mr. Dilan A. Seneviratne, President of the Graduate Student Council will give a salute to MIT from the graduate student body. Following this, Mr. Sudeb C. Dalai, President of the senior class, will present the class gift to President Vest, after which the president will deliver his charge to the graduates.
DILAN A. SENEVIRATNE: Dear graduates, let me first congratulate you on completing an incredibly challenging journey, and for meeting the very high standards of this institution. Well done. Now, I'm sure there are, no doubt, many individuals that helped you along this journey-- parents, family, friends, and of course MIT faculty and administrative staff.
I would like to urge you let's take a moment now to all stand up, and acknowledge the contributions of all those who helped us by applauding them. Please join me.
It has been a great privilege for me to have witnessed your enormous potential, be it through performing your cutting edge research in topics ranging from labor relations to environmental policy, micro electromechanical systems to silicon biology, or through your invaluable contributions as teaching assistants, you graduating master's, MBA, and PhD students have contributed a lot to MIT and beyond. In fact, your contributions extend well beyond academics and research. All of you graduating today have played a critical role in building and sustaining the community that we call MIT. More significantly, you have helped chart the future direction of MIT in student life, especially at a time when a lot of changes were necessitated.
In all, you have demonstrated tremendous leadership and courage. And now, you move on to take on leadership roles beyond the bounds of MIT. You are the leaders of tomorrow, and leaders who will bear a great responsibility. And many will look up to your leadership.
And as we know well, we do not live in a perfect world. Poverty, global warming, insecurity, and many other issues afflict us. You will have the challenge to address these issues.
While working on these and other challenging issues and living your daily lives, I would like to urge you to do one thing. And that is to be considerate of others as well.
Let's always try to remember that the world we live in is made up of ourselves and those around us. This is very significant, as every action and decision you make in future will impact everybody around you, those close by and far away. If we care about those around us with the same compassion as we care about ourselves, the problems and the barriers we face today will be minimized.
Let us use the privileged positions that we are in now to reach out to those not as privileged. Remember, let's partake in the opportunities that lay ahead of us and are available for us today for the sake of one thing. And that's betterment of life.
Now, as you embark on your careers, we hope you will be forward thinking. And also, don't forget where you've been. Do consider giving back to MIT in ways you can.
And future generations will be forever grateful for you, just like you are today. Finally, I congratulate you again for your great achievements here at MIT. And I wish you all the best in your future endeavors. Thank you.
Everybody say cheese. Now that that's out of the way. It's not every day that we experience so momentous an occasion as MIT commencement. It's not every day that so many of our close loved ones come together to celebrate with us the culmination of four incredible years. And it's not every day that the senior class of 2002 graduates from MIT.
Herein, it is my desire to relate to you, esteemed members of the MIT community, special guests, and especially to the class of 2002, a tale that you don't hear every day told to me by a member of our class who asked to remain anonymous-- Jake P. Zucker, department of mathematics and biology. He asked me to keep this tale in strict confidentiality, which is why I'm only going to tell the tale to 12,000 of my closest friends.
During an afternoon in the fall term of our freshman year, when we all entered MIT, our Jake snuck into President Vest's office on a mission to steal something from our beloved institute president. Spotting an ivy plant in the corner, our brave hero snatched the plant, left a hastily scribbled ransom note, and ran away, gallivanting down our Infinite Corridor.
Now, let me just pause here and remind you, President Vest, that if for some reason you do not physically hand Jake his diploma, he will not graduate from MIT. For four years, Jake has cared for this plant. And over the course of four years, throughout our entire MIT experience, through all the problem sets, exams, and activities, that plant has grown from a small house plant into a large branching ivy with tangled shoots in every direction, long stems grasping for surrounding support, constantly searching for the sunlight.
When I first heard this tale three weeks ago, I was struck by two things. First, that members of our class always find interesting things to do with their time. Second, as I stand before you today, it is this same tangled weaving growth and change that, ironically, I have seen in all of you that comes to my mind when I reflect on our four years at the Institute.
I ask you now to think back to our freshman year when we first entered campus. Remember how excited we first were just to be at MIT? We took multiple tours of campus. We became caught up in the excitement of orientation.
We even phoned home to tell our parents that there was a Burger King in the student center. We started to think that life couldn't get much better. Then the first day of classes began.
And we began to ask ourselves, why did I choose MIT over a state school, like Harvard? Somehow, some way, we work through physics, calculus, and we survived. Then they took us off of pass no record. But, slowly, we learned to survive our second year here as well.
We began to realize how valuable our academic and personal experiences here really were. We became involved in research, our academic departments, a myriad of activities. And, I believe, we began to create for ourselves and the rest of MIT a community. That year, the leukemia rally that we held for one of our own classmates showed the world how committed we were to service and to each other.
By the time our third year came around, we were ready to face any challenge that MIT could throw at us. We wanted to take more classes. We took pride in doing extra work. It became a badge of honor to be logged on to Athena our computer network for three consecutive days on three different computers.
All the while, our community flourished. I believe the reason that we were able to trudge through these experiences and come out alive was because we did it together. Now in our senior year, we have begun to realize how important we are to each other. We have had to depend on each other, and not just for answers to problems sets.
We have to help each other face a difficult world. After September, we came together to support each other to rebuild our hope and to keep hope alive. The common thread that I see, whether we're talking about a leukemia rally or response to national tragedy or even saving the dot, a small circle of grass on the east side of campus, is that our community has always been our greatest strength.
It is no surprise to me that, as a community, we send forth to the world Rhodes and Churchill scholars, All-American Olympic caliber athletes, talented musicians, students who have begun service programs in the third world, students who accept academic and professional positions at world-renowned institutions. To me, what distinguishes the class is the 2002 spirit, a motivation to make a positive difference wherever we are.
For four years, that stolen ivy plant blossomed into the thing of life and energy. What I hope to remind you, class of 2002 is that so did we. We have never stopped exploring. We have never stopped learning.
We have looked under every rock in every corner and in every obscure MIT tunnel because we know life is all around us. We have charted a tangled, incoherent, spontaneous path for our lives, changed many things along the way. And throughout it all, we never stop searching for the sunlight.
Over the past four years, I've noticed our passion for living. And as I look at each of you now, I am certain it's a passion that will never die. Seniors, here's to growing, living, learning, breathing, loving. May we never stop our search for the sun, and always remember to smile when we find it. Thank you, class of 2002.
Now, in following MIT tradition, I am proud to present to President Vest, our senior gift to the Institute, funded entirely by seniors. This year, our gift involves a senior participation rate of 31%, part of which will be used to create the class of 2002 Peace Garden. The garden, to be created by the new Status Center for Computer Science, will symbolize our community, our strength and solidarity, our values, and our commitment to serving the world.
However, I believe it also represents the growth that all MIT students go through while they are at the Institute. President Vest, if I might invite you to join me at the podium. In slightly bending tradition a little, I present you with not one, but two senior gifts. We have managed to acquire the infamous ivy plant that was stolen from your office so long ago.
For four years, the Institute has taught us and allowed us to grow. And we give back to you the plant that belongs in your office and the Peace Garden from the class of 2002. Thank you very much, President Vest.
Finally, I ask all of you seniors to take of your brass rat, look at it. But more importantly, look all around you. Throughout all the hard work, all the years, these are the people that got you through, supported you. These are the people that you'll remember and the experiences you'll take with you the ring symbolizes all our struggles, and our great class.
Turn that ring around. Let that MIT beaver face the whole world. And remember, seniors, that I congratulate you on a job well done. This day, rain or shine, belongs to us.
CHALES M. VEST: Thank you, Mr. Dalai, and Mr. Seneviratne. I will take good care of this plant beginning by giving it a thorough watering the afternoon. I'm very grateful for your gifts, but more especially for all that you and your fellow students have meant to this great institution.
We have for the past 10 years vested the responsibility for weather at commencement in our crack student weather prediction team in Earth Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences. This year, we outsourced it. Next year, we return to our crack weather prediction student group in Earth Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences.
But at this time, I want to take particular note of a group of remarkable individuals with us today, the members of the class of 1952. You can recognize them. You can recognize them by their bright red jackets, at the moment well covered by white plastic, and also by a certain aura of experience that they carry with them.
As Mr. Wolfensohn said, the world has changed greatly since their graduation. With all that they have witnessed in the intervening years, I am sure that they could tell us much about what is truly valuable in life. And they could also tell us about one thing that never changes-- the pride that you can take in knowing that you have earned a degree from MIT. To the class of 1952, welcome.
And so we are gathered here once more in Killian Court to celebrate accomplishment, heritage, and passage. We are surrounded by parents, families, friends, spouses, partners, and children who have supported and sustained you through the years. You will recognize them today by their smiles brought about by their great pride in your accomplishment, and no doubt by a sense of relief to their bank accounts.
We all are very grateful for what they have given to us. And we are particularly pleased to have them joining with us today here in Cambridge for your commencement ceremony. Since you arrived at MIT, we have moved from the closing years of the 20th century to the opening years of the 21st. We have moved from predictions to realities.
During this time, the end of science was proclaimed. The internet bubble burst. And we suffered a national trauma at the hands of murderous terrorists.
Yet, despite these predictions and these realities, this is a time to sustain opportunity and openness. Despite the current problems of our world, I believe this is, in fact, a time for optimism.
I have about eight pages to read to you about opportunity. I'm going to reduce it to one or two sentences in deference to the weather. Science has not ended. It has transformed in wonderful ways to create new opportunities for you to serve. The entrepreneurial spirit has not died. It will be reborn to build vibrant economies for our nation and for the world.
There is a wonderful field of opportunity ahead of you. Nonetheless, the thousands of deaths suffered in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania as our school year began have changed our outlook in profound ways. Their ramifications will be with us for years to come.
September 11th paved the way not only for military responses. It changed instantly our relationship with the rest of the world. It challenged our very concepts of citizenship, civil liberties, and openness.
We will all struggle with these matters together in the months and the years ahead. They have no simple answers. And they hold grave dangers.
But they also provide opportunities to think about how we might better define, contribute to, and achieve security for this nation and this world. As we consider opportunity in the context of the post-9/11 world, we find ourselves asking questions that have arisen time after time in modern history. To whom is opportunity available?
And how open should our society and our institutions be? Each spring, my wife Becky and I host a dinner in our home for the men and women who are retiring from the ranks of the faculty of MIT. These are always extraordinary gatherings of talented and accomplished colleagues.
They are the people who have defined MIT. Indeed, these are the people who have defined their scholarly and professional fields. And as I survey that room each spring, I realize how much MIT, and indeed America, have benefited from being open to people from all nations.
I think how fortunate we are to spend our lives in an institution that is based on meritocracy. That is, one in which people are selected in advance based on talent and accomplishment, rather than wealth or nationality. Now, some might say that what I am observing is the passing of an era, that I am simply seeing the end of the intellectual migrations from Europe that were associated with the turmoil of World War II.
No, it is much more than that. The sustained excellence of our colleges and universities is due in very large measure to the fact that we have welcomed scholars from other nations. Take, for example, the members of the MIT faculty who have received the Nobel Prize.
In recent years, our MIT Nobel laureates have included people born in Japan, India, Mexico, Italy, and Germany, as well as the United States. Many of them came to this country as graduate students. Or consider our institute professors, the dozen or so faculty members who have achieved the highest rank of the MIT faculty. They were born in the United States, and in Belgium, Italy, Mexico, Israel, and China.
The fact is that America has always been a land of immigrants. And we have long been a nation of opportunity. Those who have come here from around the world to study have contributed mightily to our society and our institutions.
Many have stayed and built our nation. Some have returned to the land of their birth, taking with them knowledge and skills that they acquired here. But they also have taken with them a better understanding of what is good in this country, in its people, in its democracy, in its freedoms, and in its institutions.
And all contributed while they were here to their fellow students' quality of learning and experience that can come only from a campus that is diverse in all of its dimensions. As we in this country strive to make all who live here safe from those who would harm us, we should not let our fear close the door to our own opportunity. Let us recognize the cost to future generations if we were to become too zealous in tightening access to our universities.
One of the terrible realities of these times is that our very openness and our technologies have been turned against us. But we must not react by casting aside the very freedom and openness that define what is good in America. Opening our great research universities to the best students and scholars in the world is one of the best tools for spreading democracy, knowledge, and human understanding throughout the world.
Up to now, in my view, our federal government has moved very thoughtfully and judiciously in this regard. It is essential that they and the academic community continue to work together to enable sincere, talented students from around the world to pursue serious studies here. That is the American way.
And let us also resolve that our new technologies, the internet, and the world wide web, will be used as tools of empowerment and democratization on a global scale. Next fall, as Mr. Wolfensohn mentioned, the MIT faculty will launch its MIT OpenCourseWare program, a program that will make the basic educational materials for some 2,000 of our subjects available on the web, available to anyone, anywhere free of charge.
Why do we do this? Because we see it as part of our mission to help raise the quality of higher education in every corner of our globe. The program is based on the twin values of opportunity and openness. These are values that have made our universities and our nation strong.
They are values that will keep our world safe and strong. They are values that you should treasure and protect as you make your way in the world. This, then, is my charge to you, our graduates.
Take your education, your talent, and your energy, and build us a nation and a world community that consider knowledge a gift to be shared, a healthy planet a place to be cherished, and human dignity and opportunity fundamental conditions to be enjoyed by all people. Men and women of MIT, I wish you Godspeed and the very best of good fortune.
ALEXANDER V. DARBELOFF: Thank you, Dr. Vest. By virtue of the authority delegated to them by the cooperation of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and on the recommendation of the faculty, President Vest will now present the following degrees-- Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Science Master of Science, Bachelor of Science Master of Engineering, and the advanced degrees for the School of Science, and the Whittaker college of Health Sciences and Technology. Provost Robert Brown will present the advanced degree for the School of Architecture and Planning, the School of Engineering, the school of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, and the Sloan School of Management.
The first graduates to be recognized are the class marshals who are already on the stage.
ROBERT BROWN: Recognition will now be given to the officers, of the class of 2002, and the officers of the Graduate Student Council who are seated on the stage. Sudeb C. Dalai, president of the class of 2002, is awarded the degree of Bachelor of Science in Brain and Cognitive Sciences. Sonia Garg, vice president of the class of 2002 is awarded the degree of Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Dilan Seneviratne, president of the Graduate Student Council, is pursuing the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Maneesh Jethwa, vice president of the Graduate Student Council, is pursuing the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
Bachelor of science diplomas will now be presented to students in the School of Architecture and planning who have completed the specified degree requirements. Bachelor of Science in Art and Design, James K. Alt.
SPEAKER 1: Advanced degree diplomas will now be presented to students in the School of Architecture and planning who have completed the specified degree requirements.
ROBERT BROWN: Bachelor of Science in Planning.
[READING NAMES]
Bachelor of Science diplomas will now be presented to students in the School of Engineering who have completed the specified degree requirements.
[READING NAMES]
SPEAKER 1: Advanced degree diplomas will now be presented to students in the School of Engineering who have completed the specified degree requirements.
[READING NAMES]
ROBERT BROWN: Bachelor of science diplomas will now be presented to students in the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences who have completed the specified degree requirements.
[READING NAMES]
Bachelor of science diplomas will now be presented to students in the Sloan School of Management who have completed the specified degree requirements.
[READING NAMES]
SPEAKER 2: Advanced degree diplomas will now be presented to students in the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences who have completed the specified degree requirements.
[READING NAMES]
Advanced degree diplomas will now be presented to students in the Sloan School of Management who have completed the specified degree requirements.
[READING NAMES]
SPEAKER 1: Bachelor of science diplomas will now be presented to students in the School of Science who have completed the specified degree requirements.
[READING NAMES]
Advanced degree diplomas will now be presented to students in the School of Science who have completed the specified degree requirements.
[READING NAMES]
SPEAKER 1: The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology offer joint programs of education and research in oceanography and applied ocean science and engineering. John W. Farrington, Vice President of Academic Programs and Dean at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is here to participate with President Vest in awarding the following joint degrees.
[READING NAMES]
Advanced degree diplomas will now be presented to students in the Whittaker College of Health Sciences and Technology who have completed the specified degree requirements.
[READING NAMES]
ALEXANDER V. DARBELOFF: It is now my pleasure to introduce Robert Johnson, the Chief Marshal who will greet the graduates. Mr. Johnson is a member of the class of 1963 and is currently serving as the President of the Association of Alumni and Alumnae of MIT.
ROBERT JOHNSON: Welcome, welcome into the family of alumni and alumnae of MIT. Our family is only 133 old, not even seven generations, but it has had a profound impact on [AUDIO OUT]. Because you have been here, you will do much more. Best wishes to you in the future for the sake of all the world. Congratulations.
ALEXANDER V. DARBELOFF: The 136th commencement exercises of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are now concluded. A reception will now follow in the Steinbrenner Stadium. The audience and graduates are requested to remain seated until the stage assembly has recessed. Now please join the MIT Chorallaries in singing the school song, which is on page Roman numeral five in the front section of your program. The stage assembly and audience, please rise.
[BAND PLAYING]
CHORALLARIES: (SINGING) Arise O ye of MIT in loyal fellowship. The future beckons unto ye, and life is full and rich. Arise and raise your glass on high; tonight shall ever be a memory that will never die, for ye of MIT.
Thy sons and daughters MIT return from far and wide, and gather to here once more to be renourished by thy side, and as we raise our glasses high to pledge our love for thee, we join all those of days gone by in praise of MIT.
Oh, I wish that I were back again at Tech on Boylston Street, dressed in my dinky uniform so dapper and so neat. I'm crazy after calculus. I never had enough. 'Twas hard to be dragged away so young. It was horribly awfully tough. Hurrah for technology, ology, ology, oh, glorious old technology, ology, ology, oh.
Back in the days that were free from care in the ology varsity shop, with nothing to do but analyze air in an anemometrical top. The differentiation of the trionometric powers, the constant pi that made me sigh in those happy days of ours.
Hurrah for technology, ology, ology, oh, glorious old technology, ology, ology, oh. Take me back on a special train to that glorious institute, I yearn for the inspiration of a technological toot. I shun the quizzical physical profs, and all that, but how I'd love to go on a scientific bat.
[LA LA'S]
Oh, M-A-SS-A-C-H-U-S-E-T-T-S I-N-S-T-I-T-U-T-E O-F T-E. And then there's C-H-N-O-L-O-G and Y comes after G. It's the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Hey!
[APPLAUSE]
[BAND PLAYING]