Alan Shepard lauds students in installation speech
Concordia University
Fall Convocation
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
10:00 a.m.
Faculty of Arts and Science
Place des Arts, Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier
Installation Address
Alan Shepard
Monsieur le chancelier.
Monsieur le chancelier délégué.
Monsieur le Président du conseil d’administration.
Members of the Board of Governors.
Members of Senate.
Distinguished guests, colleagues, faculty and staff, and friends.
My partner, my parents, my parents-in-law, and my two sons.
And especially, the Concordia Class of 2012.
Bonjour et bienvenue!
I would like to start by expressing my thanks to Fred Lowy, a distinguished Montrealer and a distinguished Canadian, for his most recent service to our university during a critical period.
Fred’s affection for the people of Concordia and our traditions is deep and generous.
Merci!
It’s a great pleasure to see everyone gathered here today. We are celebrating my new relationship with the Concordia community, and its relationship with me as its President. That’s one beginning. You, Class of 2012, are celebrating a milestone and another new beginning as Concordia alumni.
Convocation is like so many rituals, such as a wedding, perhaps, that mark a fundamental moment in one’s life: it will go by quickly, or if the speeches are long today, not so quickly; but it leaves an indelible mark on you for the rest of your life.
Graduands, each of you will now always be—always be—a Concordia graduate. I hope you’ve had a fantastic, life-transforming experience at Concordia.
I hope you’re proud of your education. And I hope you’ve had fun. You’ve been fortunate to study in one of Canada’s great universities, and we’ve been fortunate to have you making a difference in our community.
Il va de soi que votre cheminement jusqu’à présent aura connu son lot de difficultés puisque l’éducation implique des changements constants.
Concordia itself has a complex history that involves big institutional change, and I wanted to say a few words about that history this morning and its impact on our future.
Concordia has great DNA. In 1974, two traditions came together. The strand known as Loyola College was begun by the Jesuits in the 19th century.
The Jesuits have a tradition of education going back to the 16th century in Spain and France, and their focus on the values of critical thinking and rigorous analysis have fundamentally shaped higher education as we know it.
And in a knowledge-based economy, graduates will need those skills more than ever.
It’s not a coincidence, for example, that the liberal arts tradition is today being wholly embraced in China.
The second DNA strand in Concordia's unique makeup is Sir George Williams College, which had emerged in the early 20th century, out of the YMCA tradition, as an institution focused on providing education to students who sought more of a hands-on university experience, or a flexible schedule, or a professional education.
Aujourd’hui, nos étudiants recherchent et récoltent les fruits de ce code génétique.
So, Concordia has strong roots and already many terrific achievements. I know from talking to many alumni that their experiences here have enriched their lives.
Depuis plus de cent ans maintenant, les racines de nos institutions fondatrices ont contribué à la réalisation d’un Québec fort et innovant.
The same roots are a tremendous advantage to us as we face an uncertain future. Of course, it goes without saying that the future is always uncertain.
What I mean though is that over the next decade or two, higher education itself will be tested by unprecedented forces.
As will the trajectories of today's graduates, those sitting in the audience, who are also entering an unusually uncertain landscape of the future.
So what tests?
Take the Internet, for example. It's changing pretty much everything.
But as one commentator said recently, “The educational transformations stimulated by digital technology remain largely potential rather than actual.”
True today. Won't be true a decade from now.
Concordia expects to have this academic year some 35,000 student registrations in online programs, and it's still early days.
Universities that hope to thrive in the 21st century will want to engage with new technology for teaching and learning in the same serious way we have long embraced technology for research and creative expression.
The second test for universities will be demographic, in a couple of ways. Concordia has played an important role in providing access to university, and it will continue to do so.
It’s also positioned to draw strength from the extraordinary diversity of its community.
And the third test, almost a global phenomenon, is a certain scepticism about the value of university education and the debates about how to pay for it.
That scepticism was felt intensely here in Québec last spring.
And later this academic year, we're looking forward to the Québec education summit.
My hope is that as a society we will emerge from the summit with a renewed understanding of the value that universities bring to the individual lives of our students and to the well-being of our communities.
I'm confident that Concordia is very well-positioned to assume a leadership role in meeting these challenges, to become one of Canada’s preeminent universities.
Pourquoi?
For one thing, the Concordia environment particularly values that unique blend of fundamental intellectual knowledge and skill, the Jesuit tradition, call it, and a pragmatic, proactive engagement in the world beyond the walls of the university, something that Sir George Williams contributed to universities.
In the 21st century, the ivory towers will fall down. Fortunately for Concordia, we don't have ivory towers.
Instead, we have a university that is already and for many generations now deeply engaged in the community—of the community and not above it.
For another thing, in terms of demographic challenges, the 21st century will favor urban universities.
More than 80 per cent of the Canadian population live urban lives, and one in three Canadians live in the three largest cities–Montréal, Toronto and Vancouver.
Montréal is, as we all appreciate, a great city. More than being great for its beautiful architecture, wonderful restaurants, and natural beauty, it is also a city for the future.
Montréal is Canada’s research and development capital, and a major innovation centre — especially in sectors such as aerospace, life sciences, health, the fine arts, and information and communications technologies or ICT.
Outside Boston, Montréal is also home to among the greatest number of university students and researchers, which means we are in a place capable of tremendous innovation.
And almost 15 per cent of Concordia's students come from other nations to learn in this amazing place, and to make their own unique contributions to our community.
We need new ideas from within and beyond, and we need to find better ways to turn entrepreneurs and experimenters loose on the rest of us.
One of the questions for us here at Concordia will be how to ensure that the university is fully engaged in the digital future, not just for teaching but in all the areas of research and creative activity.
It seems clear now that technology will press us to change the environment for teaching and learning at a faster pace than what we have been comfortable with historically.
This includes, for example, a new trend toward free, non-credit learning from universities such as MIT and Stanford in the United States, and now also two universities in Canada, Toronto and UBC.
We will need to be nimble, smart and strategic. We will need to work together to think about how Concordia, which has such distinguished roots going back to the 19th century, will adapt itself to the rapidly changing dynamics of the 21st-century.
We will want to strive always for the highest quality in everything we do.
Not all of these adaptations will necessarily involve technology. Some of them require us to rethink what it means to be a student in terms of engagement in research and innovation in a student’s earliest years at the university.
Having been here at Concordia only something like 100 days, I am already aware of terrific projects accomplished by our students. One team has devised bacterial approaches to removing Styrofoam from the environment, surely something everyone would appreciate.
Other groups of students help local enterprises integrate the best sustainable business practices into their operations.
We see art produced by our students all over this beautiful city — public art.
And another of our undergraduate teams has just won a Canada-wide competition to design and build a scientific satellite. Their Concordia satellite will be launched this coming April.
Being nimble also means rethinking the nature of graduate studies – as most of our students do not take up subsequent academic positions but they move successfully into literally hundreds of professions across the globe.
It means rethinking what it means to “teach a course.” It means rethinking what it is to learn.
And public expectations are also evolving.
In an era of austerity, governments are rethinking how to support basic and applied research, and there is rising pressure to recoup the benefits of research funding by bringing its fruits into the public domain more quickly.
When the gates to the ivory tower are opened, new opportunities are created, and new expectations emerge as well.
And so we find ourselves in the midst of a global conversation about the value of university education and its future.
To keep pace, we must not be afraid to rethink how universities can adapt to the changing needs of society.
Il nous faut stimuler l’innovation, l’expérimentation et l’entrepreneuriat afin de bien soutenir nos étudiants, nos professeurs et nos chercheurs.
Teaching and research are two of the very most powerful drivers of social progress, and they make fundamental contributions to the lives of individual students.
In my own education, I had many excellent teachers. This morning I would like to name two who have a special place in my heart — Professor Carol Holly of St Olaf College, and the late Irvin Ehrenpreis of the University of Virginia.
Both were tough. Both helped me transform myself professionally and personally.
Wherever technology may go, from Socrates and his method, to the abacus, the Raspberry Pi or nanocomputing, there will always be a place for great teaching.
In my own teaching and writing I've been drawn to moments of great historical upheaval — the literature of the scientific revolution, for example, and England’s national security issues associated with the Spanish Armada.
Perhaps because as an American kid in the 1960s I was growing up in a culture divided, and on the verge of remaking itself.
For me, the spirit of the civil rights movement is captured in this photo that I would like to share with you this morning.
It should be coming up on the screen now. These are the faces of Martin Luther King's campaign for full civil rights in Selma, Alabama in 1965. These are the everyday champions of profound change.
I'm tempted to quote Thomas Jefferson, the founder of the University of Virginia, my own alma mater. Thomas Jefferson, the third American president and an inventor and experimenter extraordinaire.
Writing in 1787 from Paris, he declared to his friend James Madison, “I hold that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical.”
Certainly true in the 1960s.
Au même moment, le Québec et le Canada vivaient aussi des changements profonds et complexes.
In Québec in the 1960s, Quebecers created institutions such as Hydro-Québec and Caisse de dépôt that would support the development of Québec for decades to come. They experimented with new ways of organizing fundamental institutions.
Expo 67 showcased optimism, passion, and innovation, a world of new ideas. It reflected the spirit of pioneers such as Samuel de Champlain and John Molson, both resourceful entrepreneurs and brave experimenters.
Their spirit endures in the creativity and entrepreneurial energy seen in Québec today — from the breathtaking Cirque du Soleil’s re-invention of the circus to Bombardier’s jets that have revolutionized air travel, to the digital entrepreneurs who today call Montréal home.
My point really is that bold thinking is essential. Bold, ambitious thinking.
Strong universities are needed now more than ever. Universities are central institutions in civil society. Strong universities make a strong Québec, make a strong Canada, make a better world.
Nos étudiants, ainsi que nos diplômés, œuvrent dans un environnement très compétitif et un marché mondial hyper branché.
Today’s universities must prepare graduates for the global context of ideas, professions and commerce.
Concordia is already strong in its global engagement.
Whether it is examining concrete actions to protect human rights, to strengthen health and wellness through exercise, or to develop new environmental practices through genomics and solar research, Concordia’s faculty and its students are already globally engaged, and that will only increase. We cannot be an island.
Universities are built on a paradox. We preserve and transmit what is known to be true, and at the same time we are driven to criticize what has been known to be true so we can create new ideas.
There is still much to do, but together, maintaining our spirit of open debate and civil discourse, we can continue building a first-rate urban university that is in sync with the needs of the twenty-first century.
In closing, I am grateful for this opportunity to serve the whole Concordia community, and for the trust shown in my appointment.
I am grateful for the warm welcome, friendly feedback and sage advice Concordians have offered me as I begin my work.
Merci pour l’accueil chaleureux!
Graduates, I’m sure you will cherish this day. I hope it doesn’t pass too quickly. I hope it includes a sumptuous feast. And I hope you will thank your families and friends for their support of your aspirations and your achievements.
We are all privileged to have shared this part of your journey.
Je vous invite à demeurer en contact avec Concordia.
I offer you all my best wishes for the future.
Bonne chance et merci!
Watch the video of President Shepard's speech:
Related links:
• President and Vice-Chancellor