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Commencement Address
Bowling Green State University
College of Arts and Sciences, Spring 2008
by James Bailey
Good Morning
President Ribeau, Provost Baugher, Dean Nieman, Parents, family, friends, and especially you, the graduates of the College
of Arts and Sciences, today is a special day for all of us here at Bowling Green State University. For today we formally
recognize your hard work, commitment, and perseverance by conferring on you the degrees you have earned. Congratulations to
you, your families, friends and fellow students. It is a day you will always remember. It is a great honor for me to share
this day with you. Someone once told me that the elements of a good talk were to be sincere, be brief and sit down. I will
try and do all three.
I remember my graduation day very well though it seems so long ago. We were all gathered in Doyt Perry Stadium, in 1967,
the year it was built, and like many of you I was the first member of my family to graduate from college. My parents, family
and friends were probably like yours. They were very proud of their son but a little uncertain as to what the future might
bring.
The late 60s was a challenging time in America. First, we were embroiled in the Vietnam War. Campus riots and even student
deaths occurred at Kent State as the nation seemed to be torn in two regarding our involvement in that war. Sounds familiar,
doesn’t it.
The second issue I remember is the racial tension that existed in the United States. The Civil Rights Act was passed in
1965. But many in America were not willing to accept its principles. In 1968, racial tensions boiled over with urban riots
in Detroit, Newark and Los Angeles. Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy were assassinated. Who could have imagined that
an African American would be a leading candidate for President of the United States?
Third, we were at the dawn of the computer age and who knew what that would bring. I had a class in programming given by
the Math Department and the computer we used took up a half a floor in the Administration Building. Who knew the possibilities
that existed? You have probably a 1,000,000 times more computing power in your cell phone than that old clunker we worked
on.
Finally the glass ceiling for women was pretty thick in those days. A woman for President in 1967. Unthinkable.
So looking back on the issues my generation faced at that time it seems to me we have made some progress. I mention these
because you, the future leaders of this nation and the world are faced with a whole new set of issues. And we are counting
on you to help resolve them.
Let me mention a few. First, global competition. I competed with my peers in the United States; you will compete with your
peers in India, China and Brazil. Second, my generation used energy like there was an endless supply. The earth’s resources
are finite and won’t last forever. We need a better policy for our environment. Third, the morality and ethics questions
that arise from scientific discovery are a significant challenge. How will the knowledge acquired through the human genome
mapping be used? And yes, finally, world terrorism. We can’t deny that it exists and we will have to develop a policy and
strategy for dealing with it better than we have so far. World peace has been elusive for all mankind but we can’t give up.
Will Iraq be another Vietnam or an opportunity to bring stability to the Middle East? Our citizen’s views on this issue are
quite divided.
So what do these big global issues have to do with getting your degree today? Let me share with you a little of my story.
When I graduated, I was like many of you in that I did not know exactly what I wanted to do and was uncertain what the future
might bring. For many reasons, not the least of which was the Company would help pay for my Master’s degree, I took a job
with Bell Laboratories in New Jersey. The other options were Hallmark Cards and Owens Corning Fiberglass. All three came
about because of the computer class I took at BG. Mind you I had never been to the New York area and my mother was probably
not very happy that I was moving 750 miles away from Miamisburg, Ohio. I had no family or friends there and my first residence
was a rooming house. So off I went.
To keep the story short my first job was not a big success. I was asked to pursue other opportunities. In other words I
got fired. And now I am far away from home. But there was a consulting company I had never heard of named Booz Allen that
was staffing a project for the Defense Department in the New Jersey area and I interviewed and got an offer for a junior position.
And that was the beginning of a turnaround in my fortunes. I learned that I might not be the top notch research scientist
that I once dreamed of becoming but I had other skills that might help me be successful.
While working at Booz Allen our group was asked to bid on a consulting project for a Bank. I was part of the team assigned
to the project because of the math and analytical skills that I had developed at BG and my first job. And that started my
career in Banking. A couple of years later I applied for a job with a research subsidiary of Citibank and got in on the beginning
of credit cards, ATMS, debit cards, the explosion of the modern payment system and the transformation from cash and checks
to the world of cards, ATMS, point of sale terminals, and on line banking.
So what are some the lessons from my abbreviated story? First don’t be afraid to take a chance and do something that you
never imagined. You never know where something you try might lead you.
Second don’t fear failure. Your career will not be a straight line. There will be successes and failures all along the way.
Take advantage of the ups and learn from the downs. Maintain confidence in yourself and learn what your strengths and weaknesses
are. Build on your strengths and improve your weaknesses.
Third, get accustomed to change. In today’s world it is coming at us in a much more accelerated way. The only thing we can
count on is the constancy of change.
Now a commencement address would not be a commencement address without a little advice. So let me offer three things that
helped me along the way in my career.
These were a commitment to excellence, the courage and persistence to succeed, and the character to always be honest with
yourself and others.
Regarding the commitment to excellence ask yourself if you are demanding enough. You know somewhere beyond the cortex is
a small voice whose mere whisper can silence an army of arguments. It goes by many names; integrity, excellence, standards
and it stands in final judgment as to whether you have demanded enough of yourself and by that example have inspired the best
in those around you.
Next don’t be like the lion in the Wizard of Oz and not have Courage. Have the courage to persist in the face of adversity.
H. E. Jansen, the magician, said, “The man who wins may have been counted out several times but he didn’t hear the referee”.
Abraham Lincoln did not have a poll to tell him what he should say at Gettysburg. He had the courage to say what he thought
the people needed to hear to bind the wounds of the country. Bill Gates flunked his computer science course at Harvard and
Fred Smith got a C on his term paper that proposed the idea of Federal Express. They had the courage and persistence to pursue
their dreams.
Finally integrity and honesty are an absolute must. Thomas Jefferson said, “Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.”
Continue to ask yourself if you were to sell your character would you get full retail or would it go for a bargain basement
price? We have seen too many cases in the news recently of people who have gone astray from these basic values. Only honesty
and integrity prevail in the end.
So let’s try and tie these ramblings together. It may seem that the most important thing about a BGSU degree is that it
gives you a ticket to get a paying job and support yourself. I know my parents thought that what it was. But I suggest it
is more than that.
The author, E. L. Doctorow, pointed out that you are now in charge of yourself: that is the underlying principle of the education
you have received. You are now responsible for yourself and your future.
But the degree you will receive today says that you have demonstrated some skills that will help you succeed in whatever endeavor
you pursue. Most importantly you have developed critical thinking skills that will help you solve the problems you encounter
in your career and participate in solving those global issues that I mentioned earlier. My math and analytical skills that
I developed here at BG were the foundation of any success I achieved. And the skills my generation developed at their universities
helped them make whatever progress was achieved on the issues I mentioned earlier.
But, we still have a long ways to go. And now we are counting on you to continue to face and make progress on both yesterdays’
and today’s issues. The critical thinking capabilities you have developed, whether they are in mathematics, geology, philosophy,
history, sociology or any other major and the values you have discovered will forever be the foundation of your success.
Your entire BG experience forms the foundation for your future.
I am going to finish with my favorite story. I think it describes reasonably well how you might feel today and the possibilities
before you. It is from E. B. White’s children’s book Stuart Little. Maybe some of you have read it? After all of Stuart’s
adventures the last paragraph summarizes his future. “Stuart rose from the ditch, climbed into his car, and started up the
road that headed north. The sun was just coming up over the hills on his right. As he peered ahead into the great land that
stretched before him, the way seemed long. But the sky was bright and he somehow felt he was headed in the right direction.”
Somehow I think the road ahead for today’s Bowling Green graduates is bright and you are headed in the right direction.
Congratulations and best wishes to all of you.
Click here to view James Bailey's Biography
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