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Bill Cosby shook the hands of all 527 graduating seniors at Lafayette College’s 161st commencement exercises on Sunday, but not before giving them a piece of his mind. In a patented blend of Cosby wisdom and humor, he told them to forget changing the world.
“You hear speakers say, ‘And you can make a change in the world,’” Cosby said, doffing his academic gown in 90-degree heat to speak in a Lafayette T-shirt and baseball cap. “That’s a bunch of crap. It’s too high to reach for somebody who can’t even get their car packed properly.”
But, he continued, “This will be your first time out there in the world with . . . not even responsibility, but expectations. And you should be nervous, because you’ve been B.S.ing the whole time you’ve been here.”
“So start off slowly,” he said. “Put yourself together.” And he gave them some ideas for doing it.
Apologize to all the professors whose classes you didn’t take seriously, he urged.
“Before you leave, send them a letter,” he said. “No excuses. Because they care about what they are doing,” he said. “This is going start your heart off — tick, tick, tick — correct.
“Pay off your student loan,” he continued. “I mean it. You want to make a change in the world, pay off the loan. To pay off the loan comes before you start to buy the really important things you all want, like a cellular phone.
“Those are two very important points. They are very easy, and you can make a change in the world, because the change came in you. And that’s where you start.”
“Think about your grandparents,” he said. “For many of them, this is the first time they have ever seen anything like this, and they are so proud of you. Put yourself in their place. Then you’ll know how important you are, and how important is isn’t to set a goal to change the world.”
Cosby was presented the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters. Lafayette also presented honorary degrees to Delano Eugene Lewis, the president of National Public Radio (Doctor of Humanities); Jay Parini, a professor of English at Middlebury College (Doctor of Letters); Judith Rodin, the president of the University of Pennsylvania (Doctor of Laws); and David N. Saperstein, the director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism (Doctor of Divinity). Saperstein was the speaker at the Baccalaureate service.