Governor Rendell Speaks at Lafayette’s 169th Commencement

Lafayette awarded 558 degrees to 541 graduating seniors and honorary doctorates to four distinguished leaders, including Edward G. Rendell, Governor of Pennsylvania, at the College’s 169th Commencement, Saturday, May 22.

In his Commencement address, Rendell advocated mandatory national service for Americans.

“I believe with all my heart that we should change the concept of public service in this country, that every high school graduate, upon graduation from high school, should be made to serve two years for their country, either in the military, the Peace Corps, or Americorps – serving their country, giving back, learning the problems of ordinary Americans and learning the most valuable life-lesson of all: that when you take time to give back, to use your talent and energy to help other people, it makes you feel absolutely wonderful. It gives your life incredible meaning,” he said.

Rendell advised the graduates to not let anybody define success for them or tell them what they can’t do. See below for the full text of Rendell’s address. Click here to view the Commencement scrapbook.

President Arthur J. Rothkopf ’55 awarded Rendell the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws.

Ali A. Mazrui, director of the Institute of Global Cultural Studies at Binghamton University, State University of New York, delivered an address at the morning’s baccalaureate service and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity. Shelley Brown, executive director of the State Theatre Center for the Arts, Easton received an honorary Doctor of the Performing Arts and LaSalle D. Leffall Jr., Charles R. Drew Professor of Surgery at Howard University College of Medicine, received an honorary Doctor of Science.

Christine Bender delivered farewell remarks for the class of 2004. She is the recipient of the George Wharton Pepper Prize, awarded to the senior who “most closely represents the Lafayette Ideal.” Bender, of Gibsonia, Pa., earned two degrees, a bachelor of science (B.S.) in neuroscience and bachelor of arts (A.B.), with honors, majoring in economics and business.

The first student to receive her diploma was Angela Guarino, who achieved the highest cumulative grade-point average in the class of 2004. Guarino, of Springfield, Pa., received an A.B. with majors in government & law and Spanish.

Alex Karapetian, Pamela Predmore, and Meghan Ramsey, cochairs of the Class of 2004 Gift Committee, presented the class gift. Karapetian, of Easton, Pa., received an A.B. with a major in mathematics. Predmore, of Dingmans Ferry, Pa., received an A.B. with a major in philosophy. Ramsey, originally from Malvern, Pa., and now residing in Lakeville, Minn., received a B.S. in neuroscience.

A moment of silence was held in memory of Hanne Tischler, a member of the class of 2004 who lost her life May 6, 2001, as the result of an accidental fall from a third-story residence hall window. Her family has established a Lafayette scholarship fund in her name.

Rothkopf congratulated faculty recipients of annual Lafayette awards for distinguished teaching, research, and service and recognized two retiring members of the faculty who have been elected to emeritus status, Joseph J. Martin, associate professor of English, and Thomas W. Norton ’59, professor of sociology.

Three trustees elected to emeritus status, Roger B. Hansen ’65, Thomas F. McGrail ’55, and Thomas J. Neff ’59, were recognized by Alan R. Griffith ’64 chair of the Board of Trustees.

Rothkopf conferred degrees upon the graduates and delivered farewell remarks. Diplomas were presented by Gladstone A. Hutchinson, dean of studies, and James Woolley, Smith Professor of English and clerk of the faculty.

B. Vincent Viscomi, Simon Cameron Long Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, the senior member of the faculty, led the academic procession as Bearer of the Mace. James F. Krivoski, vice president for student affairs and dean of students, marshaled the Class of 2004.

Provost June Schlueter marched at the head of the faculty. Trustee emeritus Edward A. Jesser Jr. ’39 led the trustees and the platform party.

Gary R. Miller, College chaplain, delivered the invocation, and Mazrui gave the benediction. Nina Gilbert, Lafayette’s director of choral activities, led the singing of “America the Beautiful.” Members of the Lafayette Choir, led by Gilbert, led the singing of “The Alma Mater.”

169th Commencement

Address by Ed Rendell

Thank you, Dr. Rothkopf. It is a real pleasure to be here and an honor to receive the honorary degree from Lafayette, one of the nation’s finest colleges.

It’s a personal pleasure because of my relationship with the Rothkopfs, because former mayor of Easton Tom Goldsmith [’63] and State Representative Bob Freeman never stop waxing eloquent about the wonders of Lafayette, because board members George Rubin [’64] and Robin Wiessmann [’75] talk my ear off about Lafayette, because my lawyer during much of the time that I was mayor, Toby Oxholm, has a son, Geoffrey, in this graduating class. For all those reasons it’s an honor to be here, and I congratulate all of you for your achievement in graduating from this fine school.

You know, we tell you that this is your day. But as I was sitting there in the shade and looking at you out in the sun, I thought if it was truly your day, you would be in here, and we would be out there!

I always wondered about the value of graduation speeches. When I first became mayor and started getting invitations to do graduation speeches, I thought of my own graduation from the University of Pennsylvania in 1965. It had been about 30 years since I had graduated when I got my first invitation to speak at a graduation. I thought long and hard, trying to remember the name of my graduation speaker, and I couldn’t. In fact, I couldn’t even remember whether it was a man or a woman who spoke to us that day. Well I made that remark sometime in the mid-’90s, and an enterprising student went on the internet, found out who my graduation speaker was, and sent me an email. I read it, and for the next four of five months I knew who my graduation speaker was, but I’ve since forgotten it.

I question the wisdom of having graduation speeches at all – do not applaud! – but I will try to make my remarks brief. In fact, Garry Trudeau, the wonderful author of Doonesbury, said that commencement speeches were invented largely in the belief that it was dangerous to let college students out into the world until they were properly sedated.

It is my hope to keep this short and interesting and offer you some decent advice.

First piece of advice. As you probably know, your parents are extraordinarily proud of you today, but as you probably don’t know, they are experiencing today a tremendous sense of relief. This would be an opportune time to ask them for money!

My next piece of advice is a little bit more serious and, hopefully, just as relevant. You know, you’re about to go out into the world and make choices. Some of you already have made choices about whether to pursue your education, choices about which career path to follow. Soon there will be choices about family and the intermeshing of family and career.

None of those choices will be easy. All of those choices will involve a balancing test. And all of those choices will take place under the broad penumbra of society’s demand that we succeed.

We are a success-driven society. My first piece of advice is don’t let anybody define success for you. You’re going to have to make that decision yourself. You’re going to have to set the criteria under which you will achieve a successful life. What are the criteria for success in modern American society? The accumulation of great material wealth or the accumulation of fame and celebrity.

Well, during my time as mayor of the City of Philadelphia and as chairman of the National Democratic Party and now as governor, I’ve gotten to meet some of the most “successful” famous people in the world, Hollywood movie stars, TV stars, very well-known public officials, and I’ve met some of the most “successful” rich people in the world, who have accumulated great material wealth. And many of them are unhappy. Many of them are yearning for something. Many of them want to do something else, want to make an impact with their lives.

I have a friend who was an anchorman in a major American city. And he’s been an anchorman for over 30 years now. A few years ago he told me he wanted to do something else, there was no challenge left in what he was doing. And he didn’t feel he was making an impact and changing people’s lives.

And I said, “Well why don’t you give this up and go into public service and politics. With your credibility in your home city you’d be an instant success.” He said, “I can’t. The money is addictive.”

It doesn’t have to be! I ask you, who is more successful, the person who buys and sells companies – buys them, lays off almost the entire workforce, sells them for huge profits, has accumulated a multi-hundred-million dollar fortune, been married and divorced three times, whose children despise him or her, or that high school math teacher who coaches the sixth-grade girls basketball team, who’s been married to the same person for 30 years and has five children who adore him or her? You know the answer to that. Don’t let anybody but yourself determine the criteria or definition for success.

My next piece of advice is almost as important. And by the way, Albert Schweitzer said the key to happiness is not success, the key to success is happiness. He said if you love what you do, you’ll be successful each and every day. And Albert Schweitzer was right.

Second piece of advice is, don’t let people tell you what you can’t do. People are always telling us in this life what you can’t do. “You can’t do that, that’s a silly idea. Start your own business, are you crazy, Mr. Gates?” People are always telling you stuff like that. People are always putting up roadblocks against you achieving your goals and dreams and vision.

My successor as mayor of Philadelphia, John Street, was my city council president for my eight years as mayor, and he and I got to know each other very well. He was born into a Seventh-Day Adventist family on a little farm in Montgomery County. He struggled early in his education, and by the 11th grade, a student guidance counselor told him that he wasn’t college material, that he should look for other career paths.

He told me that when he was told that, it was like a sledgehammer. For four or five days he just sat there stunned. But then he looked within himself and he decided no one person was going to tell him what he couldn’t do, no one person was going to determine his life for him. He applied himself and studied harder and graduated from high school, he got into college, graduated from college, went on to Temple University Law School, became a lawyer, city councilman, city council president, and then the mayor of the fifth-largest city in America.

So don’t let anybody tell you what you can’t do. Keep your dreams, keep your visions. Do not be afraid to fail. There is absolutely no disgrace in failing. Everyone has failed at one time or another. Your parents have failed. I lost two major elections. Everybody up here (except, possibly, for Dr. Rothkopf!) has failed in their lives. The disgrace is not in failing at something you dream about and want to do. The disgrace is not having the courage to try in the first place.

Your parents and I know a band leader by the name of Les Brown. He said, “Shoot for the moon! Even if you fail you’ll fall in the stars.” If you believe in yourself and your own goals, you’ll get there, and get there with all the passion and enthusiasm that you can muster. Confucius said, “Wherever you go, go with all your heart.” If you do that you just might succeed where others are telling you to fail.

Having said all that, the most practical advice about success is, if at first you don’t succeed, then do it exactly like your mother tells you.

The last piece of advice I want to give you is, wherever your career path leads you, find time to give back.

You know, we Americans are a wonderful people. We do our best in times of crisis. In times of crisis, we’re extraordinarily giving, extraordinarily courageous. But in ordinary times, sometimes we become selfish and introspective.

I believe with all my heart that we should change the concept of public service in this country, that every high school graduate, upon graduation from high school, should be made to serve two years for their country, either in the military, the Peace Corps, or Americorps – serving their country, giving back, learning the problems of ordinary Americans and learning the most valuable life-lesson of all: that when you take time to give back, to use your talent and energy to help other people, it makes you feel absolutely wonderful. It gives your life incredible meaning.

By modern American standards I am not a rich man and have accumulated very little material wealth. But I wouldn’t change the 34 years I’ve had in public service for tens of millions of dollars. I wouldn’t change the memories I’ve had, the knowledge that I’ve been able to give people opportunity and improve the quality of people’s lives in every way. And you don’t have to be a mayor or governor to do that.

I want to tell you a quick story about when I was district attorney. When I was campaigning for district attorney, one of the issues I campaigned on was that women who were victims of sexual assault and went through the justice system were actually victimized twice by a system that paid no attention to their needs, that threw rape cases together with burglary cases and auto-theft cases and robbery cases, where the assistant D.A. who tried a rape case would often meet the victim an hour before going to trial.

And I promised that we would create a specialized rape unit. I won, and we did: 12 lawyers who got specific scientific and legal training in the presentation of rape cases and, most important, sensitivity training in how to deal with women who were the victims of sexual assault. The rape unit was an instant success. The conviction rate for rape cases went way up, the overall sentencing average went way up. But I didn’t know how much of a success it was until about two and a half years later, when I was sitting home at night, reading my mail, and I got a letter from a couple in Northeast Philadelphia.

They told me a story about their 14 year-old daughter, who was coming home from school one day and was accosted at the point of a knife, dragged into the park, and brutally and savagely raped. Even though the assailant kept the knife at her throat throughout the entire incident, when they saw their daughter an hour and a half later in the hospital, it was as if her entire life had changed. She had been the most carefree, loving, laughing, singing young girl, and she became a recluse, even upon seeing them for the first time.

All she wanted to do was stay in her room and cry every day. She wouldn’t go to school. She wouldn’t see her friends. She wouldn’t talk on the phone. They took her to psychiatrists, they said. They took her to psychologists, and nothing worked.

But then four months after the attack the assailant was apprehended. Their daughter had to come into the court system, and she met an assistant district attorney in the rape unit named Andrea. Their letter told me that Andrea, by her patience, by her understanding, by the care and sensitivity that she took in dealing with their daughter over the next five or six weeks, did what no psychiatrist could do, what no psychologist could do. She somehow convinced their daughter that it wasn’t her fault, that she bore no responsibility. They said that one night about six weeks after their daughter met Andrea they came home, and as they opened the door they heard a magical sound, and that magical sound was their daughter on the phone upstairs laughing again with her friends.

The letter said, “Andrea gave us back our daughter” and ended by saying, “God bless you Mr. Rendell for creating the rape unit and God bless Andrea.” I took that letter, as I often did, and wrote a message on it and sent it to Andrea. I said, “Andrea, you won’t get letters like this working for General Motors.” It’s true.

Everybody can’t be an Andrea. All of you are not going to go into public service. But take four hours a week to tutor a second-grader who’s falling behind in reading. Tutor them and change their abilities, and change the outcome of their life. Give them the opportunity to succeed. You’ll feel just terrific about it.

Because in the end, when your working career is done and when our lives are done, how do we want to be measured? One of my favorite authors, a man by the name of C. Hoppe, said, “I hope my achievements in life shall be these: that I will have fought for what is right and what is fair, that I will have risked for that which mattered, that I will have helped those in need, and that I will have left the earth a better place for what I’ve done and for who I’ve been.”

Members of the class of 2004, you’re the lucky ones. You’re graduating from one of the world’s best colleges. Have a great life. Have a great career. Find time to give back. Go out and do great things.