“In America, colleges and universities are anchor institutions for our democracy, providing private value, of course, empowering you as graduates to pursue productive careers and meaningful lives, but they also are a public good, providing you with the knowledge and understanding to be active, engaged, responsible citizens in our diverse democracy.
I am trying to paint a larger picture for you here. Rollins College is one instance, a very fine instance, of the American system of higher education, which by any measure is the most robust engine of innovation, deep learning, and knowledge production in the history of humanity.
You have every reason to be proud, not just of your Rollins degree, but of the fact that you have been the beneficiary of this great institution of American higher education.
And you are equipped to lead in ways our nation needs. We are a nation that needs critical and analytic understanding of the root causes of our problems, not shallow and strident partisanship.
We need serious and intelligent minds working together. We need to listen carefully to those who think differently than we do, not just listen in an echo chamber of the like-minded.
We need answers as complex and nuanced as the problems themselves.
And we need bridges built between people who see the world differently.”
Rollins College Commencement was one of seventy campuses participating in From Campus to Community a new national campaign to champion civil discourse and democratic engagement in this year’s commencement season. More from President Grant Cornwell.
Back to the Map
