Author, journalist and commentator David Brooks encouraged the University of Michigan’s December graduates to embrace “brave living,” and seek out personal connections and moral values in the face of growing global challenges.
“The touchstone of being a moral person is being a genius at the close of hand. It’s the act of being considerate to people in the complex circumstances of life,” Brooks said during his Dec. 17 address at the Ann Arbor campus’ Winter Commencement ceremony at Crisler Center.
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“It’s best to lead with trust. It’s best to lead with curiosity. It’s not naïve to lead with respect. It’s practical to be able to understand the people around you, to make them feel respected and lit up.”
About a thousand graduates, along with their families and supporters, filled the floor and about two-thirds of the arena, facing a stage upon which sat professors and university leaders in their ceremonial robes. The Registrar’s Office reported 4,111 students from the terms ending in August and December were eligible to participate in the ceremony.
Brooks, who has written for or contributed to The New York Times, The Atlantic, PBS’ “NewsHour,” NPR’s “All Things Considered” and NBC’s “Meet the Press,” was presented with an honorary Doctor of Laws degree.
Others who received honorary degrees were:
- Robert Hass, a Pulitzer Prize- and National Book Award-winning poet, former U.S. poet laureate, and an educator, essayist, environmentalist and social activist, Doctor of Fine Arts.
- Thomas H. Zurbuchen, director of space activities at ETH in Switzerland, a former associate director at NASA, and a former U-M professor of space science and engineering, Doctor of Science.
Brooks said the graduates must be prepared as they enter a world faced with unprecedented challenges.
“The biggest challenge your generation faces, I believe, is the breakdown of the moral and social fabric of our society. As a society, we’ve grown steadily sadder over the past few decades,” Brooks said.
Brooks quoted the 20th-century author James Baldwin, who emphasized a need for humanity and understanding every individual’s mystery and complexity. He urged graduates to fight the modern flow of dehumanization and follow Baldwin’s teachings.
“The times are calling on your generation to offer that kind of defiant humanism. In the midst of war and conflicts foreign and domestic, it seems to me that we’re called not to be calloused over and brutal, but to see each other generously, and try to treat each other with consideration and respect,” Brooks said.
To be “a decent person in brutalizing times,” Brooks said, the graduates must strive to give seven gifts to all they encounter: focus, empathy, presence, curiosity, conversation, vulnerability and wisdom.
He referenced the movie “Good Will Hunting,” relating how Robin Williams’ character explained there are two kinds of knowledge: the knowledge gained from books and the knowledge gained from life experiences.
Brooks told the graduates their time has come to aspire to this second form of knowledge. By opening themselves up to a vulnerable and emotional life, by taking risks, Brooks said, the graduates will be available “emotionally and spiritually to all that life has to offer.”
“I imagine you’ve absorbed a lot of book learning while you’re here in Ann Arbor. I don’t denigrate it. I’ve spent my life trying to cram information into books. But now comes time for the personal knowledge that is only won by brave living,” Brooks said.
President Santa J. Ono counseled the graduates to seek beauty, create connection and find meaning as they embark on their post-college journeys. Each of the three honorary degree recipients, Ono said, embody these themes.
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To seek beauty, Ono said, Hass’ poetry “teaches us to see the world with an artist’s eye, to see the beauty and the glory in the extraordinary as well as the ordinary.”
Zurbuchen’s work launching NASA missions, including the James Webb Space Telescope, forever changed the view of the cosmos, exemplifying “the beauty of exploration, the thrill of discovery, and the exquisite mystery of the unknown,” he said.
And Ono referenced several of Brooks’ books, in which he wrote extensively about the importance of connections and the idea that through rooting values and service in connecting with others, meaning is found.
“Meaning outshines fame, it outlasts achievement, it outdistances bliss. For meaning is not who we are in a moment, but rather who we can be, and who we aspire to be, for a lifetime and beyond. That’s truly what I hope you will discover in your days ahead; yes, a life of success and achievement, but foremost my wish for you is that you have a life of meaning,” Ono said.
Laurie McCauley, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, praised the graduates for their hard work and encouraged them to celebrate their accomplishments.
Gesturing around the arena, McCauley said, “This broad, beautiful expanse of blue represents the scale of your collective accomplishments. It is also an apt metaphor for the limitless blue sky before you. But the sky is not your limit.”
She told graduates to embrace a sometimes-uncertain future as they leap into a new world of possibilities.
“Wherever your next adventure takes you, I hope that when you see a vast stretch of blue, you spare a thought for your alma mater and remember — you are forever welcome here,” McCauley said.
Lucas Felpi, graduating from LSA with a Bachelor of Science degree, double-majoring in computer science and political science, was one of three student speakers, along with Ghazzaq “Gigi” Nassir, who received a Bachelor of Science in Engineering in civil engineering, and Florence Uche Johnson, who received her Ph.D. in nursing.
Felpi spoke about his experience at U-M as an international student from São Paulo, Brazil. While he came to the university to create change in the rapidly evolving fields of technology and politics, Felpi said, he also found a home.
“On this campus, we found people who make us feel loved, safe, inspired, impressed and humbled. We learned the beauty in finding community and staying faithful to who we are. We learned that to be different is to be special. It is to be a leader and best,” Felpi said.
Faculty Senate Chair Tom Braun encouraged students to open themselves up to vulnerability and a willingness to change. Choosing to learn, he said, is a vulnerable act.
Braun said he attended a presentation earlier this year by Dolly Chugh, a social psychologist and management professor at New York University, who presented the ideas of “unlearning” and developing a “paradox mindset.”
Graduates must embrace the idea of becoming an “unlearner,” someone who “is willing to see what was previously learned perhaps no longer fits in the current world or needs to be envisioned differently,” he said.
Allowing a “paradox mindset” — being able to accept that two contradictory ideas can be valid — will further give students deeper understanding and perspectives of today’s world, he said.
“There’s your mission — go forth, live your life, and learn, or unlearn, all that you can,” Braun said. “Please do all you can to manage each other with courage, respect, and humility. Our world depends upon it.”
