President Mark Schlissel urged incoming University of Michigan students to consider what higher education means to them, and discussed the connections between education and freedom during the annual New Student Convocation.
Speaking to students and their families at the Aug. 31 ceremony in Crisler Center, Schlissel said that while a college education leads to greater career earnings, increases social mobility, longer lifespans and greater happiness, “an education at a place like Michigan means even more than that.”
“The most important things you’ll learn here are how to think for yourself, how to ask important questions, and how to solve big problems,” he said. “A Michigan education provides the opportunity to be challenged, to consider evidence and the quality of an argument, to form your own opinions and to be willing to change your mind and to grow.”
Moreover, Schlissel added, quality higher education gives people the skills and imagination to pursue their ambitions and shapes the trajectory of both one’s life and the lives of those students will help.
In sum, education is directly linked to freedom, he said.
“Education’s link to freedom has long been a quintessential American value,” Schlissel said. “Education frees us to live full lives based on our individual values, desires, talents and willingness to work hard. We have the freedom to choose our own path. In many ways, freedom is what college is really about.”
U-M received more than 65,000 applications this year. Kedra Ishop, associate vice provost for enrollment management, said the incoming class hails from more than 2,000 different high schools and 349 colleges in urban, rural and suburban communities, all over the state, nation and world.
More than 30 members of the incoming class have served, continue to serve or intend to serve in the armed forces. Ishop added nearly one in seven members of the incoming class identify as minorities that have traditionally been underrepresented in higher education, and one in seven are first-generation college students.
Ishop also took a moment to highlight students from the incoming class, including a student who founded a local chapter of the Girls Who Code club at her high school to inspire young women to enter computer science and engineering careers, and a student who comes from a six-generation family farm and volunteered at the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital.
“I challenge you today, at the beginning of this bold adventure, to reflect on the changes you want to see in this world and continually take advantage of your four years at the University of Michigan to see them accomplished,” Ishop said.
Provost Martin Philbert noted the importance of the intellectual habits students will gain through the liberal arts. These habits include testing ideas, questioning what we think we know, engaging in free and open debate, and understanding and respecting differences in ideas, backgrounds and experiences and learning from them.
“The university’s mission statement commits us to educating students who will ‘challenge the present and enrich the future,’” Philbert said. “As you learn the arts of liberty, we are confident that you will do both.”
