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Commencement Season!

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I want to start this blog by congratulating all the newly-minted graduates of UT System institutions. It is beyond inspiring to see you, degrees in hand, head out to make a difference in Texas and the world.

I also want to thank you. Students are the driving force of any campus. While you were with us, every one of you made your institution a smarter, more lively and interesting, simply better place. Not only that, your accomplishments in the years to come are going to reflect well on Texas. So it’s important that you know I’m not just proud of you. I appreciate you.

By the first week in June, the UT System will have conferred more than 32,000 degrees, in everything from Accounting to Zoology, Music to Medicine, Law to Literature. The variety of things to which you can devote yourself at our academic and health institutions never ceases to amaze me. But no matter what their official field of study, every one of our graduates has learned the most important thing of all – how to learn. 

In earlier generations, earning a degree meant your future was mapped out for you. That’s no longer the case. In fact, I sometimes think of the bachelor’s degree in journalism I earned at UT Austin, way back in 1977. Consider how much journalism has changed since then. Now imagine the fate of anyone in that field (or any field) who never learned anything new after 1977. Not a pretty picture! 

So to our graduates, no matter what field (or fields, since most of you will have multiple careers) of endeavor you pursue, I hope you will think of the degrees you’ve earned less as maps than as compasses – as the indispensible tools you will need to navigate a fast-changing terrain in the years to come.

Remember, they call it Commencement because your education is just getting started. You’re going to have to learn every day, adapt, and overcome a litany of obstacles – some expected, many surprising – to achieve your goals. But I know, and your new degrees demonstrate very clearly, that you are more than up to the task.

Congratulations again to our graduates, and thanks to everyone for reading. I’ll write again soon.