The following is the text of the
Baccalaureate Address delivered by President Richard C. Levin in Woolsey
Hall on May 20.
You are the 300th class to graduate from Yale College, or so it will
say in tomorrow's Commencement program. Some of the more mathematically-inclined
among you might wonder: how could this be so? If Yale College is 300 years
old this year, and it takes four years to graduate, why isn't this the
297th commencement?
The surprising answer to this question is that some of our first students
didn't require four years to graduate. Although the Collegiate School
chartered in October 1701 held no commencement in the spring of 1702,
there were two graduation ceremonies during the 1702-03 academic year.
One of the first two students to be admitted came to the new college so
well prepared that he was given both the B.A. and M.A. degrees in September
1702, while one of the six others who entered in the fall of 1702 graduated
in the spring of 1703. Thus by the end of our second academic year, we
had already held two commencements, and we have had one each year ever
since.
We have chosen to mark this Tercentennial year not only with on-campus
celebrations in October and April, but with events in Europe and Asia
as well. Having progressed from local to regional to national institution
during our first three centuries, we wanted to signal our intention to
become a global university in our fourth. It is no coincidence that during
the course of this year we announced the expansion of financial aid for
international applicants to Yale College, the creation of new interdisciplinary
professorships of international studies, the establishment of a new Center
for the Study of Globalization and the launching of the Yale World Fellows
Program for emerging leaders.
Seeking to spread the word, I spent your examination period on a two-week
visit to China, accompanied by a delegation of University officers, faculty
members and representatives of the Yale-China Association. In Hong Kong,
we celebrated the Tercentennial with a symposium attended by nearly 500
alumni, parents and friends from all over Asia. Then we met government
officials and visited leading universities and schools in Beijing, Changsha,
Ningbo and Shanghai.
Yale's history of involvement with China is longer and deeper than that
of any other university. Yung Wing, a member of the Yale College Class
of 1854, was the first Chinese to receive an American degree. Remarkably,
he was one of only 10 international students in the entire University;
today we have 1,500, including more than 300 from China. When Yung Wing
returned home, he became a strong advocate for the modernization of China,
and he persuaded the emperor to establish an educational mission that
sent more than 100 Chinese boys to preparatory schools in the Connecticut
Valley and then to colleges throughout New England. More than 20 came
to Yale College, most notably Zhan Tianyou, who became a national hero
for his role in building China's railroad system.
Later in the19th century Yale became the first American university to
teach the Chinese language, and at the time of our bicentennial a group
of graduates launched what became the Yale-China Association. Yale-in-China,
as it was originally called, established the Yali Middle School and the
Hsiang-Ya Hospital, Medical School and Nursing School. Over the years,
legions of our graduates have had the opportunity to learn from the Chinese
while serving as English teachers and health care workers at these and
other locations. They invariably return with a deep appreciation and respect
for the achievements of a culture that spans not just three centuries
but six millennia.
Despite the long history of Yale's involvement with China, we were surprised
by the enthusiastic response to our Tercentennial visit. Our first day
in Beijing was the lead story on the television news throughout China
and front-page news in every newspaper. Such attention is not ordinarily
showered on university presidents visiting the United States.
Perhaps the media attention had some connection with recent political
developments, but I believe that the warm response that we encountered
all over China signaled something deeper and more profound: how much and
how intensely others aspire to share in the best of what we have in America.
This aspiration is one aspect of the many-faceted phenomenon we call
globalization. The instantaneous transmission of ideas and images is bringing
the world closer together. Cross-cultural influences have always been
with us, but today they are more powerful because of their immediacy.
This much is clear: the opening up of China that began in 1979, abetted
by the advent of CNN and the Internet, marks a distinctive new chapter
in the long and complicated relationship between China and the West. This
relationship has been brilliantly traced by Yale's distinguished scholar
of Chinese history, Jonathan Spence, whose lectures have been enjoyed
by many of you, as well as many of us here on the stage.
I know that some of you have serious concerns about certain aspects of
globalization. In some parts of the world, the fear of absorption by a
common global culture has precipitated a strong reaction to protect local
values and ethnic identities. I know far too little about China to predict
where and in what form reaction to globalization will occur, but surely
a 6,000-year-old culture will not yield easily to a mindless homogeneity,
nor should it. Still, we learned from our own experience that the Chinese
are embracing certain Western ideas and values. High school and university
students alike are eager to learn more about our universities and how
they might gain access to them, and faculty and administrators at China's
leading universities are determined to reshape their institutions in the
image of ours.
Our trip also reinforced for me the important lesson that there is a
powerful complementarity between academic learning and direct experience.
As an economist, I had read about Shanghai's astoundingly rapid growth,
but, on the one hand, seeing the impressive new buildings rising in the
Pudong district added something to my understanding that I could not have
absorbed through reading. And, on the other hand, knowing something about
economic development and urban planning enhanced the value of direct experience.
Here's a very simple example. Where others might have seen only beautiful
skyscrapers, I could see how their beauty was enhanced by intelligently
setting them apart from one another with green spaces and smaller-scale
buildings in between. This is what I mean by the complementarity of academic
learning and direct experience. You will learn something if you go to
China, but the more you know, the more you will learn.
For an American steeped in the Western tradition, China is at once exhilarating
and disturbing. As the market economy grows, the government is creating
a legal framework to support and regulate it. But the emerging rule of
law, which is still a work in progress, has not been extended to protect
freedom of expression or the rights of the accused to the degree expected
in a Western democracy. The press remains tightly censored, and there
have been numerous recent reports of arbitrary arrests and prolonged detentions.
Whether economic liberalization will lead to greater personal freedom
and expanded human rights remains to be seen. Western governments will
continue to press for this, but history suggests that Chinese leaders
will not quickly agree to constraints on their own span of political and
social control. Professor Spence's brilliant new narrative, "Treason by
the Book," serves to remind us of the exceptional efficiency with which
the emperor tracked down and arrested dissenters nearly three centuries
ago. Still, students and administrators at the universities we visited
reported that they experienced little inhibition in speaking their minds,
and business leaders expressed confidence that political liberalization
would follow economic development, as it did in Taiwan, with a significant
lag. One would have to conclude this: on the future of human rights in
China, the jury is still out.
I am well aware that you may find these reflections remote from the pressing
concerns of the moment, such as finding a job and a place to live. Down
the road, however, you will need to think about the wider world. It is
an inevitable consequence of globalization that the careers you build
and the friendships you form will not be confined to our shores. In business,
law, medicine, education or social services, you are far more likely than
your parents to spend part of your life abroad and to have worldwide networks
of professional associates. In this context, China matters because one-fifth
of the world's population lives there. It matters whether freedom or repression
prevails there.
Many Americans are not well equipped for the task of world citizenship.
The mayor of Shanghai asked me why it is that every schoolchild in China
can identify the author and date of our Declaration of Independence and
so few of ours can identify when the Qing dynasty fell, when the Long
March occurred and when the communists took power. The mayor makes a telling
point. I suspect that even some of you, unless you are among those devoted
to Professor Spence, might fail the mayor's test.
Pass or fail, it is our hope and expectation that your Yale education
has prepared you well for the challenge of understanding the world we
inhabit. It is ultimately not the facts you know but what you make of
those you learn that matters. What you need, and what we have tried to
encourage in you, is the capacity to think critically and independently,
to master new bodies of knowledge as you confront them and to fashion
the principles that organize the facts. From reading your publications,
meeting with you over lunch in your colleges and participating in town
meetings, I have plenty of evidence that you've learned to think for yourselves.
As you move on, I advise you to make use of this discipline .to deepen your understanding of the wider world. Many
of you have already made a substantial commitment to this task. Nearly
10% of you participated in Junior Year Abroad programs, and another 13%
of you have benefited or will benefit next year from fellowships for research
and study abroad. But I would encourage all of you to travel, read and
reflect. Live abroad for a time if you can. The increasing interdependence
of nations makes it all the more important to understand each other's
values and perspective. Try to understand and respect cultural differences,
even as you shape and seek to live by your own principles.
Women and men of the Tercentennial Class of 2001: As your University
commits itself to more intensive study and deeper understanding of the
world beyond our shores, commit yourselves to becoming informed global
citizens. Remember that you share a common humanity with six billion people.
If you embrace that perspective as you build your careers, raise your
families and serve your communities, your own humanity will be enlarged.
Cherish your freedom, share with others the bounty of prosperity and earn
the blessing of peace.
May 25, 2001