Baccalaureate Address by Peter Salovey, President of Yale University, to Yale College Class of 2018
Sunday, May 20, 2018
Graduates of the Class of 2018, family members, and friends. It’s a pleasure to be here with you today, a day filled with joy for the present and hope for the future.
There is a wonderful Yale tradition that I would like to honor right now:
May I ask all of the families and friends here today to rise and recognize the outstanding and graduating members of the Class of 2018?
Well, that was enthusiastic.
May I now ask the Class of 2018 to consider for a moment all those who have supported your arrival at this milestone, and please rise and recognize them?
Thank you!
These are the months and years when people tend to make a lot of plans. Some are practical: you schedule flights and rent apartments and consider where you will live, work, or study after graduation. Others are more aspirational: you imagine your future life and what you wish to accomplish in the years ahead.
I want to begin by sharing a passage Pauli Murray wrote in 1945 about her aspirations. At the time, she was a young lawyer and civil rights activist. Here is the quotation:
“I intend to destroy segregation by positive and embracing methods,” Murray wrote. “When my brothers try to draw a circle to exclude me, I shall draw a larger circle to include them. Where they speak out for the privileges of a puny group, I shall shout for the rights of all mankind.”
