The following speech is Deborah Anne Palmieri's Commencement Address at the University of Southern California during the Graduate School Ceremony on May 8, 1992. |
Opportunities and Challenges for Graduate Education
in the Post-Cold War Era
Commencement Address
The University of Southern California
Graduate School Ceremony
Opening Remarks
Graduates, families, faculty and friends. With the conferral of each of your degrees today, there is a special mission which beckons you. Each generation faces its own special calling, shaped by historical circumstances and the needs and imperatives of the moment at hand.
The stage is set for you. The Cold War is history. Superpower politics as they have shaped past U.S.-Soviet global rivalries are now obsolete. The forty year competition by both nations since World War II has been dampened by the disintegration of the Soviet empire and the stark reality of the costs and consequences of such pursuits. We stand at the threshold of a whole new era of international politics and modem diplomacy.
But we are not there yet. First, we need to clean house and sweep away the old way of conducting our daily business and evaluate the very core of our political, social and economic institutions - to keep what will contribute to a new international social order and discard what will not. We need to step back and make an honest and critical assessment of the mistakes we have made as a civilization and determine how best we can advance forward.
The United States, the nations of the former Soviet Union and Eastern European countries face a similar set of problems and challenges. Our domestic economies are in trouble; whether to a greater or a lesser degree is a subject for debate. But nonetheless, one thing is clear: we face an unnerving degree of uncertainty, turmoil and instability about our collective future. Old worries about a nuclear confrontation between Moscow and Washington are replaced by new worries. For leaders of the Commonwealth and the Baltics, it is how to handle the breakup of empire, how to transition to a new economic and diplomatic order and how to put groceries on the shelves and food on the table while getting there. For American leaders, the picture is no less daunting - how to cope with the effects of recession; our $3.8 trillion national debt; the marginalization of more and more people outside of the mainstream; and how to handle growing instances of total systemic breakdown - as witnessed by the verdicts in the Rodney King trial and the explosion of violence and rioting here in Los Angeles in its aftermath.
The Challenges Ahead
So, graduates, what is to be done with the learning and expertise you have toiled so hard for? The answer is very clear. It is to apply your knowledge and theories to solve the practical problems created by modern industrial society in the post-Cold War era. Society is counting on you to play a major role rebuilding and reconstructing domestic economies and fostering international cooperation.
Both the United States and former Soviet Union have been drained economically by decades of defense spending. Both must turn attention to address the more basic needs of their peoples. Major priorities include health, education, and the welfare of citizens, especially for children and the elderly. There are major problems to be tackled, including racial and ethnic strife, declining productivity, and social stratification.
Society needs your contributions and insights from all arenas of education to become part of this rebuilding process. There are ample opportunities for you to play a role in the conversion of defense-based industries into enterprises for consumer use in health, social services, and technological advancement. It is your research that will aid in restoring ecological balance and eliminate pollution and the environmental decay of air, soil and water systems. Your efforts can abate or control serious illnesses including AIDS, cancer and heart disease. Your music, art, literature, poetry and cinematography can enlighten all of us. You will be the builders of responsive political institutions and revived or new parties, an overhauled legal system and a better tax structure at the local, state and federal level. The challenges and opportunities go on and on. Here at the University of Southern California you have received a superior education to give you a running start as you begin your careers in your chosen field.
Values
It is one thing to try and identify what must be done and it is another to embrace a new set of values to go along with it. During recent decades, we have made outstanding scientific progress. It seems like every day we read about another scientific development that will impact our lives. But in the process of it all and in our quest for objective scientific methodologies, the subjective measures were seen to be a distraction from the "true purpose" of science and we left the values, emotions and human sentiment outside of this process. To be always objective, non-emotional and value free, it was thought, would speed the development of a superior breed of knowledge which would solve all problems and conquer all frontiers. But now many are questioning the concept of "science without a conscience." We can feel in our hearts that the soul yearns for purpose and meaningful connection with other human beings, and that the display of human emotion, sentiment and values through science and research can be a positive force. This is a lesson for science to learn from the humanities.
There are other aspects to forging a new set of values - cherishing thrift, conservation and recycling instead of wasteful, conspicuous consumption. We could stand to move from a wide-spread social preoccupation with individual gratification to a concern for quality collective survival and team effort as our major source of personal fulfillment. We could consider measuring individual success not as a function of the dollar sign in front of a high annual salary figure or an important sounding job title but as a function of a new index. This index would measure success by its contribution to improving the quality of life for others, the personal happiness it creates and the ability to do work which genuinely interests us and nurtures inner tranquillity and calm. We must recognize the need to humanize our interactions with science, technology, medicine and the world we live in. The alienation of the human spirit is too high a price to pay for value free science and social science. It is a sign of strength, not weakness, to acknowledge the need for human connection, replenishment and affirmation through kindness and caring attitudes. It should be a priority on the daily calendar of our professional careers to set time aside for family and personal relationships, community service and the small pleasures of life, however you may define them.
Concluding Comments
The late USC President James Zumburge said, "At the end of our lives, if we have participated in a noble endeavor, then our lives will have been worthwhile." That noble endeavor, I believe, is the assimilation of graduate knowledge and its translation into useful social purpose in your given field of specialization. Your counterparts in the former Soviet Union, and globally, are struggling with the same agendas before them. This mutual struggle across national boundaries and the coming together of minds in a spirit of international cooperation is what will cement and ensure a truly interdependent, peaceful global society.
Graduates, congratulations! You have worked so hard to successfully complete your degree requirements. You have made many sacrifices and shed blood, sweat and tears in your pursuit of excellence in higher education. Ph.D. graduates, you have crossed seemingly impossible hurdles, working with or around, your faculty committees. You studied long hours to pass those qualifying exams and crossed every "t" and dotted every "i" on those dissertation theses. You met every departmental and Graduate School requirement. At times it seemed impossible. Other times it seemed endless. At its lowest points, it seemed even hopeless. But you endured. You all endured. This same energy, dedication and perseverance will serve you well as you leave the university and enter the crucible of real life. Then you will be poised to follow the songwriter's advice and . . . "Reach out and touch somebody's hand, make this a better world if you can."
Thank you.
Deborah Anne Palmieri
Commencement Address
The University of Southern California
Graduate School Ceremony
May 8, 1992
Los Angeles, California
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