Remarks delivered May 12, 2025, at the Commencement ceremony for the Class of 2025 at Francis Olympic Field.
Thank you, Chancellor Martin. Good morning and welcome to all of you on this momentous and joyous occasion. As Chairman of the Washington University Board of Trustees, I’m proud to stand before you – WashU graduates and supporters, mentors, families and friends. Each one of you has become part of our extended WashU family, and this University is enhanced by your engagement.
To our graduates, I believe you will find, as I did, that your bond with WashU is a gift that will continue to enrich your life – and I hope you continue to invest a portion of your time and energy in building and sustaining this relationship.
I’d like to begin by telling you a short story. Some of your parents might remember this. In 1991, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism held an event to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the First Amendment. All the biggest names in media were there to celebrate the anniversary of the original enshrinement of our right to freely exchange ideas and speak truth to power. But they were surprised by the police presence and security measures in place as they entered.
They soon discovered, with great shock, that author Salman Rushdie had briefly come out of hiding to speak at the occasion. At the time, Rushdie was under threat of terrorist execution for writing what the Ayatollah Khomeini considered a blasphemous novel, the Satanic Verses. For ten years he lived under an alias and 24/7 protection from the British government. So you can imagine how important he felt it was to appear that night at Columbia.
Addressing the assembly, Rushdie said, and I quote, “a rigid, absolutist worldview is easiest to keep hold of; whereas the fluid, uncertain picture I’ve always carried is more vulnerable. If that plunges me into contradiction and paradox, so be it. I’ve lived in that messy ocean all my life. I’ve fished in it for my art. It is the sea by which I was born, and which I carry within me wherever I go.”
I find that metaphor quite compelling. A rigid worldview is easy. But our art, our science, our creation of knowledge, and our search for truth is in the messy, fluid ocean of contradiction and paradox.
At WashU, we have a proud 170-year history of supporting the free exchange of ideas. This foundational commitment to intellectual exploration and academic freedom – fluid, sometimes messy, and full of paradox – lies at the heart of all we do. It is, I believe, what the academy is made for. It enables this institution and others like us to play a special and critical role in society, in history, and in democracy. We treasure it, and we treasure our role within it. And this commitment to supporting freedom of intellectual exploration will never waiver.
But it doesn’t come easy. And we certainly aren’t perfect. There are times when individuals and groups, within and outside of the academy, crave the rigid answers that are easier to keep hold of. We often long for ideas that protect our vulnerabilities or are grounded in common think or shared biases within our sometimes homogeneous, self-selected community. There are other institutions that serve that human need. But our great universities do not; nor should they.
I hope the paradigm expressed by Rushdie resonates with you like it does with me. Because we’re living in a moment when institutions like ours are under intense scrutiny, when criticism – some deserved and some unwarranted – has targeted universities with aggression, and when the critics’ voices are frequently louder than the voices of advocates.
Like all good truth seekers, we must resist the urge to meet rigid worldviews with equal but opposing rigidity, constructed in our own echo chamber of untested conviction. Rather, let us dive beneath the turbulent surface to understand the deeper currents that drive the criticism. Let us embrace the ebb and flow of competing ideas, permitting them to reshape our shores over time. May we have the wisdom to know when to sail with the wind and when to tack against it, and the humility to recognize that even the mightiest vessels must sometimes change course.
Today, as I look out at the Class of 2025, I see more than a group of graduates; I see the next generation of stewards for our great university’s mission. We at WashU acknowledge that there are valid criticisms of higher education – concerns about access, value, inadequate viewpoint diversity and inclusivity – that all universities should address. I firmly believe that we can improve without compromising the core institutional values that have sustained us for 170 years: our dedication to intellectual exploration, our commitment to the free exchange of ideas, and our belief in the power of knowledge to transform lives.
As you leave this campus, carrying the lessons of Rushdie’s “messy ocean” with you, remember that the continued relevance of a great university like ours depends not just on those who work within, but on you. You now share in the responsibility of sustaining this institution through your leadership, your advocacy, and your participation in the critical debates yet to come. You are not just graduates of WashU. You are its future, its voice, and its greatest hope.
Congratulations, Class of 2025. The ocean awaits.