Good evening!
It is my pleasure to have this opportunity to speak at the commencement for the WNY Academic Leadership Academy. And congratulations to all of you for successfully completing this program!
I know it is customary to offer some words of wisdom to “new graduates.” Over the course of your participation in this program, I suspect you have heard plenty of advice! But if you have the patience for a little more advice, I would like to share a few principles I have learned and lived by. I hope they will serve you well, as they have served me.
The first is this: Set long-term ambitions, but always be ready to change course. I know that each of you has set a very ambitious course, and many of you are well on your way down this path already. I applaud your bold ambitions and initiative. At the same time, I would caution each of you not to be so fixed in your intentions that you close new doors before they open. It is critical to cultivate a degree of intellectual nimbleness—so you are ready to seize a new opportunity when it comes along, and ready to create your own opportunities.
I was a college student when I first understood the truth of this. I come from a long line of educators, and I have been focused on education most of my life. But I never would have envisioned that one day I would have the opportunity to lead a major North American research university. As a young person, I hoped, through hard work and perseverance, that I might one day become a high school principal, following in my father’s footsteps. And I would have taken great pride in that achievement. But other opportunities presented themselves along the way, and I am grateful to the mentors and peers who encouraged me to pursue them.
That brings me to my second principle: Be self-reliant—but always seek out the opportunity to learn from and with others. As a college student, and later as a graduate student in Canada, I found that the opportunity to exchange new ideas and discoveries with other intellectually curious, energized students helped to shape my path in profound and lasting ways.
The opportunity you have had to engage with some of your colleagues during this program will surely open up new horizons for you as my experiences in college did for me. I am a firm believer that the truly big ideas and important discoveries take place at the intersection of fields. They involve many minds working together, approaching the same problem from different angles.
This Academic Leadership Institute, has given you the opportunity to appreciate the great value of sharing ideas across disciplines by interacting with colleagues in higher education who come from many different backgrounds. This is the basis for nearly all the great knowledge and important innovations emerging from higher education today—whether it’s among academics or administrators.
No matter how brilliant your idea, be sure to look at it from other vantage points. It will almost certainly be even stronger for that. Of course, being willing to step outside of your own perspective, and open your work up to the criticism of others requires a certain amount of risk.
And that is the final principle I’d like to share with you today: Plan strategically and carefully—but always be willing to take risks. I took a risk in the 1970s when I ventured outside the established field of statistics to explore computer science—at a time when only a handful of scholars were working in this field.
I took another risk when I left India to continue my graduate studies in Canada. And over the course of my academic career, I have ventured into the unknown again and again, from my first faculty position at the University of Maryland, to launching a new engineering school in California, to the University at Buffalo, where I had the opportunity to help lead a major research university on an international border.
I served as Provost of UB for seven years, and I’ve served as President for nearly seven years as well. And I am very pleased to tell you that every day, new opportunities present themselves.
Of course, there is no magic formula for success. There comes a point when each of us must choose our own way. And that point will come again to all of you one day. You are ready to advance your own course forward, building on the knowledge and first principles you have learned and experienced through this program. Today’s world is very much a globalized one. And as graduates of the Academic Leadership Institute, you are very well positioned to lead and contribute even further in this world.
As graduates of the Academic Leadership Institute, you are ready to make an even greater difference as the next generation of leaders in your fields—here in our region and around the world.
Congratulations!
And all best wishes for much success!
