MIT Commencement Program 1993 - Includes Address by Carlos Salinas de Gortari

[MUSIC PLAYING]

GRAY: The corporation and the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are now declared convened to gather with this assembly on the occasion of the graduation exercises of this institution for the conferring of its degrees. The stage assembly and the audience will please rise for the playing of the national anthem of Mexico. Please join Professor Ellen Harris, Associate Provost for the Arts, in the singing of one verse of The Star-Spangled Banner. Following the national anthems, please be seated for the invocation by Rabbi Daniel Shevitz.

[MUSIC - "MEXICAN NATIONAL ANTHEM"]

[MUSIC - "STAR-SPANGLED BANNER"]

HARRIS: (SINGING) Oh say, can you see by the dawn's early light what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight o'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming. And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. Oh say does that star-spangled banner yet wave o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

SHEVITZ: Good morning. I have good news and bad news. I think I'll give you the bad news first. The bad news is that they didn't teach you enough. Oh, they taught you how to do and how to make, how to design and construct. Perhaps, they even taught you how to think or how to feel, but that's not going to do it for you. You have pulled endless all nighters, done hundreds of problem sets, consumed thousands of pizzas, and it's still not enough.

Did they promise you that they teach you what was important? It was half true. What they taught you was important, but what they couldn't teach you was even more important, and your teachers knew it all along. You are undoubtedly well-equipped for your careers, but life is more than that, and our careers will not save us. Redemption will depend less on how many hours you put into your thesis and more how you treat those around you when you're under pressure.

Your happiness will come not from the recommendations the faculty writes for you but from how your friends and family love you, criticize you, and forgive you. Your success will be measured not by your publications but by how you treat the typist. These are matters that are generally not part of the curriculum. Oh, poor, poor MIT, so far from heaven, so close to Harvard.

There just wasn't enough time for everything. So the faculty made a deal with you. They said, we will teach you what to do. You must figure out what to be, and that is ever so much harder than 6.001. But the good news is you're out of here, and now you will begin--

[CHEERING]

--and now you will begin to see the tremendous value of the education you've received and the stupendous responsibility of using it well. Only when you know the limits of your knowledge, and of knowledge in general, will you begin to savor the delights of wisdom and, I dare to add, the possibility of holiness.

My tradition teacher, when he was just beginning his career, Moses had a vision of a burning bush. The bush burned with fire and was not consumed, says scripture. Moses is quoted, let me turn aside and see this wondrous thing. I like to think that bush had been there burning for years. And everyone else, much too busy doing very important things, glanced at it and hurried off to a meeting or a presentation or an interview or to write a grant proposal. Only to Moses did it occur that he was not so busy that he couldn't stop to check out something that had no immediate use to his career advancement.

There are bushes burning everywhere, all around us, and the voice of God yearns to be heard, calling us to bring heaven and earth a bit closer. You will see those fires if you are fortunate. You will hear the voice if you merit it. Some of the fires will be destructive and threaten the conflagration, and these you must attack with all the cleverness and tricks you've learned in these halls of knowledge. But others burn and do not consume.

These are the ones which a busy man or woman will pass by, but the curious of spirit will turn aside to wonder at that which cannot be grasped with mind alone. And in the true humility, in your frailty, and in the true pride in your ability, you may hear the voice of God speaking to each one of you out of those flames. And that voice will deliver but one message, as it always has, the same message for prophets, saints, and all those who may listen. And that voice will say, go ahead, make my day. May you go from strength to ever greater strength, and may the vision of a redeemed world ever be before you.

[APPLAUSE]

GRAY: I depart briefly from the program for a necessary comment on weather. Those of you who saw the forecasts this morning know that there's a band of showers moving across Massachusetts. It's arrived here a little sooner than we expected. It is forecast to be light showers, not downpours.

Unfortunately, the Institute has no satisfactory alternative to Killian Court as a place for these exercises. Consequently, we have a rather robust definition of rain and a high threshold for dampness. If the rain continues, if it is in the character of a baptism and not a drowning, we shall try to complete these ceremonies. And I encourage you to bear with us in that respect, perhaps in the spirit of that father who following a damp commencement just 10 years ago, in 1983, was heard to say, after the soaking I've taken for the last four years, who minds a little rain? There are raincoats available, as many of you know, and ushers will help you with that, if you wish.

It is my pleasure now to welcome to this platform the Honorable William F. Weld governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and a member of the institute's governing board and his excellency Carlos Salinas de Gortari, president of the United Mexican states. President Salinas will now give the address.

[APPLAUSE]

SALINAS: Dr. Charles Vest, president of MIT, Dr. Paul Gray, chairman of the MIT Corporation, Governor Weld, Mayor, faculty and members of the corporation, distinguished families and guests, members of the class of 1993. I heard in invocation that perhaps it's a problem for Harvard being too close to MIT. It took me 10 years from graduating from Harvard to become president of my country, and 15 years to get from Harvard to MIT. It's not that close, but far enough.

It is a great pleasure for me to deliver this commencement speech today. I appreciate this which I consider a distinction. MIT has steadily built great prestige since the first class of 15 students walked through its doors in 1865, always remaining a truly unique institution. It will be fondly remembered as the home of engineering wizards, but it's strength lies in educating generations of young men and women with the highest expertise in their fields. Who are mature and insightful, ready and willing to shoulder the great demands and responsibilities that society lays upon its most promising citizens.

I come here today to recognize that the class of 1993 is a unique class certainly because of each individual in it. But more than that, because seldom in a generation a group of students enters higher education in one world setting and leaves its studies in a world totally different to the one before. Four years ago, when you entered MIT, the world was very different from the one we live in today. Few historical periods have been subject to such a profound and rapid transformation. While you were studying, the map of the world was being redrawn, and I must say that nothing compares to the implications of putting aside all boundaries, all ideologies, and abandoning the terms with which individuals, societies, and nations define themselves.

The basic framework on which the world operated, when you entered MIT, is already gone, and today uncertainty has increased. The Berlin Wall, a bastion of the Cold War Era, has folded, bringing down with it the old equilibrium and the old certainties of the world order. The Soviet Union ceased to exist as such, leaving a legacy of several republics, each struggling to discover its individual identity. And nations that got together before due to the threat of the Cold War today face regional conflicts. These changes have meant the end of illusions for some, the end of anxieties and the revival of all fears for others, uncertainty for all of us.

In the former world system, there were precise positions with respect to ideas, personalities, and even heroes. Capitalism and communism presented the basic framework for debate, for analysis, as well as for action. There were clear and opposing points of reference, planning versus the market, individual rights versus community needs, formal democracy versus social participation. Duality left no room for confusion.

Today, we know that centralization and big bureaucracies have not, as promised, been the answer for promoting better opportunities for society. Ideologies with a deterministic conception of development have been abandoned. In many countries, some heroes of the past are now considered the architects of doom, imbalances, and inefficiencies. But there is also disenchantment with views that reduce all to politicking which mean no direction.

On the economic front, markets are being integrated more and more. Globalization is a fact of economic life. Isolation is a self-defeating dream. Yet, the distance between the richer and poorer nations of North and South grows deeper and wider.

While you were studying at MIT, the world changed. My country, Mexico, has also changed dramatically. We come from a decade, the '80s, when we faced very high inflation, a huge public deficit, and tremendous public debt, with no economic growth in almost a decade, with no investment in education, in infrastructure, and certainly not in social development. This in a country of 85 million people which is adding every year almost 2 million more to the total population south of your border.

We were at the end of a development process based on an inward-looking, overprotected economy, a suffocating presence of the state, and on the political side, a practically single-party system. We had to change. Change, because the world was changing very rapidly. Change, because every Mexican demanded a new opportunity, a different way of doing things. And change we brought inflation to the lowest in a quarter of a century and promoting an institution, an independent central bank, to assure that inflation would not reappear again in the future.

Growth we recovered five years of permanent growth above population increase. Deficit, we eliminated. No more budget deficits. Now a surplus, a surplus to assure that inflation will not return. Somebody called it a slight surplus. Let me tell you, to eliminate the deficit, a surplus is never slight. You either have it, or you don't.

Debt, we got rid of it. After representing almost 2/3 of our gross domestic product, internal debt-- which in European countries is 60% of GDP in some others 110% or 150%-- today in Mexico, domestic debt is only 10% of GDP. Or in simple words, we have learned, fellow students, that there is life after debt.

For many years, we've also neglected investment in the fundamentals, and fundamentals refers to social programs and among them to education. We are convinced that an economic strategy will not be successful without a firm social program. That is why we have placed the highest priority on education, because education means increased competitiveness. But beyond that, education means better income distribution. And in a country like mine, where women who do not finish primary education have double the children in relation to those who finish primary education, for us, this reform is essential to bring the demographic rate down.

And we have promoted this emphasis on education, almost doubled in real terms the budget for education and at the same time maintaining our surplus. Decentralizing more than 100,000 schools to states and municipalities, reinforcing the contents of education with our return to basics, to language, to mathematics, to history, to geography, but also education for a better environment and civics, that is values and standards.

We have also stimulated the retraining of our teachers. This through encouraging them to prepare them for an evaluation. Yes. We evaluate our teachers. We don't call it a test. No teacher would like to be tested. But we do evaluate them, and a few weeks ago, more than half a million teachers around the country decided to take this evaluation.

And today, we can assure that we will be preparing a much better generation in basic and higher education, channeling more resources to social programs without populism nor paternalism. And at the same time, assuring that grassroots movements participate in the decisions that affect their future, respecting the dignity of those who have less and need so much. Social policy that emphasizes that economic growth without care for the environment is actually the need to reduce points to the rate of economic growth.

Mexico and Brazil are two countries alone that hold half of the world's biodiversity. A single tree in the tropical forest in the south of Mexico has more different species [? than ?] some European countries. Therefore, we must make sure that we protect this wealth that belongs to our countrymen but most of it to the world in which we live. Channeling more than 1% of GDP to the protection of natural resources, creating new protected areas the size of a European country, and certainly, improving the quality of air in Mexico City alone, that has more than 16 million people living in an enclosed area.

Taking the steps, like closing a huge refinery in that city, that meant the overnight loss of more than 6,000 jobs, but certainly to provide a better environment for millions of people living in that city. Or planting in merely two years more than 100 million new trees, or improving the quality of life in our border towns, and also finding an equilibrium between culture, ecology, and community. The Mayan sites of Mexico are today protected without cutting the rain forests around them. On the contrary, archeology and ecology can go hand-in-hand and stimulating the everyday life of the community and harmonizing society with the environment.

This is one of our highest priorities, because talking about environment means more than a political commitment. It requires an ethical one. It's the kind of world that we will leave to our children and the children of our children. It's our commitment to the economy, to education, to the environment, to social problems. But in the world of today, where the threat of global nuclear war is over, we must recognize that there are still wars to be avoided and wars to be waged to be strengthened.

The wars to be strengthened are the wars on drugs. The wars to be avoided are the ones regionally or the looming of trade wars. I have to emphasize the war on drugs, because this is a threat that is materializing in all our societies. Mexico is not a drug-consuming society, but drug traffickers pass through our country looking for other markets. That is why we are so committed to fighting drug traffickers, arresting more than 85 individuals, seizing more than 200 tons of pure cocaine, which is equivalent to double the value of our total external debt. But we are fighting them, because drug gangs turn violence into pain, indignation, and tragedy.

I see it happen a few days ago, where they slain, while fighting each other, one of our bishops, Cardinal Posadas. This is outrageous, and we are committed to punishing them and to reverting this process affecting ours, as many other countries in the world. The problem is that for us the cost of fighting drug trafficking is as high as the profits they make in other countries. We must reduce those profits in order to abate the costs and the pain that they inflict upon our societies while we fight them. We will strengthen international cooperation.

We are determined at not losing this war, because then we would be losing our new generations. This is the war that we must strengthen, but I mention that the war that we must support is the one looming on the trade front. At the end of this century, global trade and freer trade is the way to improve the standard of living of our populations. That is why we in Mexico have proposed to the US and to Canada a free trade agreement, that is, the free movement of goods and services among sovereign nations. For Mexico taking this step is a very important one.

For many years, my country tried to live as far as it could from the US for good historical reasons, due to traumatic experiences. There was a Mexican president, at the end of last century, who use to say something that was sort of mentioned in the invocation. The Mexican president use to say, poor Mexico, so far from God and so close to the United States. This reflected a historical reality. We had to change our mentalities in order to decide to get closer to our mighty neighbor to the north. It's a new reality, and we're willing to live with it.

By the way, if you allow me to share with you, what a friend of mine from Israel told me when I referred to him this phrase from the Mexican president. He said, well in Israel, we say the reverse-- poor Israel, so close to God and so far from the United States. But realities have changed, have change in the rest of the world, have changed in my own country. That is why we are proposing the free trade agreement.

The North American Free Trade Agreement is called NAFTA. I think that it was called like this by an engineer. It sounds like a gasoline. But NAFTA-- I want to emphasize-- NAFTA is a job creating agreement. Because by increasing competition in our three nations and it's competitive capacity, it will allow us to compete with regions which are getting together in Europe and in the Asian Pacific countries. Not as closed books but open to competition and increasing the standard of living of our population.

NAFTA is an environment improvement agreement, because with additional resources, we will take better care of our environment. NAFTA is a wage-increasing agreement, because we are committed to increasing real wages in Mexico, more than they have increased up to today, when NAFTA is ratified. And NAFTA is a migration-reduction agreement, because Mexicans will not have to migrate north looking for jobs in this country, but they will be able to find them in my own, which is my main commitment. If Mexico prospers, the US and Canada will prosper. That is why this is not a win-lose solution but a win-win-win situation for the three countries in the northern part of the American continent.

The Latin-American community is watching eagerly for NAFTA success, because it means hope for the whole region, and for the rest of the world, increased competitiveness, and this is good for all of us. What does it mean to the North American region? What does it mean to an MIT student who is graduating today? In carrying out your studies, this tremendous change in the world, in Mexico, and in Mexican-American relations may sound faraway. But the world that you will now encounter will not let you forget its relevance in your daily life.

You will compete for a job dependent upon what happens in Europe, in the Asian-Pacific countries, and also in Mexico. Today, again unique in a generation, the questions you are asking yourself after graduating are similar to the ones that the president or a head of state is facing. What is the place for the individual, for society, and for a nation in the New World Order? What's the role of technology and also of morals and ethics? How to balance modernization with an environmental and social responsibility?

You may allow a foreign experience, perhaps that of Mexico, to fuel your thoughts. We have not solved every problem. On the contrary, we are facing new ones, but our experience of change may shed some light on your own enormous capacity of transformation.

As you finish your higher education today, you are now being challenged to make a transformation, perhaps the most important of your life. There are two ways to look at it. You are either standing at the crest of change and can increase its impetus, or you can attempt to resist and eventually be swept away. Do not drift. You have proved that you do not avoid your responsibilities, as you have done here at MIT in the last four years.

Reach out. Reach high. Remember history. Use your knowledge to grab the spirit of our times. You will be among the best-prepared professionals in the world.

I challenge you, respectfully, to tackle the future with the same international character that MIT has always shown. We are living the exceptional opportunity to be part of the creation of a new era. I am confident that you will be true citizens of the new world order. That is why I am convinced today that yours, the class of 1993, will certainly be a class of experts who really care. Congratulations, and good luck.

[APPLAUSE]

GRAY: President Salinas, thank you very much for your address. Now, Mr. Anand Mehta, president of the graduate student council, will give a salute to MIT from the graduate student body. Following this, Ms. Reshma Patel, president of the senior class, will present the class gift to President Vest. After Ms. Patel's presentation, President Vest will deliver his charge to the graduates.

MEHTA: Thank you, Dr. Gray. I will always enjoy the time I've spent with many of you, the graduate and undergraduate classes of 1993. I remember a lot of the fun we had together, participating in intramurals, spontaneous road trips, and yes, even at MIT, we managed to have fun. I remember people studying together to prepare for general exams, tests, and design projects. Often, people would help other students at the risk of not spending as much time on their own work. I hope this time is seen as valuable. I know the students receiving the help appreciated it.

I would like to thank you for enriching my experience both those I knew personally and those I didn't but who still contributed to what MIT is. After all, we did not come to MIT only for the excellent faculty but also to be part of this exceptional community of which we are an integral part. We spent much time flaming, but I've always been impressed with student's ability to not only change but to improve the things they believe in.

As we in the MIT community, and at the world at large, cope with difficult issues, such as budget deficits and racism, I know you will continue to put your efforts into making life better for those around you. Finally, I remember talking with many of you about how and when we would get out of here. Now you've made it. Congratulations, and good luck. And keep smiling, it gives your face something to do.

[APPLAUSE]

PATEL: I would like to thank my family and all the K through 12 teachers in Lowell, Massachusetts without whom none of this would be possible. In our four years at MIT, we have witnessed many changes within ourselves, the institute, and the world. We came as clueless but enthusiastic freshmen during [? RO ?] 1989, wandering unfamiliar halls in search of friends and a place to live. We ate. We rushed. We partied. We bonded instantly with those we had known only momentarily.

Soon classes began, and we took full advantage of pass/fail. We had our romantic delusions. We hacked at Athena. Some of us found romance at Athena. We talked for hours on end in dining halls, dorm lounges, floor kitchens, and made friends for life. Our enthusiasm quelled as we pulled our first all nighter and our second and our next and our next.

Some of us became athletes, and some of us joined student activities. Some of us marched, and some of us protested. We saw the international climate change as the Berlin Wall and the communism fell. Then came sophomore year, and we buckled down for grades. We now knew the lingo-- to tool, to hack, numbers all around. We watched our classmates win [? 270. ?] We saw brothers go to war. We welcomed in President Vest.

As juniors, we became engulfed in our extracurriculars. Members of our class were now editors of campus papers, leaders in living groups, ethnic groups, sports teams, and student government. We worked to enhance life at MIT. Battle of the classes and the Valentine's Day ball, now Institute traditions, happened because of Class of '93-ers.

Our economy faltered, and we saw the unimaginable. Even our peers entered the ranks of the unemployed. Senior year came, and it seemed too soon. We contemplated what we would do with our lives. Bonds were formed as it waited anxiously in the office of career services or studied frantically at the Kaplan test center. We relied on each other as we coped with the joys and disappointments, as we tried to determine our futures.

We discovered Cambridge and began to give back to the greater community by volunteering at the neighborhood schools. We worked on political campaigns and tried to influence the future of our country. We continue to give back to the institute with Recycle MIT, our senior class gift. Now we sit here, filled with happiness, because we have actually survived, but also with sadness, because we actually must say goodbye. But as we bid farewell, we can use the spirit of giving, which has been fostered amongst us at MIT, and what we have learned here to positively shape the new communities which we will now enter.

Us, who would be economists and politicians, can only hope to do for our countries as much as President Salinas has done for his. All of us engineers will design, build, and create so as to improve technology and communication and productivity for our nation. Those who will dedicate themselves to teaching can take pride in promoting our desire for knowledge in a new generation of techies. The doctors amongst us, aside from searching for cures, will have to work to see that healing is affordable for all of us. And our friends who will be lawyers, beyond ensuring that our legal system treats us all fairly regardless of gender or race, we ask, please do not sue our friends who are doctors.

Regardless of which profession each of us may choose, our shared experiences at MIT will give us strength elsewhere. In our four years, we have learned the value of friendship, innovation, how to work hard, and sleep as much as most people do in for months. At MIT, we have made friends from different religions, races, ethnicities, and sexual orientations. You will be able to find one of our classmates anywhere in the world.

The appreciation for diversity that many of us have learned here will help us teach an ever more intolerant world tolerance. The ability to take initiative and innovate that has been instilled in us that MIT will help us creatively attack all else that may come before us. We have had to solve the toughest of problems here, and the skills that we take will make no problem seem insurmountable. Our strong work ethic will cause us to never give up. While others may possess some of these traits, our ability to forgo sleep will cause us to do more in one day than others can in a week. So I ask, take all that you've learned, and go out there in the world, in your communities, and make a difference. Thank you.

[APPLAUSE]

I'd like to now present President Vest with the senior class gift, which is $30,071. This project is called Recycle MIT.

[APPLAUSE]

VEST: It is now my presidential duty to disclose the real reason we have gathered here today in Killian Court, because I have learned from authoritative sources that this is Reshma Patel, your class president's birthday, and there is only one way to recognize that. Will you please join me in singing Happy Birthday to your president?

ALL: (SINGING) Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday dear Reshma. Happy Birthday to you.

[APPLAUSE]

VEST: Thank you very much, Ms. Patel. It's a moving experience to receive a gift from a class, at the moment like this, especially recognizing all we've put you through in the last four years. Your particular gift speaks directly to the importance of our taking stewardship of the environment, and we are most grateful for your generosity and your foresight. When your class returns five years hence for its first major reunion, I hope that we can demonstrate to you that we have achieved both lower waste and higher consciousness on this important issue. Thank you very much.

Once again, we are gathered here in Killian Court, the great court of MIT, to celebrate accomplishment, heritage, and passage. It may perhaps seem odd that a community so dedicated to the future, so permeated by scientific objectivity, comes together dawning strange and colorful medieval regalia. But indeed, it is fitting and seemingly fulfilling of deep human needs that such ritual takes place.

One of our MIT faculty poets, Stephen Tapscott, has reminded us, however, that the solemnity of even such an elegant scene as this is sometimes broken by the faculty itself. When, as our poet says, from deep in the drooping sleeve of their robes, surreptitiously they bring out peanut butter sandwiches to sustain them during the long ceremony. Be that as it may, this ritual reminds us of the continuity through the ages, discovery and learning of our role in an unbroken centuries old chain of human accomplishment, achievements of mind, and spirit. But above all, it celebrates your accomplishment during your student years.

This is not to say that you have accomplished the remarkable feat of graduating from MIT all on your own, however. For today, we are surrounded by parents, family, friends, spouses, loved ones, and children who have supported and sustained you through the years. You will recognize them today by their smiles brought about by their great pride in your accomplishment and no doubt by a sense of great and eminent relief to their bank accounts. Let us then express our deep appreciation to all who have come to Cambridge today to join in your commencement ceremony. Will you, our graduates, please rise, turn to your audience, and give them the applause they so richly deserve.

[APPLAUSE]

It is also especially wonderful to see the babies and small children who come to see their mothers and fathers graduate. They too are welcome, and as this ceremony stretches onward, I give them special presidential approval to comment upon these proceedings at any time and in any manner they see fit. President Salinas, our good neighbor, your presence here today and the thoughts you have shared with us remind us that we live and work in a rapidly changing and increasingly interdependent world society. This is the world that you, our graduates, are entering. It is a world in transition.

It is a world in which new balances must be struck. We must resolve the tensions between competition and cooperation, between fragmentation and integration, between nation and world. We have learned the value of competition. We know the value of the rugged individual and of the iconoclast, but we are just beginning to learn the value of cooperation and of teamwork. Let me give you a few examples of how we have learned, and how much we still have to learn, about the right balance between competition and cooperation.

Just a few years ago, the United States was declared to have lost all hope of competing in the world marketplace as a manufacturer of silicon computer chips. The prediction of our demise, to paraphrase Mark Twain, was premature, however. The creation of things like the Sematech Corporation, while respecting the basic tenants of the marketplace, enabled the companies of the semiconductor industry to work together with each other and with universities on generic research and on the development of sophisticated and expensive equipment. This represented a shift in attitude and operation that has allowed us to regain leadership in this field.

On the other hand, we still live with antiquated regulatory structures that stand in the way of easily and quickly implementing a national information infrastructure that would bring the powerful tools of modern communication and computing to a broad cross-section of America. And then, there's this curious juxtaposition of antitrust regulation and financial aid policies. Antitrust laws, as fundamentally important as they are, have become so distorted to allow a bizarre suit by the federal government to stop MIT from working with our sister institutions to ensure that financial aid goes to those students who together with their families most need it. Such roadblocks to cooperation are all around us.

I could give more examples, but the message is a simple one. Economically, socially, politically, if you want to shape a vibrant and just future, you must learn to cooperate as well as to compete. The message of cooperation is simple, but its implementation is not. For we seem to have fragmented along every conceivable fault line-- fragmented by intellectual discipline, fragmented by race, fragmented by gender, fragmented by geography. With every such division, we lose more of our sense of common culture, common humanity, and common destiny.

In order to resolve this, to reverse this trend, we must resolve a great many differences and tensions. It will not be easy, but I gained some solace regarding the resolution of difficult issue three weeks ago. When we heard the distinguished columnist William Raspberry tell another graduating class that, in 20 years of writing political columns, the main thing that he had learned was that in any public controversy most thoughtful people secretly believe both sides. Be that as it may, if we're to build the future we want for ourselves and our children, we must build it together. We must have a sense of common purpose. We must have an integrated, inclusive view of history. We must have community. We must have mutual respect. We must hold common values at the deepest level.

Now, I do not suggest that we sweep aside all differences. To the contrary, we thrive on differences of experience, culture, and perspective. As Alfred North Whitehead said in his 1925 lectures on science in the modern world, other nations have different habit are not enemies, they are godsends. This is true, whether we speak of society's professions or single institutions. The electrical engineer and the mechanical engineer are able to build systems together that neither could build alone. Men and women come together to create a balanced discourse and world view. Black and white, brown and yellow, red and tan create a campus and a nation far more meaningful and creative than any alone.

As you shape the future, you must respect and cherish differences, but you must build common purpose and values. We in the United States have a proud heritage and place in the world, despite the relative youth of our country. But now, at the end of the 20th century, we face an enormous challenge to regain leadership and economic competitiveness. You will have great responsibility in this regard, but I fear that in our search to regain competitiveness, we run the risk of turning inward too much. We blame too many of our current problems on other nations. Isolationism and protectionism do not work in the long run. Despite our intense competition with Japan, despite the repugnant and morally outrageous nature of the disintegration of Yugoslavia, despite the growing gap between North and South, I am confident that the true historical trend is now one of communication, of interaction, of cooperation.

Our MIT is an American institution, and each of you is a citizen of some nation. For most of you that nation is the United States of America. But beyond that, MIT is also an institution of the world, and its greatness derives in large measure from its cosmopolitan nature and its worldwide connections. The same must be true of you. Be proud and committed to your nation, but also look beyond it. To shape a future of greatness, you must be citizens of the world.

The early decades of your professional lives will be sharply differentiated from mine by the end of the Cold War. The cold peace that we have won has somehow brought a surprisingly hollow sense of victory, and somewhere along the line, it seems to me, we have lost our will to excel. You and we must regain that will to excel.

A few weeks ago, here in Boston, the British novelist John le Carre gave a remarkable speech that clarified many of these points for me, and perhaps it will for you as well. He said, the fight against communism diminished us. That is why we were unable to rejoice in our victory. It left us in a state of false and corrosive orthodoxy. It licensed our excesses, and we did not like ourselves the better for them. It dulled our love of descent and our sense of life's adventure.

In my country, he said, and perhaps in yours, the service of industries of criticism have almost drowned out the magic of creation. Our intellectuals hate too much. Our press revels in public executions. We are poisoning ourselves with malice, yet we take no risks. We are not brave. Our orthodoxy gives us no way out, yet we have never been so free.

We no longer need to clip the wings of our humanity. It is time we flew again. That is what John le Carre said. So now, it is up to you to fly. Learn to cooperate as well as compete, respect and cherish differences, but build common purposes and values. Be citizens of the world, regain the will to excel. Men and women of MIT, I wish you Godspeed and the very best of good fortune.

[APPLAUSE]

GRAY: By virtue of the authority delegated to them by the corporation of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and on the recommendation of the faculty, President Vest will now present the Bachelor of Science degrees and the Bachelor and Master of Science degrees awarded simultaneously, and Provost Wrighton will present advanced degrees. The names of the recipients of Bachelor of Science degrees and Bachelor and Master of Science degrees awarded simultaneously will be read by the Associate Provost for Institute Life, Samuel J. Keyser, and the Dean of Undergraduate Education and Student Affairs, Arthur C. Smith. The names of the recipients of the advanced degrees will be read by the deans of the schools. The first persons to be recognized are the class marshals who are seated here on the stage.

[? SMITH: ?] Recognition will now be given to the officers of the class of 1993 and the president and vice president of the Graduate Student Council who are seated on the stage. Reshma P. Patel, president of the class of 1993, is awarded the degrees of Bachelor of Science in Economics and Bachelor of Science in Political Science. Sophia Yen, treasurer of the class of 1993, is awarded the degree of Bachelor of Science in Biology. David S. Cuthbert, vice president of the Graduate Student Council, is pursuing the degree of Master of Science in Transportation. Anand Mehta, president of the Graduate Student Council, is entering the fifth year of graduate study in the Department of Physics. He is pursuing the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

PRESENTER: Bachelor of Science diplomas will now be presented to students in the School of Architecture and Planning who have completed the specified degree requirements. For the degree of Bachelor of Science in Art and Design.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: Advanced degree diplomas will now be presented to students in the School of Architecture and Planning who have completed the specified degree requirements.

[READING NAMES]

For the Degree of Bachelor of Science, as recommended by the Department of Architecture.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: Master of Science in Architecture Studies.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: For the Degree of Bachelor of Science in Planning.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: Bachelor of Science diplomas will now be presented to students in the School of Engineering who have completed the specified degree requirements.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: Master of Science in Visual Studies.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: For the degree of Bachelor of Science in Environmental Engineering Science.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: Master of Science in City Planning.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: For the degree of Bachelor of Science, as recommended by the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: For the degree of Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: For the degree Master of Science without specification of field.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: Doctor of Philosophy with all the rights and privileges pertaining thereto.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: Advanced degree diplomas will now be presented to students in the School of Engineering who have completed the specified degree requirements. Master of Science in Civil and Environmental Engineering.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: Master of Science in Civil Engineering.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: Master of Science in Mechanical Engineer.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: Master of Science in Ceramics.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: Master of Science in Materials Engineering.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: Master of Science in Electronic Materials.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: Master of Science in Electrical Engineering and Computer science.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: For the degree of Bachelor of Science, as recommended by the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: For the degree of Bachelor of Science in Material Science and Engineering.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: Master of Science in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Cooperative Program.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: Master of Science in Chemical Engineering.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: Master of Science in Chemical Engineering Practice.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: For the degree of Bachelor of Science, as recommended by the Department of Material Science and Engineering.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: For the degree of Bachelor of Science in Electrical engineering.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: Master of Science in Ocean Engineering.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: Master of Science in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering.

[READING NAMES]

Master Science in Naval Architecture, Marine Engineering, Naval Construction and Engineering.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: Master of Science in Ocean Systems Management.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: Master of Science in Aeronautics and Astronautics.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: Master of Science in Nuclear Engineering.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: Master of Science in Technology and Policy.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: Master of Science in transportation.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: Master of Science without specification of field.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: Civil Engineer.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: Mechanical Engineer.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: Electrical Engineer.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: Ocean Engineer.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: Naval Engineer, Naval Construction and Engineering.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: Nuclear Engineer.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: Doctor of Science with all the rights and privileges pertaining thereto.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: Doctor of Philosophy with all the rights and privileges pertaining thereto.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: For the degree of Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Engineering.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: For the degree of Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: Advanced degree diplomas will now be presented to students in the School of Humanities and Social Science who have completed the specified degree requirements. Master of Science in Political Science.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: Doctor of Philosophy with all the rights and privileges pertaining thereto.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: For the degree of Bachelor of Science, as recommended by the Department of Chemical Engineering.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: For the degree of Bachelor of Science in Ocean Engineering.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: For the degree of Bachelor of Science in Aeronautics and Astronautics.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: Advanced degree diplomas will be now presented to students in the Sloan School of Management who have completed their specified degree requirements.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: For the degree of Bachelor of Science in Nuclear Engineering.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: Bachelor of Science diplomas will now be presented of students in the School of Humanities and Social Science who have completed the specified degree requirements. Bachelor of Science in Economics.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: Bachelor of Science in Political Science.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: Bachelor of Science in Anthropology Archeology.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: Bachelor of Science in History.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: Bachelor of Science in Literature.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: Bachelor of Science in Music.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: Bachelor of Science in Writing.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: Bachelor of Science in Humanities.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: Bachelor of Science in Humanities and Engineering.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: Bachelor of Science in Humanities and Science.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: Bachelor of Science diplomas will now be presented to students in the Sloan School of Management who have completed the specified degree requirements. Bachelor of Science in Management Science.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: Bachelor of Science diplomas will now be presented to students in the School of Science who have completed the specified degree requirements. Bachelor of Science in Chemistry.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: Bachelor of Science in Biology.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: Bachelor of Science as recommended by the Department of Biology.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: Bachelor of Science in Physics.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: Masters of Science in the Management of Technology.

[READING NAMES]

|

PRESENTER: Bachelor of Science in Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: Bachelor of Science in Mathematics.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: Masters of Science in Operations Research.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: Doctor of Philosophy with all the rights and privileges pertaining thereto.

[READING NAMES]

PRESENTER: Advanced degree diplomas will now be presented to students in the School of Science who have completed the specified degree requirements. Master of Science in Physics.