Southeastern Massachusetts University - Scrimshaw Yearbook (North Dartmouth, MA)

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,ey President Donald E. Walker If past studies are correct, most of you will soon forget most of the details of what you have just learned. Unless you follow a specific subject professionally, you will probably forget, for example, the relationship between current, resistance and electrical potential. l-listorical dates and names will give way to a more general memory of basic trends, you will confuse one philosopher with another, formulas for balancing budgets will drift beyond your reach, and authors and their works will slowly melt together in a vague tapestry. I would not blame you if you then ask, What was it all for? What have I accomplished during the past four years? The answer, as Dr. Howard R. Bowen points out in his new book, Investment in Learning: The Individual and Social Value of American Higher Education, lies in the residues Dr. Bowen defines these residues as the general knowledge and perspectives that enable students to participate in the general culture -for example, to read significant literature, to understand and appreciate the arts, to converse with educated people about matters of importance, to comprehend the news in historical, geographic, and social perspectives, to have some basic understanding of science and technology, and to be at home with religious and philosophical issues. Such residues are what make it possible for college students to better cope with an ever-changing world. This is why, as recent studies have shown, college graduates are less likely to be unemployed, less likely to have nervous breakdowns, more likely to enjoy their work, spend more time with their children,.and generally live up to their full potential as human beings. This, of course, is not to say the process of education is completed. Quite the contrary. l hope that what this university has done for you is to help you better understand the process of learning so that you may continue to grow throughout your lifetime in all those diverse ways which make existence meaningful and satisfying. l

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Celestino D. Macedo Dean of Students Now that your undergraduate career has concluded, I would like to reflect with you on your education and its implications. At Commencement the President welcomed you into the society of educated men and women with all of its benefits and responsibilities. What exactly are these benefits and responsibilities pertaining to the educated society of which you are a member? Your preparation for entrance into this society took atleast four years and a substantial amount of money. You have studied professional disciplines or liberal arts, or both, and have been judged and certified by the I Faculty and Trustees of this University to possess knowledge of the basic principles of these areas of study. Before long, most of the specific knowledge gained from your individual courses will be outmoded or forgotten, the former due to the accelerated rate of progress, and the other due to normal physical limitations. What, th.en, have you gained by your collegiate experience? I know that some of you will facetiously say that the society of educated men and women is composed of individuals who memorize material soon to be outdated, and then forget what they have memorized. May I suggest to you, however, that what you have gained from your days of scholarship is the increased ability to analyze a wide range of factors, to synthesize a plan of action based on critical analysis and to act in accordance with that plan. The major benefit for you as a member of the educated society, then, is your ability for self-direction, based on critical analysis and synthesization. As you set forth from academia, you possess a force which knows no bounds. This force of self-direction applies to all aspects of your life - personal, social and occupational. In your personal life, self-direction is rooted in knowing yourself as a person. With this knowledge of self, you can seek and accept truth and be accountable for your own actions. Self- direction is not merely for your personal life, but for society as well. Use it to foster justice, peace and charity. Your career choices are expanded, and advancement enhanced, by your self- direction. With self-direction you are not limited to a career in your major. You can be what you want to be, providing you know your goals and are willing to persevere toward those ends. With self-direction comes the major responsibility to continuously develop and utilize it. On a formal basis, further development will take the form of graduate school, or at least further course work. For most, however, development will be accomplished on their own initiative, such as reading, conferences and the media. Finally, I would suggest to you that to believe that this vital intellectual force -self-direction -is ever fully developed, is to deny oneself the challenge and excitement of exploration. Of equal concern is the individual who does not utilize his or her self-direction and requisite skills to improve himself or herself and society, they represent a most tragic waste of talent, promise and human energy. On the other hand, if our society does not promise opportunity for the utilization of the skills you have gained here, then we will all be immeasurably affected. Basically, I am an optimist and I believe that society awaits you with great anticipation. They anticipate the force within you. The responsibility is yours as to how you will develop and utilize this force and its requisite skills. You not only have my best wishes for your success, but I do hope that you experience with me the exciting anticipation of the contribution that you will make.