As we turn the calendar to 2025, I hope you are finding a few moments to renew and refresh. Campus is pretty quiet right now, with most of our students away on winter break, so from the top of Bascom Hill, I invite you to join me for a peek at a few of the things we’ve been working on.

Winter Commencement

More than 2,000 students graduated as part of our winter commencement, and the ceremony offered a wonderful chance to celebrate the achievements of our newest alumni.

As something of a “foodie” myself, I was delighted that our commencement speaker was Dan Jacobs, who made it all the way to the finals in last season’s Top Chef (which was based right here in Wisconsin) and who is the creator and driving force behind two top Milwaukee restaurants.

Along with a memorable live, on-stage cooking demo on how to spatchcock and roast a delicious chicken (dry brining is the key!), Dan inspired our graduates with a few of the life lessons he’s learned working in high-pressure kitchens — including how criticism can be a powerful fuel for excellence and the importance of staying authentically curious, both in the kitchen and in life.

Research Ranking

You might have seen the exciting news last month that UW–Madison now ranks sixth in research expenditures among U.S. universities, up from number eight, where we’d been since 2018. You and I both know that this university has been a research powerhouse for many decades, and whether we’re number eight or number six doesn’t change that — and the truth is that there are very small dollar differences separating numbers five through nine. Nonetheless, it was terrific to see us moving up on this ranking (and the two schools we leapfrogged this year were UC–San Diego and my own former institution, UCLA). Far more important than the ranking, however, is the reality that these investments represent $1.7 billion in cutting-edge research investment for the benefit of Wisconsin and the world.

Theranostics

Just one example of that research: have you heard of theranostics? It’s therapeutics plus diagnostics, and UW–Madison is way out front! As a federal reviewer looking at our program recently said, “Wisconsin potentially owns theranostics.”

This technique allows physicians to send a targeted dose of radiation to a precise spot in the body, quickly see what the result is, and adjust as needed. Dean Bob Golden at our School of Medicine and Public Health describes theranostics as a radioactive molecular bullet that locates and attacks cancer cells — even otherwise undetectable ones. This is an incredibly exciting piece of the future of cancer care (and perhaps ultimately neurological disorders as well, like Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s).

I’m excited to tell you that UW Health has opened a beautiful new state-of-the-art theranostics center where patients are now receiving these treatments, and the UW Carbone Cancer Center has launched a new Initiative for Theranostics and Particle Therapy to bring together faculty experts from a multitude of specialties to accelerate our work in this arena.

Building Connection across Our Differences

It’s practically a truism, even a cliché, to say that we are living through polarized times, and sometimes our divisions can seem awfully challenging to bridge. That’s part of why the La Follette School of Public Affairs’ Main Street Agenda program is both exciting and downright inspiring. Over the past few months, the school brought together nearly 350 Wisconsinites with diverse viewpoints and perspectives in Pewaukee, Green Bay, Eau Claire, and Madison for small-group dinner conversations aimed at promoting and practicing civil discourse and respect for differences.

The good news? Feedback from participants was overwhelmingly positive. As one participant put it, “It’s okay to have a difference of opinion and still agree on the fact that we want a better Wisconsin.”

I’d say it’s not just okay but necessary for our democracy for citizens to have different opinions and to still be able to engage with one another with respect across those differences. We don’t have to agree with one another in order to learn from each other, to respect one another, and even to work together for a better future. This is the university’s guiding principle of pluralism, something our students are hearing a lot about this year.

Dogs on Call

Speaking of our students, I’ll bet you remember how stressful finals week can be. A couple of weeks ago, Dogs on Call (which also welcomes cats!) helped us give students an opportunity to snuggle some friendly pups for a much-needed mental health break. As a dog person (my 14-year-old rescue dog, Plato, had a cameo in this year’s holiday video), I know how much that can help!

The Year in Photos

Finally, a last look back at 2024.

One of my favorite end-of-year traditions is creating our holiday video — here’s a peek behind the scenes.

We’d just gotten shooting underway when our dog, Plato, decided to begin energetically barking:

“Let’s try that one more time,” director Eric called for the 10th time. Thanks to so many great colleagues and students who were incredibly good sports! Do you recognize some of these folks?

I think Bucky spoke for many of us at the end of a two-hour shoot (that was also lots of fun!).

Our photo team captures thousands of moments in time each year, from grand to granular. Then comes the hard part: sifting and winnowing to create a time capsule of the year’s most compelling images. I hope these bring you back to your time on our beautiful campus. Take a look.

Wishing you a very healthy and happy 2025, and on, Wisconsin!

Jennifer L. Mnookin
Chancellor

* * * *

Chancellor’s Choice

• Winter doesn’t slow Badgers down! If you’re in the Madison area, bundle up and visit the Arboretum to learn about our outdoor world on a nature walk (or hear a lecture in the Visitor Center, if you’d prefer a more indoor experience).
• The Badger Talks program brings the incredible depth and breadth of UW–Madison scholarship to you wherever you are, with engaging speakers and timely topics. Watch for events in your part of the state or check out videos and podcasts featuring experts on everything from athletics to zoology.
• I wish I’d had the Teachers, Toddlers, and Tissues podcast when my kids were little. From fevers to rashes to playground injuries, common childhood issues are covered, with informative and often humorous advice from the team (a UW professor of pediatrics and experts from our School of Human Ecology and the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families).

Welcome to the first edition of Notes from the Chancellor, a roughly every-other-month chance for me to share a few thoughts and a behind-the-scenes peek at some of what I’m working on and thinking about here on Bascom Hill.

Homecoming Festivities

It was a true delight to connect with so many of you over Homecoming weekend and be part of our 80,000-person Badger cheering squad at Camp Randall on Saturday.

I grant that the football score was not the highlight of the weekend. But the spirit of community was nonetheless out in full force, from the happy crowds lining the streets for our annual parade to the gorgeous fireworks over Lake Mendota.

Bringing the Wisconsin Idea to Life

Our 175th anniversary celebration has come to an end, and just when we’d all learned to say demisemiseptcentennial! If you appreciated the linguistic challenge, stay tuned for the quasquibicentennial celebration in 2073.

I’ll continue to travel around Wisconsin to hear about what alums, community members, industry leaders, and legislators think we are doing well and where we might have room for improvement.

I stopped this month in Green County to see the work of UW-trained master cheesemakers and got to try the fragrant (!) Limburger cheese sandwich at Baumgartner’s. (Cheese-centric travel is a definite perk of my job, though candidly, I won’t be rushing back for the super-pungent Limburger.)

On a trip to the Northwoods, I visited with UW scientists at two of our 12 research stations and learned more about our innovative research to protect our precious lakes (there are 2,500 of them in the vicinity of the research station!) and how we work to support the management and sustainable use of Wisconsin’s forests. I was lucky enough to time my visit with stunning fall foliage, and seeing our impact on the state and the opportunities these projects create for both undergraduates and graduate students is quite inspiring.

I also learned, while wading into a cranberry marsh (and, fortunately, not falling in), about how our research on disease resistance, new hybrids, and much more helps support the farmers who make Wisconsin the number-one cranberry producer in the nation — food for thought as we prepare so many delicious cranberry-themed recipes this fall! Take a look at more examples of the Wisconsin Idea in action in every one of the state’s 72 counties by visiting the Wisconsin Idea Database.

Commitment to Excellence in Badger Athletics

You may have seen the news earlier this month of a legal settlement that will, if finalized, give teams like ours the possibility of sharing revenues with some of our student athletes. We are in a moment of considerable — even transformative — change in intercollegiate athletics, but our fundamental commitment to both athletic and scholarly excellence will remain steadfast.

A New Approach to Institutional Statements

You may have heard that university leaders have been increasingly called upon to make statements and take positions on a range of situations, including about national and global issues. I’ve come to believe that this practice is not a good idea. Statements risk oversimplifying complex subjects and pull our institution out of its appropriate “lane” of supporting extraordinary education and research. In addition, doing so risks crowding out other points of view and potentially chilling the robust exchange of ideas — the sifting and winnowing — that’s so critical to our mission.

At the start of this school year, we announced a new policy on institutional statements. I believe this commitment to institutional restraint will, in fact, make space for more of the dialogue and debate that have characterized our intellectual community since our founding.

To be clear, there are times when the university’s voice (or my or another leader’s voice on behalf of the university) is necessary — for example, on issues directly affecting our operation or mission. And, of course, we encourage our researchers, instructors, and students to continue to share their expertise and views publicly — that’s what both academic freedom and freedom of speech are about.

Band Together

Finally, have you seen our new television ads running in Wisconsin and nationally during Big Ten broadcasts? You might just recognize a former classmate in one of them. You can read more here about the role they play in our statewide outreach strategy. The first ad is called “Band Together” and features UW Marching Band alumni and our wonderful band director, Corey Pompey.

On, Wisconsin!

Jennifer L. Mnookin
Chancellor

* * * *

Chancellor’s Choice

• Ahead of Veterans Day, I want to express my gratitude to the thousands of Badgers who’ve served our country and protected our freedoms — especially those on our Gold Star Honor Roll, who made the ultimate sacrifice.
• Our outstanding UW School of Nursing is celebrating its 100th birthday this year. Join the centennial celebration livestream on November 8 to learn from nursing faculty about the leading-edge work happening there.
• Did you know UW–Madison is home to the country’s oldest university glassblowing program? The Chazen Museum’s exhibition “Look What Harvey Did: Harvey K. Littleton’s Legacy in the Simona and Jerome Chazen Studio Glass Collection” celebrates this legacy through May 1, 2025. If you can’t make it in person, dive into the Meet Me at the Chazen podcast for fascinating discussions of exhibitions, events, and works of art.

Sept. 3, 2024

Thank you, Provost Isbell for that kind welcome, and hello new Badgers! I am delighted to welcome you to one of the world’s greatest universities — the University of Wisconsin–Madison!

Thanks also to Vice Chancellors Lori Reesor and LaVar Charleston, and our amazing student speaker Amanjot Kaur — let’s give them all a round of applause.

Students, you are an exceptional group with a plurality of talents — a dizzying and impressive range of backgrounds and experiences that you bring here to UW–Madison. Let me tell you just a little about yourselves:

• There are nearly 10,000 of you — about 8,500 freshmen (freshmen, make some noise!) and 1,400 transfer students (let’s hear from you!).
• We selected each of you from an avalanche — a tsunami! — of more than 70,000 applicants. That’s a new record! You are now part of one of the most accomplished and competitive classes in our 176-year history.
• You come from 48 states, Washington, D.C., and four U.S. territories (anyone remember the states we’re missing?  That’s right — West Virginia and Mississippi — if you have friends there, tell them we said ‘hi!’)
• Now let’s hear from the top states outside of Wisconsin represented in this class:
• #5 and #4 go together — the tri-state area — New York, New Jersey (and let’s not leave out Connecticut), where are you?
• #3 — California — make some noise!
• #2 — Minnesota — let’s hear it!
• #1 — you know who you are … Illinois, where are you? Congrats!
• We also have international students from more than 60 nations around the globe, let’s hear from you!
• OK, Wisconsin, it’s your turn. If you’re from the great state of Wisconsin, make some noise!
• And here’s something I’m really proud of — nearly one out of every five of you is the first in your family to go to college. Let’s hear it for our first-generation scholars!

I have a request of you. You heard the provost say the next time you may all be together again will be graduation — a few years down the road! So I want a photo!

(Selfie with the students)

Your first official UW portrait! I’ll post it on Instagram if you want to follow me: @UWChancellor.

* * * *

In the days and weeks to come you’re going to meet so many new people. You’ll find out where they’re from, what they want to major in … but I’m challenging you to do more — question deeper. Be on the lookout for what makes each of you unique, because this is an amazing class!

Just a few of the things you might learn about your classmates this year if you ask them about themselves:

• One of them is this year’s Madison Youth Poet Laureate.
• Another represented her home nation of Chile at the international UNESCO Youth Forum.
• One of your classmates just competed in the men’s diving competition at the Summer Olympics (and will now be on our fabulous UW Swimming & Diving Team)

Impressive for sure, and that only scratches the surface. In this class are national merit scholars … athletes … performers … published authors … Eagle Scouts … community volunteers … and I could go on.

You can — and you will — meet amazing fellow students here, and you can and you will learn so much from them.

But if that sounds at all intimidating, please don’t let it feel that way. Wherever you are from, whatever you’ve done already, and wherever you aim to go: You belong here.

The plurality of talent that makes UW–Madison so special includes you. Emphatically. You create the tapestry that makes us who we are.

You will learn an incredible amount from each other. And you will also have the chance to learn so much from our spectacular faculty. Let me introduce just three of them.

Slide: Lynda Barry

Professor Lynda Barry of the art department teaches courses in comics.

Slide: Lynda Barry in the classroom

She’s renowned around the world for the way in which she uses art to teach all students (sometimes especially students from the STEM fields) new ways of tapping into their creativity to solve problems.

Slide: Jonathan Martin

Professor Jon Martin of the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences. His courses are rigorous and he is a favorite teacher on our campus.

If you see a group of students standing on top of that tall building by Union South with all the satellite dishes on the roof sometime this December? That’s Professor Martin and his class, looking for steam devils on Lake Mendota. If you don’t know what those are, take his class and you’ll find out!

Slide: Hantang Qin 

And Professor Hantang Qin. See that plane behind them?  It’s specially modified to simulate weightlessness.

Slide:  Students floating inside plane

Dr. Chin and his students were testing a 3-D printer they invented to print electronic components on the nano scale in zero gravity — the first of its kind in the world!

The goal is to give astronauts a way to fabricate their own replacement parts as they journey through space.

These are just three of the more than 2,000 incredible scholars on our faculty. All of them are eager to welcome you here! All of them — and we, and you — are dedicated to something we call the Wisconsin Idea — our mission to innovate for the public good.

You heard Amanjot Kaur say we don’t believe in sitting on the sidelines at UW. We don’t believe in waiting for someone else to step up. Because trying to make a difference in all kinds of ways requires ALL of us — which is why we selected you to be part of this great class.

Free expression & pluralism

Earlier I said that you represent a plurality of talent. That plurality encompasses your identities … your background … your beliefs … basically everything you brought with you that you didn’t have to haul into your residence hall last week in a bag or a box.

Together, you’re going to explore many different issues and ideas across many different academic fields. You are going to encounter ideas you agree with and ideas you might strongly disagree with.

And when you encounter new ideas, whether they seem “right on” to you or downright misguided and wrong, either way, you should bring curiosity, compassion, and critical thinking to those encounters.

Bringing curiosity and compassion to these conversations doesn’t mean you just need to nod and smile. Or pretend that you agree when you don’t. You should feel empowered to disagree with one another, and with your professors and with me.

That’s free expression! And it can feel uncomfortable at times. And there’s no doubt it’s a whole heck of a lot easier to believe in the value of free speech when you agree with the speaker. But it might be most important when you don’t.

But when you have strong views, I’d also like to remind you that it’s equally important to disagree with respect for our common humanity. So start out with curiosity rather than condemnation and generosity before judgment.

And know that the point isn’t to change what you believe, though sometimes you might. The point is to engage with a great diversity of ideas. That’s how you gain a stronger, more nuanced and deeper understanding of what you believe and why.

So that you can produce work that’s not just good, but exceptional.

And I’ll let you in on a little secret: As essential as free expression is, it’s really one part of something still bigger and absolutely critical, called pluralism.

Slide: Pluralism

Pluralism is a truly defining characteristic of what makes a university great. Here’s one way to think about it:

Imagine a music group — it could be rock, folk, jazz, hip hop, whatever you like. The members of the group might come from entirely different musical backgrounds.

Some have been practicing since they were kids; some learned more recently. Some might have spent years studying classical music; others might be self-taught, or learned by watching YouTube or jamming with friends in the basement. But in this group they each contribute to the whole.

Their practices might sound pretty cacophonous at times.  But the musicians share a goal of creating something better than any one of them could create on their own. And their best chance of doing that comes from respecting what the others bring to the group and finding ways to work together even when they disagree.

Pluralism is about bringing people with many different backgrounds and sometimes conflicting perspectives and ideas together to discuss and debate, or, as we sometimes talk about it here at UW–Madison, to sift and winnow — our way of describing a kind of inquiry that generates insights and discoveries.

And here’s why that’s so valuable:

Think about the last time you rode in a car. It had airbags, right? Did you spend any time at all worrying that the airbag could explode and cause life-threatening injuries? Probably not!

But that was a very serious concern when your parents were riding around in cars with first-generation airbags. Because the engineers and designers were nearly all men. And the airbags they produced were optimized for someone 5’9” and 170 pounds.

For people smaller than that — often women— they could be dangerous and even deadly. Bringing more and different voices into the design room led to significant improvements in safety.

So when we think about discovery and invention, and about education that transforms you and helps you build a fuller understanding of our complicated world, pluralism is an absolutely essential ingredient.

Along with your relentless curiosity!

And so, Badgers: Welcome to every one of you. Starting today, you all share a new identity — as Badgers.

Babcock & Bucky

So let’s celebrate with two time-honored Badger traditions — singing Varsity and eating Babcock ice cream.

Of course, we can’t do both at once.

We’ll sing here and eat ice cream — courtesy of the Wisconsin Alumni Association — afterwards at Alumni Park, next to Memorial Union.

And this year, for the first time ever, we have printed the W Project photo you took last week into a poster — we’ll be distributing them on the way out. This is the only place you can get one, so be sure to grab yours.

We can’t do this without Bucky! Please join me in welcoming one very special Badger!

(Bucky enters)

Now I ask you to rise as you are able to sing Varsity and remain standing for the faculty recession.

May 11, 2024

Thank you, Kenny, and thanks to all of our senior class officers who have worked so hard to create unforgettable experiences for all of you — today and throughout the year.

Good afternoon, everyone!

Welcome to the 171st commencement of the University of Wisconsin–Madison!

And welcome to Camp Randall Stadium, where fans have been cheering for the Badgers for 107 years. For the record: the very first game in Camp Randall was a shutout. We clobbered Minnesota!

Family and friends: We feel your love and pride today. We have so much to celebrate. Please join me in another big congratulations for the amazing Class of 2024!

Graduates: You walked through those gates today as students, and when you walk through them again, it will be as alumni of one of the greatest universities in the world. Let’s show some love for the family and friends who helped you get here!

I also want to acknowledge that, for many members of this class, this is also a really hard day.

For some of you, there are classmates, friends, and family members who were with you at the start of this journey but cannot be here today. We remember them all.

And for many in our campus community, there is pain and grief over the devastating destruction, injustice, and loss of life in Israel and Gaza. Some of you have had to navigate this final year of your degree amid anguishing worry about friends and relatives there and around the world.

Please know that you are not alone at this incredibly difficult time.

* * * *

Class of 2024:

Today we confer 7,868 degrees, making this one of the larger commencement ceremonies in our 175-year history!

238 of you have earned law degrees — where are our Law School graduates? Congratulations!

1,382 of you have earned master’s degrees — where are the master’s graduates? Congratulations!

And 6,236 of you have earned bachelor’s degrees — make some noise!

We have an excellent keynote speaker for you today: UW alumna, Badger sports legend, and three-time Olympic medalist Meghan Duggan is here with her wife (also an Olympic gold medalist!) and their three children.

Welcome home to Madison, Meghan!

A milestone event in a milestone year

Every UW–Madison commencement is special, but this one feels even a step more special because we’re also celebrating the 175th anniversary of our founding. It’s our demi-semi-sept-centennial!

Our university was created in 1848, the same year that Wisconsin became a state, and the first students arrived here in 1849. Our first commencement was five years later, in 1854. There were six speeches … and just two graduates … a three-to-one ratio. And one of those speeches was in Latin!

As part of our anniversary celebration, we’ve decided to follow that tradition today — I hope you won’t mind listening to 24,000 speeches this afternoon?

OK, the truth is, we have far better commencement traditions now, including this one:

If you are part of the first generation in your family to earn a college degree please stand as you’re able and make some noise!

If you are a United States veteran or serving on active duty or in the Reserves — whether you’re graduating or celebrating our graduates — please stand as you’re able so we may thank you for your service!

Class of 2024, you came here four (or five or six or three) years ago from all over Wisconsin, around the U.S. and around the world. You arrived on this campus with very different backgrounds and identities and beliefs. And you found common ground around your shared identity as Badgers.

Among you are national debate champions … winners of major national scholarships … national championship athletes … and students who are forever grateful to have made it through some of the most challenging courses anywhere!

Comp Sci 577 anyone? Physics 335?

You are driven to succeed academically AND you are deeply engaged in solving problems out in the world, in our proud Wisconsin Idea tradition.

That’s how the Class of 2024 helped to make UW–Madison — for the first time in a number of years — the #1 university in the nation for Peace Corps volunteers!

Changing the question

Class of 2024, you are without a doubt graduating during tumultuous times — on campuses, in our nation, and across the globe. And it can sometimes feel hard to know how to move forward in a messy and complicated world.

But here’s one piece of advice: If you feel stuck, or like you don’t have any answers — perhaps you should try changing the question.

Because sometimes, asking a different question can open grand new possibilities. And, class of 2024, I think this is something for which you’ve already shown a talent. You have shown you are already good at changing the question — asking something new that invites us to explore possibilities we might never have thought of.

• A great many of you began your time here during COVID. And you missed out on things — like senior prom, or a traditional high school graduation. But just this spring, as you looked forward, instead of dwelling on what you didn’t have, a chance to do, you asked, “Is it too late to have that senior prom we missed four years ago?”
• Together we answered with a resounding “No, it is not!” More than 800 of you attended our first (and perhaps first of many) Madison senior prom “with some twists.” I hear it was quite a celebration!
• And this isn’t the first year our students have asked, “Why doesn’t the university have a curling team?” But this year a freshman changed the question. He asked: “Who will help me start a curling team?” Members of this class stepped up, and in their very first season the new team won a national championship.
• And on a much more serious note, at a time of great political and social upheaval, members of this class have looked for new ways to bring people with very different beliefs together to talk and to listen — respectfully and thoughtfully.
• Chandra Chouhan asked why our Indian and Pakistani student organizations had never collaborated on a joint event. And the result was our first-ever Interfaith Iftar (an evening meal shared during Ramadan). Thank you, Chandra!
• And in a very different arena, Rosalie Powell asked how we might bring environmentalists and landowners together to work toward a more sustainable planet. She met with people from very different perspectives but with a shared belief in the importance of conservation and laid the groundwork for some important changes to help protect our precious water and soil. Thank you Rosalie!

The questions you’ve asked also have helped define your studies here.

Evan Wooldridge is one of our Posse Scholars. He helped to ask a different question about how a certain kind of beetle that destroys thousands of acres of potato and tomato crops is staying one step ahead of us. Together with our faculty, he used RNA testing to move us closer to the day when we’ll be able to outsmart this pest rather than just out-spraying it. Evan, where are you? Congratulations!

Nick Lawton, Canyon Pergande, and Drew Levin asked a very different question — they saw classmates frustrated in their search for a college job and local businesses frustrated in their search for employees and asked: What if we created a platform to help these people find each other? So they did.  It’s called SideShift. Nick, Canyon, and Drew, where are you? Congratulations!

You and I can’t know today what questions each of you will ask in your lives and careers. But I can tell you this: The questions that challenge what we are certain we already know to be true are often the ones that drive extraordinary innovation.

In fact, they’re the questions that have propelled this campus forward for 175 years:

• To produce 26 Pulitzer Prize winners and 20 Nobel laureates.
• To produce the scholars who organized the national park system … created weather satellite technology … discovered Vitamin D … and isolated human stem cells for the first time.
• To tackle some of the most complex social issues facing our world.
• To set the standard for excellence in the arts.
• And to harness the power of artificial intelligence and machine learning to help people live better.

That’s what comes from asking great questions. So as you embark on your next adventure, hold fast to this simple mantra: Tell less. Ask more. And when you can’t find an answer that satisfies, don’t hesitate to ask a new and different question.

Conclusion

I opened by sharing a story about our first graduates in 1854. They were (as you might have guessed) both men.

It was 15 years later that we had our first women graduates.

In honor of this historic year, I want to close with a passage from a letter one of them wrote to her grandparents shortly before her graduation. Her name was Clara Bewick, and she went on to become a nationally known journalist and women’s rights activist.

She wrote:

How strange it is that the years fly so quickly by. 

 The close of each year brings us to a stopping place, where just for a moment we may tarry and glance back over the road we have passed; a milestone measuring off the past from the future …

 [Before we] turn to a new leaf, as yet clean and bright.  [And begin to] run with patience the race set before us.”

Class of 2024, I hope as you turn to this new leaf you keep your sense of curiosity and purpose … your commitment to helping make the world a better place … and your courage to continue asking questions no one else is asking.

I hope that you will continue to be there for one another.

And I certainly hope you’ll come back and visit us. We want to know how you’re doing!

Congratulations, Class of 2024, and On, Wisconsin!

May 10, 2024

Thank you, Provost Isbell, and good evening, everyone!

I am tremendously happy to welcome you all to the 171st spring commencement of the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Congratulations, graduates!

Thank you, Ryan, for that beautiful performance.

There are the stars of today’s ceremony, seated here before us in academic regalia. And then there are the people up in the stands who helped make sure these stars could shine as brightly as possible.

So let me add my personal welcome and thank you to the proud parents, spouses, partners, children, siblings, family, and friends joining us from across the country and around the world — some of you here in person, others with us on the livestream.

Graduates, let’s give them one more round of applause!

Acknowledgments

If friends and family helped make this long journey possible, there is another group that made it incredibly worthwhile: the members of the faculty and staff who have taught and advised and mentored you.

Your strongest supporters and, sometimes, your toughest critics. They have challenged you to reach beyond what you might have imagined you could achieve, and today they are extraordinarily proud.

Faculty and staff, will you please stand as you are able? Let’s give them a round of applause!

I want to recognize that this celebration is also bittersweet.

For a number of you, there are friends, colleagues, and family members you are missing today, whose love and support helped bring you to this place. We remember them, too, on this day.

Many in our campus community are also feeling heartbroken over the devastating destruction, injustice, and loss of life in Israel and Gaza. Some of you have had to navigate this final year of your degree amid anguishing worry about friends and relatives there.

Please know that you are not alone in your pain and grief at this incredibly difficult time.

* * * *

I want to note that today’s program includes two special guests who have spent a lifetime working for justice in very different ways.

Amy Blumenfeld Bogost is a civil rights attorney and vice president of the Universities of Wisconsin Board of Regents (and a proud UW alumna whose three children are also Badgers!).

And the Reverend Dr. Alexander Gee, Jr., also an alum, whose life story of resilience, commitment, and extraordinary achievement is grounded here in Madison but extends so far beyond, is our 2024 honorary doctoral degree recipient.

Dr. Gee describes himself as an author, agitator, thinker, healer, and reconciler — and (as you will hear shortly) that’s just the start.

We are truly grateful to you both for being here today.

175 years

Every UW–Madison commencement is special, but this commencement is extra-special because you are graduating in an historic moment, as we mark the 175th anniversary of the founding of this great institution.

UW–Madison was created when the state was created, a recognition from the start that the engine of a great state is a great university. That’s as true today as it was in 1848. And across nearly two centuries, we’ve held fast to a tradition of honoring the especially noteworthy achievements of our graduates.

So if you are receiving a graduate degree today as a member of the first generation in your family to go to college or earn a graduate degree, please stand as you are able and make some noise.  Congratulations!

If you are a veteran or serving on active duty or in the reserves — family and friends, I’m talking to you, too — please stand as you are able so that we may thank you for service.

And I want to call out one member of this class whose resilience and perseverance are truly an inspiration. Tim Fish is a citizen of the Muscogee Nation of Oklahoma. He grew up on the Osage Reservation in Oklahoma, and it was a hard life, with little thought about education. He dropped out of high school and landed here in Madison, where he eventually found his way to Madison College, and then to UW–Madison. He says that education not only changed his life — it saved his life.

And today, at age 51, having already earned a bachelor’s degree and two master’s degrees here, Tim is the flag bearer for our Graduate School and will receive a PhD from our School of Human Ecology. Congratulations, Tim!

An exceptional university

All of you are now part of the legacy of this exceptional university. A place whose commitment to public service — which we call the Wisconsin Idea — has allowed us to push the boundaries of knowledge and understanding across almost every field of human endeavor for 175 years.

Consider just a few of the stunning advances we’ve achieved just in your time here:

• At our School of Medicine and Public Health, neuroscience researchers devised a way using 3-D printers to arrange neurons — brain cells grown in a lab — into complex matrices in which the living cells communicate with one another, opening up a world of possibilities for understanding the signaling between cells in people affected by Down syndrome or Alzheimer’s, or evaluating the efficacy of new medications.
• At the same time, researchers at our College of Engineering innovated a new way to forecast the growth of life-threatening cyanobacteria (better known here in Madison as blue-green algae), giving communities across the country and around the world that depend upon clean lakes for health and recreation precious time to plan their mitigation strategies.
• Meanwhile, our College of Agricultural and Life Sciences is developing new techniques for cranberry cultivation so growers can save crops threatened by increasingly unpredictable weather patterns — vital work in a state that grows more than half of the entire world’s supply of cranberries!
• And those of you who have worked on international research collaborations know that you sometimes need to be able to communicate in languages that aren’t commonly taught (in Africa alone, there are more than 2,000 languages spoken!). Researchers in our College of Letters and Science have led the nation in innovating ways to help people acquire new languages. And now they’re putting that expertise to work in partnership with our African Languages Program to develop an approach to self-instruction that will help this university and many others to expand their language offerings.

Bona fides

Whether you have completed an MD or an MFA, a DVM or a PhD, or one of the other top degrees we’ll confer this evening, you have well and truly earned your bona fides.

Which is a funny term. Bona fides is one of those expressions that has come down to us across the centuries from the Latin. We now take it to mean “the real thing,” like the credential each of you will receive today.

But there is also a deeper meaning. Literally translated, bona fides means “good faith.” And good faith is something beyond a credential. It’s a way to be in the world.

It’s about honesty. Integrity. Transparency.

So while your credentials are sterling, your good faith is golden.

Today as you set forth, I can tell you that you are bound to stumble. You will make mistakes, as we all do. But if you do your work in good faith — keeping your promises, being direct and forthright but also kind — your family, friends, and colleagues will give you grace.

Graduates, for every late night … every early morning … every weekend spent monitoring experiments … every paper you graded … every work of art you created … and for all of those many hours spent struggling to wrestle your research into the right intellectual framework — this day is for you.

You’ve earned your bona fides.

Thank you for being part of our wonderful UW–Madison community.

I hope you will stay connected to your fellow graduate students, your friends for life who share this indelible connection to one of the greatest universities in the world.

And I hope, wherever life takes you next, that you’ll come back and visit us often here in your Madison home.

Congratulations … and On, Wisconsin!

The full text of her speech, as prepared, is below. The full set of slides from Chancellor Mnookin’s presentation are available for download, and a recording of her presentation is available on YouTube.

Good afternoon. I am delighted to welcome you all to UW–Madison on this beautiful day. It’s wonderful to be here with you. This has been — as you know — a year of a great many challenges, so I want to begin with a brief story of hope.

A couple of months ago, I had the privilege of sitting in on a fascinating and sometimes uncomfortable discussion right here in this room. Picture 120 students from different backgrounds, different majors, different places on the political spectrum, gathered in groups of 10, each with a trained faculty facilitator, eating dinner together and having a meaningful conversation about an important issue — in this case, the flat tax. In months to come, it’ll continue to be a range of topics, including quite polarizing issues like abortion and gun rights.

This is a program we’re piloting this year called Deliberation Dinners designed by our Dean of the School of Education, Diana Hess. It’s not meant to change minds or help participants reach a consensus, but to give them skills to engage with each other productively and respectfully, even when they disagree. To engage across difference, which needs to be a key part of the university experience.

The night I sat in, there was plenty of disagreement. The students were raising hard questions about how to define fairness, and what strangers owe one another, and debating different ways of contributing to the greater good. At the end, I saw students who had vehemently disagreed with one another walk out of this room together, chatting about the best places to study for finals.

I don’t yet know whether this pilot program will turn into something bigger. But I do know that we need better ways to help our students connect across their differences as we navigate the really challenging times we are living in, where what is happening on a global, national, and state level will certainly continue to affect us.

Globally, the brutal attack by Hamas on Israeli civilians and the ongoing devastating war in Gaza continue to have a grave and complex impact on our faculty, staff, students, and alumni. We’ve seen a deeply concerning rise across this country in antisemitism and Islamophobia, which we unequivocally condemn. And here on our campus, I have heard from Jewish and Muslim students that they have felt, at times, unseen and unheard, or judged or stereotyped based on their identities.

At the same time, we’ve been fortunate compared to a great many other schools where these issues have caused a deeper and uglier divide, which is not to say we haven’t dealt with some major challenges here, too. And these have sometimes been made more complex by divisive politics nationally as well.

One of the things all of higher education will need to reckon with is the intersection between the First Amendment and Title VI, which protects students’ right to an educational experience free of severe and pervasive forms of discrimination and harassment. These important values can come into tension with one another, and indeed, the Department of Education has opened an investigation at more than 100 campuses across the country, including ours, to find out more about how they have been handling these issues.

And here in Wisconsin, we’re navigating state politics in challenging times, and I want to acknowledge that this has not been easy and express my appreciation to all of you for your thoughtful approaches.

I also want to be clear that diversity of all kinds is a core value for us, and we cannot and will not stop our work in this realm. Full stop. At the same time, we can and should take a fresh look at what we want to accomplish, and assess what we’ve achieved over years of investment, and where there might be space, or the need, to try something different.

I believe that within the agreement we have reached with the legislature, we can stay true to the values that sustain us and continue to build inclusive excellence. So that, no matter your background, identity, experience, beliefs, or perspective, you can feel that you belong at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

These issues will challenge us. And we will rise to meet those challenges in many different ways, including with programs like the Deliberation Dinners, programs built around the Wisconsin Idea tradition of innovation for the public good that’s allowed us to make the world a better place for 175 years.

So let me give you a brief tour of some of the spaces where we’re currently excellent and the spaces where we are going to try some new innovative things to bring us into a future that’s even brighter than our storied past.

To begin, it’s been a year of excellence in education. There’s a national narrative that students enroll in college, rack up a lot of debt, and then don’t graduate. That’s sure not true here!

Our four-year graduation rate rose to 75.5%, highest ever. Our six-year graduation rate rose to just over 89%, the highest ever. We’re one of top 10 public universities in the U.S. in this category. And as some of you heard this morning, our student-athlete graduation success rate also hit a record high this year (93% graduate w/in six years)!

The average time-to-degree for a bachelor’s degree recipients decreased to 3.84 calendar years, shortest ever. The university conferred a record number of total degrees, 12,407, topping 12,000 for the first time in our history. And 65% — nearly two thirds — of our undergraduates graduated with no student debt last year.

And you’ve heard me say before that a world-class university needs diversity of all kinds. When people of diverse identities, experiences, backgrounds, and beliefs work together, they not only learn from one another, but also drive creativity and innovation, and come up with better solutions to problems.

So I am happy to share that the current class of freshman and new transfer students is the most racially diverse in our history. And the freshman class includes Wisconsin students from tiny rural counties and big urban centers — 71 of the 72 counties are represented (missing Iron) … and students from 49 of the 50 states (missing Maine) … and 60 countries around the world.

This is the kaleidoscopic fabric that makes us great!

It’s also been a fantastic year for research at UW–Madison. We brought in more research dollars last year than in any other year in our history. Big increases can be driven by just one remarkable grant, but that’s not the case here. More than 15 departments and institutes had major increases — from Space Science & Engineering to Plant Pathology to the Population Health Institute. 

Part of this results from getting more strategic — better aligning ourselves with federal funding priorities. Our research related to aging is a great example.  The over-65 population in the U.S. grew faster over the past 10 years than at any time since the late 1800s. We positioned ourselves years ago to become a leader in this arena by building big, interdisciplinary research centers with the right mix of expertise to innovate across disciplines. And some of our biggest leaps in grant funding this year were for our longitudinal studies and work around Alzheimer’s prevention. You might have seen the news just weeks ago about our new $150M grant to lead a national study out of the School of Medicine and Public Health to expand understanding of the full range of problems in the brain that can cause dementia and bring us closer to better treatments. This is the largest NIH grant we have ever received!

We’re now asking: What are the other fields where we can position the university for major discovery and innovation? I’ll tell you about our plans in just a moment. First I want to show you a few numbers.

We maintained our spot as the number-eight-largest research institution in the country — but there’s a bigger story here.

In the past year, we grew faster than anyone else in the top 10 except Duke. And our five-year average growth rate is second only to Johns Hopkins. If you look at the three institutions above us, we gained on all of them. The gap between us and UCSD is now just $10 million. In 2021, we were also just behind UCSD — but we trailed them by $45 million.

We have a couple of strategies to power us forward that I’ll tell you about shortly. And I want to say clearly: Not all first-rate research is grant-funded research. We have many ways that we engage and do work here. So we need to remember that this is an important frame for some — but certainly not all — of what we are aiming to do in our research space.

And a word about our state’s new designation as a regional Technology & Innovation Hub for biohealth and personalized medicine, which you’ll hear about at tomorrow morning’s panel discussion.

This was an opportunity for partners across the state to work together in a next-level way, and it paid off. There were 400 regions across the country competing for this federal designation, and only 31 were selected. Partnership was essential to receiving the designation, but without a doubt, our powerhouse research enterprise played a crucial role in tipping the scales in favor of Wisconsin. We’re now competing for significant funding that will go to probably fewer than 10 of the 31 hubs. We hope to know more by summer, so stay tuned!

One necessary ingredient for bringing in major grants and growing our research is a modern physical infrastructure. This year we made progress on some key facilities.

Babcock Hall and our Center for Dairy Research — our doctors on call to Wisconsin’s dairy industry — had not been updated in any significant way since Harry Truman was president (1951). As of last spring, we have the largest state-of-the-art dairy research facility in the nation! It’s already transforming innovation in research and education, not to mention our work with partners from one of the state’s most important industries.

The long-awaited expansion of the School of Veterinary Medicine is close to completion. The first two floors housing surgery, critical care, imaging and a number of labs are opening this spring, which will transform our ability to provide care for animals large and small.

And it’s been so exciting to see the School of Computer, Data & Information Sciences take shape. It’s really coming together (though not quite this fast!) It will be the anchor for our high-tech corridor that’s going to link computing to biomedical research to engineering to medicine. It’ll bring together partners from all over campus and beyond to ignite discovery and innovation to help power Wisconsin’s growing tech sector.

And just as importantly, it’ll be the campus home for our largest major (Computer Science) and our fastest-growing major (Data Science) and a place that welcomes all students from all majors to expand their learning in these critical areas. The ability to synthesize analyze, and translate large, complex sets of data spans nearly all of the disciplines on our campus.

And with the help of the Regents, the state legislature, Gov. Evers, and the biggest, broadest coalition of business and industry partners we’ve ever assembled, I’m hopeful that we are finally on our way to replacing an engineering facility that was last renovated nearly 40 years ago.

As you know, this facility was the UW System’s number-one priority. It will be jointly funded by us and the state. Donors have already indicated interest in funding $110 million, and our already energetic fundraising has now kicked into even higher gear. This building will allow us to create a total of about 1,000 new spaces for undergraduates in engineering at a time when Wisconsin employers urgently need more engineers. We’re sending far too many talented Wisconsin students to Illinois and Purdue! It’ll be a beacon for top scholars from around the world who will drive the kinds of discoveries and innovations that will allow us to take on grand challenges. And it will expand our ability to work with industry partners.

We have some exciting things taking shape with partners from industry all across campus. In November, for example, we announced a new 10-year collaboration between our School of Medicine and Public Health and GE Healthcare.

I want to thank the Regents for approving this agreement. It builds on work we’ve been doing together for the past decade, with a new focus on developing the next frontier of technologies for diagnosing and treating diseases like cancer in ever more personalized and precise ways. Our long partnership with GE Healthcare has now fueled more than 130 research projects! It’s a great example of the ways in which industry investment that aligns with our mission can drive discovery and help us change lives.

So building these partnerships is a substantial priority. We’re No. 8 in total research expenditures, but No. 46 in industry investment in R&D — and that’s up from 52 last year. Perhaps 46^th is more impressive when you know it’s out of 900 institutions — but still we can do better. And we’re on the right track!

If you look at growth in dollars alone ($8.9M), our increase puts us in 7^th place among the top 10. But if you look at percentage growth, we grew by 28%, faster than any other school in the top 10!

And this isn’t just one great year — we’ve outpaced our competitors in the top 10 since 2018. It’s important to note that our industry engagements go well beyond research and well beyond Wisconsin’s major employers. University expertise is helping to build thriving businesses and vibrant downtowns all over the state — that’s the Wisconsin Idea!

And one of our greatest statewide ambassadors is the Division of Extension.

I spent a half-day with a group of Extension employees in November and learned about the incredible range of the work they’re doing in all of Wisconsin’s 72 counties. For example, they recently held facilitated conversations in 32 counties across the state to bring people from different sides of the political spectrum together to talk about hot-button issues. Afterward, participants reported viewing one another as less hypocritical and less selfish than had been their stereotype. And they’re nourishing entrepreneurship in rural areas as well as our cities to create the kinds of opportunities that help people and communities to flourish.

These are just two of the great many projects they do. They’re having a truly significant impact! But they’re so deeply woven into the fabric of the state that people often don’t realize that Extension is UW–Madison. So I have challenged them to do an even better job of sharing the outstanding impact of their work and to sharing that they’re a part of us.

We have a lot to be proud of. My job — our job — is to make this institution even a step stronger by building on our existing excellence and also by thinking in big, bold ways about where we can take a quantum leap forward to serve this state and the world.

Let me tell you about a few of the things in store this year.

First — we’re putting together an outstanding new class. We just received final numbers for applicants for the next freshman class and we’ve continued our 15-year record-setting streak!

Nearly 66,000 students applied for a spot in our freshman class — an increase of 3.7% over last year. Students and families are continuing to recognize that exciting things are happening here at UW–Madison!

We have two initiatives we’ve launched to improve access and remove barriers for talented Wisconsin students with high financial need. A year ago in this space, I announced one of those programs, Bucky’s Pell Pathway, for Wisconsin students who qualify for the federal Pell grant. It’s a last-dollar-in scholarship program that sits on top of the Pell grant and other scholarships. And it covers the full cost of attendance (tuition, room and board, fees, books) for talented UW–Madison students from Wisconsin families who have great need.

I am delighted to tell you that in its first year, BPP is serving 977 students from 65 Wisconsin counties! Our BPP students are truly outstanding— let me introduce you to just one of them. This is Mattie Place. She’s a freshman from Platteville who plans to major in Business.

She was class president for all four years of high school … played the flute in band … and participated in numerous student clubs, all while earning outstanding grades in a rigorous curriculum. In other words — she is exactly the kind of student who belongs at the state’s flagship! But her family’s finances haven’t always been stable. So, when she got word that she’d qualified for Bucky’s Pell Pathway, she told us she was completely shocked. She relayed the excitement of sharing the news with her mom, and the relief she felt knowing she could come here and just focus on being a student without constant worry about bills. That’s the impact of this great program!

The second program we designed in partnership with tribal leaders — you might have seen coverage when we announced it in December. It will cover the full cost of a UW–Madison undergraduate degree for state residents who are members of federally recognized Indian tribes in Wisconsin. For incoming students and current students. And we’ll run a five-year pilot program to cover in-state tuition and fees for enrolled members of tribes in Wisconsin to pursue J.D. and M.D. degrees, given the pressing need for these professions in the Native communities.

Want to thank the tribal leaders who worked in partnership with us to design this program. And one important note: Both Bucky’s Pell Pathway and the Wisconsin Educational Tribal Promise Program are funded fully by the university, without any state tax dollars.

Of course, building educational excellence takes more than recruiting outstanding students and helping them graduate on time. It takes an outstanding experience in the classroom.

You heard this morning about how we’re using AI in education, and how many of our students have transformative experiences in research. But I love that our instructors are always looking also for small things that can make a big difference to improve learning.

This is Prof. Briana Burton. The climbing wall picture is something she shows her students at the start of the semester, to explain her role as an educator. One of the classes she teaches is about 60 students from a wide variety of majors. It covers — among other topics —how different bacteria organize their DNA.

But the process she teaches is so new that there were no textbook images. She was using what you see on the left — pulled from a research article — which required the students to try to visualize a three-dimensional process that was brand new to them. Many found that really hard to do. So the media team at our Center for Teaching, Learning, and Mentoring worked with her to bring the image to life. Here’s what the students see now.

She compared test results from two different classes, before and after, and found that 57% in the hard-copy group demonstrated that they understood the concept compared to 80% in the animation group. You hear more about the bigger, splashier changes we’re making in education, but these small hinges can open big doors!

Moving on to research. Maintaining and advancing discovery on this campus is going to require us to work collectively and strategically to build strength for the future.

And now, I’m pleased to share with you three ways that we’re doing just that. One to nourish and advance entrepreneurship to help bring more UW–Madison research and innovations out of our labs and classrooms and into the world. One to greatly expand our work in, and commitment to, sustainability, which includes creating a new sustainability research hub. And one to catalyze our excellence to address some of the world’s grand challenges.

The first is still in its early stages. Our goal is to take our already thriving hub of innovation and entrepreneurial excellence and make it even stronger.

I’ve appointed this mighty all-star team to take a look at How we can knit together the many programs that already exist on and around this campus to make them easier to tap into, and where we have opportunities to do something new and different to support the many faculty, staff, and students who are interested in entrepreneurship and commercialization.

There are more than 400 companies all over Wisconsin that have their origin stories here at UW–Madison. Industry leaders like Epic and SHINE, small start-ups founded by our students — like Fetch Rewards and EatStreet — and many more, including more than 25 companies founded by faculty and students in our Department of Medical Physics!

Our UW–Madison entrepreneurs are changing lives and communities, creating jobs, and contributing hundreds of millions of dollars to the state’s economy. At the same time, our students are pursuing entrepreneurship education like never before. We’ve had 700% growth in enrollment in these classes over the last 15 years!

And this state has emerged as a national powerhouse in high growth areas like the life sciences thanks to the entrepreneurial ecosystems we’ve built here.

It’s clear to me that this is an area where we have opportunities to really magnify our economic impact on Wisconsin and to shepherd life-changing innovations out into the world.

The working group is engaging broadly right now and will bring recommendations to me later this spring, so stay tuned.

Second, I’m excited to announce that we’re launching a major cross-campus initiative around environmental sustainability focused on advancing not only our research but also education and making UW–Madison a living laboratory for sustainable practices.

This is a space where we’ve been pioneers in many ways — from ecology and wildlife biology, to land restoration, to the use of satellite technology to detect changes in the environment. We have an impressive list of accomplishments, but these alone don’t qualify us to be a world leader in sustainability.

What does qualify us to lead is the particular way in which we engage with the work. Which is, quite simply, to start with looking at real-world, concrete problems. Leaning into the pragmatism that is so naturally ‘UW’.

Many of our accomplishments in this space have begun not in a university lab but in the community — wading into trout streams with people who fish, walking the Northwoods with hunters, visiting dairy farms, talking with urban farmers in Milwaukee. The very essence of the Wisconsin Idea! The community engagement drives and shapes the cutting-edge environmental research and scholarship.

This is what we owe to our neighbors and to Wisconsin — as settlers on Native land, as beneficiaries of public funds, and as educators preparing our students to make a real difference in the world.

So I am very excited to announce this initiative, and I want to thank the Nelson Institute and the Office of Sustainability, along with the ASM Student Advisory Council on Sustainability for their leadership.

You can see the goals on this slide. They’re also in your handouts. I won’t take the time to go through all of these, but a few comments on a couple of them:

First, addressing the environmental impact of our campus, which is both imperative and an outstanding opportunity to do some innovative things in education. We’re setting clear, defined campus wide targets for the first time, and that’s essential on a campus the size of a city when you can only succeed if everyone’s working together. Like our environmental research, this initiative will be very community focused — what happens on our campus affects our neighbors!

For example, when we moved from coal power to gas power, Dane County’s air quality improved. Our students are brimming with ideas for making our campus a living laboratory; they’ve already inspired a number of initiatives now underway, from solar panels to ways of reducing food waste. I’m really excited to see how we weave this work more intentionally into the curriculum.

Second —the Sustainability Research Hub. This will be a center of excellence intentionally designed to build on our long tradition of working across. At other universities, these hubs are often embedded in one school or one college. Not so with ours. I am fully funding it initially out of my office to jump-start it and ensure that every researcher in every discipline on this campus has the resources and the opportunity to engage in sustainability research if they wish. We want to break down barriers and tear down siloes!

The final project is our quantum leap, and I’m thrilled to be announcing it today. I want to introduce you to the Wisconsin RISE Initiative. Rise stands for Research, Innovation, and Scholarly Excellence.

We’re going to look at the grand challenges facing our state and the world and grow our faculty in a targeted way that builds on our existing strengths, in places where, with strategy and investment, we can accelerate discovery and world-changing research and education, innovate for the public good and be absolutely best in class.

Because here at UW–Madison, we want to RISE to meet the biggest research challenges of our time.

Over the last months, Provost Isbell and I have been in discussions with the deans and others to arrive at three key goals. First, to recruit top scholars from multiple disciplines at all stages of their careers to bring interdisciplinary perspectives to the many different facets of deeply complex problems. Second, to focus in meaningful part on areas with the potential to attract significant external research funding, as well as philanthropy, to further drive discovery and get us closer to any number of moonshots. And third, to create exciting new educational opportunities for students at all levels.

As this initiative progresses, there will be several foci and each will be interdisciplinary and involve a number of schools and colleges.

We have just defined the first RISE area — Artificial Intelligence — which capitalizes on our strengths in data science and computer science while pulling in social sciences, humanities and human ecology to put people at the center of our solutions.

AI and machine learning are already enhancing human abilities in every one of our disciplines — they’re extraordinarily powerful and essential tools that allows us to sift through enormous quantities of data to find patterns and trends that guide decision-making and help us solve problems.

And our past discoveries and innovations in AI are a launchpad to a dazzling future. For example, Professor Miron Livny, whom you all know, pioneered high-throughput computing techniques that are now powering some of the world’s largest scientific experiments, including the search for cosmic neutrinos and black holes. Today, that work is part of what positions us to move forward in some exciting new directions.

Again, to give just one example, Juan Caicedo is an investigator at the Morgridge Institute who’s now applying Professor Livny’s techniques to biological imaging, which could turbocharge our understanding of cell biology and help us discover new drugs.

And this is just one area. Our faculty, staff, and students are using AI in all sorts of exciting ways. For example, the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences is using it to help farmers predict crop yields and detect disease before it spreads. The Center for Healthy Minds is exploring how to develop personalized ‘micro-supports’ delivered through our mobile devices. For example, to engage a student in a breathing exercise just before an exam. And just last week, one of our undergraduate entrepreneurs who’s built his own small consulting gig around the ethical use of AI led a workshop for faculty and staff in our School of Journalism and Mass Communication titled, “AI as your teaching copilot.”

There are tremendous possibilities — and tremendous concerns. AI needs expert human guidance and ethical guardrails, and we are also on the leading edge of scholarship to ensure the ethical, responsible, and trustworthy use of AI.

AI has genuinely transformative potential, with high stakes, great possibilities and significant risks. We also already have a good number of talented faculty in a variety of relevant disciplines working in this space, so we have a very strong foundation on which to build. So, AI was really a natural choice to be the first focus area for our Wisconsin RISE initiative.

We’ll begin hiring as soon as this spring, in phases, with the ultimate goal of hiring up to 50 new faculty into this first initiative in AI. We are fortunate that our growth in enrollment and research gives us the opportunity to grow our faculty, and the necessity to do so.

Wisconsin RISE will open up not just research opportunities but also some exciting new pathways in education, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. It is simply a fact that every student in every major is going to need to have at least some familiarity and facility with AI.

And investing in this way will give us a virtuous cycle where the university is positioned to compete for research funding (federal and private) on a new level, which we invest in more discovery and innovation, which in turn attracts great faculty, who in turn attract great students.

This AI initiative is the first RISE initiative, but it will be the first of several. We are also rolling out a process that will continue to invite the faculty, staff, and campus leaders to work across disciplines to advance further bold ideas that can change the world.

The deans are helping to spearhead a process to bring the strongest of those ideas to the provost and myself for additional consideration.

I am so excited to see how Wisconsin RISE can help ignite creativity and transform our ability to take on the most pressing challenges of our time. And I want to thank the provost, and the deans, and the considerable number of faculty who already have been deeply involved in putting this together.

So let me conclude with this: I am bullish on this amazing university, and I hope you are too!

This is an incredible institution, and even in challenging times, there is an extraordinary amount to be proud of. We are proud of what we are accomplishing at Madison, and we are proud to be part of the Universities of Wisconsin, committed to providing transformative opportunities to students all over our great state.

We’re meeting the moment — as we have for 175 years — with integrity and discipline and a spirit of cooperation. It’s all thanks to our incredible community of partners including our phenomenally talented faculty, staff, and students; the most loyal and dedicated alumni and donors anywhere; our collaborators across industry and communities — including our partners at the other Universities of Wisconsin campuses and in the UW administration; and all of you, members of the Board of Regents, who provide the leadership to support and guide our work.

These are the ingredients for a truly dazzling future that I look forward to all of us building together!

Today is a celebration of new beginnings, *your* beginnings here at UW–Madison. However, I need to begin by saying a few words about the violent attack on one of our students off campus early Sunday morning. First and foremost, as you heard from the Provost we are holding the student and her family in our hearts at this terrible moment. This is certainly not the way we hoped to begin this new school year, and I know that so many of us in this room (and your parents and families) are feeling grief and anger and anxiety. And you may also be wondering if you can feel safe here. The answer is, mostly, yes, but we know that no place is completely safe, including Madison. I so wish it were otherwise. Vice Chancellor Reesor talked about how to find support if you find yourself feeling overwhelmed or helpless. More than anything, I want you to know that you are part of a strong Badger community. We help, and support, and look out for one another, and I ask each of you to do the same. Thank you.

And now, on behalf of the faculty, staff and administration here at UW, I am extremely pleased to officially welcome you to the University of Wisconsin–Madison!

I suspect you’ve probably already met some of the people sitting around you, but let me tell you a little more about yourselves.

• This class is a bit smaller than recent freshman classes, and that’s on purpose to make sure you have access to all of the wonderful opportunities that make this place so special.

• There are about 9,000 of you — 8,000 freshmen (freshmen, make some noise!) and 1,000 transfer students (let’s hear from you!).

• So we have a smaller class but we also had a record number of applicants. Which means you got in in what may be the most competitive year in our entire history. Congratulations!

• Lots of you are from right here in Wisconsin — we have 71 of the 72 counties represented (we’re missing Iron County, way up at the top of the state).

• You come from 49 U.S. states along with Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico (give me some guesses about which state we’re missing. It’s Maine! If you know anyone there, let them know we’re missing them this year).

• Let’s hear from you if you’re from one of our top 5 states outside of Wisconsin: Minnesota (this year Minnesota overtook Illinois as our #1 sending state — but only by a hair) … where are you, Illinois? Next is California. And how about the tri-state area — New York, New Jersey, Connecticut? Welcome!

• International students — you’ve come from 51 nations outside of the U.S. Let’s hear from you!

• OK, Wisconsin students: It’s your turn. Make some noise!

• And more than 15% of you are the first in your family to go to college. A special congratulations to all of you!

To all of you, wherever you are from, wherever you aim to go, I want to say to you: You belong here. You are part of the tapestry that makes us who we are. I welcome you to UW–Madison and to the extraordinary opportunites you will have over these next years.

An historic year, an historic university
Now this class is also making history — you will forever be able to say: I started at UW–Madison on the university’s 175th birthday! You’re going to be involved in lots of celebrations of our amazing — and also sometimes complicated — past, present, and future over the next year. And over the next four years, you’re going to learn from some of the smartest people in the world — people doing truly amazing things, driven by their curiosity, their passion for knowledge and education, and by the drive to make a difference. Let me introduce just three of them.

This is Professor Susanna Widicus Weaver, from our chemistry and astronomy departments. She runs a major research lab here at UW studying the ingredients for life on other planets.

How many of you think there’s a planet outside of our solar system that has the characteristics that could support some life form? Raise your hand!

If you raised your hand — you’re right! But there’s not just one planet that could support life — Professor Weaver knows of 60!

This is Professor Monica Kim from our history department. Dr. Kim is literally re-writing history by examining wars from the perspective of the ordinary people living through them. If you take a class from her, she will challenge you to think in entirely new ways about topics you may have thought you already knew pretty well.

Her work is so important that she recently won one of the greatest awards any scholar can win — the MacArthur Genius Grant.

And this is Professor Faisal Abdu’Allah, an internationally acclaimed artist on the faculty in our art department. If you walk up State Street, you’ll see a statue of him in front of the Overture Center.

Prof. Abdu’Allah worked as a barber to support himself in college, and — as you can see — he is still a barber! He uses these experiences in his artwork, and if you take a class from him, prepare to be challenged to bring your own life experiences into your art.

These are just three of the more than 2,000 renowned scholars on our faculty. People dedicated to something we call the Wisconsin Idea — the notion that this university exists to serve the public by sharing our knowledge and innovations. Because the world needs our help. Wisconsin needs our help. And the planet needs our help.

We don’t sit on the sidelines here at UW. We don’t wait for someone else to
step up and make things better. And you don’t either — that’s why we selected you to be part of this great class.

Sifting & winnowing
Another tradition you’ll hear about is something we call sifting and winnowing. That’s our way of describing the scholarly inquiry that generates insights and discoveries.

You’re going to explore many different issues and ideas across many different academic fields in your time on this campus. You’ll learn to think critically … argue persuasively … listen carefully … and produce work that goes beyond the level of excellence that you’ve already achieved.

And it all starts with curiosity and an open mind. Because here at UW–Madison, we discuss everything — the ideas we agree with and the ideas we strongly disagree with.

This will be exciting. It will stretch you. And there will be days when it might not feel altogether comfortable. The point isn’t to change what you believe — though sometimes you might indeed change your mind. But what’s most important is that by engaging with a great diversity of ideas you will better learn what drives YOU, and you will emerge with a stronger, deeper and more nuanced understanding of what drives you, and what you believe and why.

That’s part of what both academic freedom and freedom of speech are about. And there’s no doubt that freedom of speech is a heck of a lot easier to believe in when you agree with the speaker. But the truth is, it’s most important when you don’t. Now during your time with us, you should feel free to disagree with one another, and with your professors and with me. In fact, that’s part of exactly what you should be doing. But I also ask you to do it productively — with respect for our common humanitiy, and with humbleness instead of hubris. Start with curiosity rather than condemnation, and generosity before judgment.

If you take this advice, and I hope that you will, you have the opportunity while you are with us to learn to engage across difference productively. And at the same time, if we can do this as a community, we can help assure that even as we engage across our differences, everyone here can know that you are supported and that you belong here. Because you do. You belong here when (and maybe even especially when) you’re in discussions with classmates or others who may have a very different world view from your own.

I remember my own first days as an undergraduate — I initially gravitated toward people who were from similar backgrounds and saw the world in the same way. And we all need friends like that, and some of those folks became lifelong friends! But after a while I also got to know other people — people who were nothing like me in terms of background, identity, and viewpoint. And some of them, as well, became some of my very closest lifelong friends.

Many of you have never been — and may never again be — living and working alongside people from so many different states and countries, so many different races, identities, ethnicities, religions, and points of view.

This is an extraordinary opportunity. That’s one of the most exciting parts of being at a big, public university. Take advantage of it. It’s through those engagements that new and unexpected knowledge is produced, and that we — and that YOU — will come up with ideas that change the world.

Go Big Read
One of things that will bring us together as a community this fall is our Go Big Read project — it’s something like a campuswide book club. On your way out today, you’ll pick up a free copy of this year’s book. It’s called How Minds Change by David McRaney.

If you’ve gotten into an argument online (or in person) about politics or some conspiracy theory or an issue you feel strongly about, did you notice that presenting a bunch of evidence about why the other person was wrong and you were right often didn’t change their mind?

The book explores the science behind why that is, and what actually does cause us to re-think long-held beliefs, or be more open to the idea that something you’ve long believed just might not be as certain as you thought. As you read it, I hope you’ll ask yourself why you believe the things you do, and whether and why it matters to you to change other people’s opinions.

Some of your professors will use the book in their classes, and the author will come to campus this fall to lead a discussion about it.

Thinking about what you believe, and why, is part of getting to know yourself better, which is a critical part of what you do in college! In these next four years — maybe more than in any other time in your life — you will get to know yourself … what you’re passionate about … what you’re really good at … and, equally importantly, what you don’t want to do.

And inevitably — and wonderfully — you will leave here a very different person than you are today, enriched by your coursework, by the activities that you throw yourself into, and by the deep friendships made here that will come to be part of your story and ours.

Selfie
We’ve given you a lot to think about — you won’t remember it all, and that’s OK!

You heard Joel Baraka say it was scary coming to this big campus — and that’s true whether you’re coming from Uganda (like Joel) or New York or Fitchburg, Wisconsin! There’s a lot happening here, and it can be easy to feel lost (and to actually get lost!)

Your science class probably isn’t in Science Hall … your music class is almost certainly not in Music Hall … and there are two totally different places named “Grainger.” We even have our own ZIP code! But you will be amazed to see how quickly you find your way here, and come to see this as a new home.

I do have one more thing to ask of you. You heard Provost Isbell say we won’t all be together again in one place until graduation day. And that’s true. So I want a photo!

[pull out phone and take selfie with the students]

Consider this your first official UW portrait … it’ll be on Instagram if you want to follow me @UWChancellor.

Bucky & Babcock
Now it’s time to celebrate! We want to celebrate all of you with two time-honored UW traditions — singing Varsity and eating Babcock Ice Cream.

Of course, we can’t do both at once.

We’ll sing here, and eat ice cream at Alumni Park, next to Memorial Union, courtesy of the Wisconsin Alumni Association.

Now please join me in welcoming one very special Badger… we can’t do this without Bucky!

(Bucky enters)(applause)

After we sing, please remain standing for the faculty recession.

Now rise as you are able and the UW Marching Band will lead us in Varsity.

May 13, 2023

Good afternoon everyone!  It is my great honor to welcome you to Camp Randall Stadium and the 170th commencement of the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

It’s not a beautiful and sunny day, but we’ve kept the rain and the lightning at bay, and, you know, if you don’t like the Wisconsin weather — say it with me — just wait a day, and it’ll change!  And so I expect tomorrow it will be absolutely beautiful.  And in the meantime, this is a beautiful day to celebrate the extraordinary Class of 2023!

Today, we confer 7,826 degrees, making this the largest commencement ceremony in the history of this great university!

224 of you have earned law degrees — where are our Law School graduates?  Congratulations!

More than 1,300 of you have earned master’s degrees — where are the master’s graduates?  Congratulations!

And 6,225 of you have earned bachelor’s degrees — let’s hear from you!

Congratulations, graduates!

You have so much to be proud of, but you didn’t get to this day by yourself.  How about another round of applause for the 40,000 very proud family members and friends up in the stands — this is your day, too!  Congratulations!

We have an excellent keynote speaker for you today — former United States Attorney General Eric Holder is here!

His daughter, Brooke, is a Badger.  She introduced her dad to all things UW–Madison … Mr. Attorney General, I understand you’re especially fond of our Starship robots and I’m looking forward to hearing you speak in just a few minutes.  Thank you and welcome!

Every one of you has worked hard to reach this day, but there is one group for whom today has an even more special meaning — if you are part of the first generation in your family to earn a college degree, please stand as you’re able and make some noise!

If you are a veteran or serving on active duty or in the Reserves — whether you’re graduating or celebrating our graduates, please stand as you’re able.  Thank you for your service to our nation!

Today’s commencement is bittersweet.  There are members of this class who passed away before graduation.  We hold them in our hearts on this day.

We also lost a beloved chancellor.  The person who brought commencement back to Camp Randall Stadium!  Chancellor Blank often said this was her favorite day of the year.  I know she too would be very proud of every one of you.

* * * *

As we mark this day, I also want to acknowledge that it’s been a tough few weeks for our campus community.

A racist video posted online caused pain and anger and frustration.

I know — and I hope you know — that the hateful and harmful words expressed in that video do not represent our campus community.  No matter how loud such voices may seem at times, they are not who we want to be, and we can and must resolve not to let such voices define us.

At the same time, events like this illustrate resoundingly that we still have work to do.  To be all that we aspire to be as a world-class university, UW–Madison must be a place where every person feels they belong and can flourish!

What it means to be a Badger

Now I have to say, this class, the Class of 2023, is particularly special for me because I, too, am graduating (in a manner of speaking) from my first academic year here at UW–Madison.  And you’ve given me lots of good advice about how to be a Badger.

You told me where to look for turtles in the Arboretum … warned me that spring would come in sometimes painful fits and starts (and that it might well snow in April) … showed me how to walk out on the ice to Lady Liberty …  and taught me how to Jump Around!

Now you don’t have to be a Badger fan to be a Badger … but I have to say, I have loved cheering for the Badgers with so many of you!

What’s NOT to love about watching Devyn Robinson spike a volleyball??

Class of 2023, you helped us break every national record for crowd size at women’s sporting events this year!

Members of our seven-time national championship women’s hockey team are well-represented in this class — hockey Badgers, where are you?

Congratulations and thank you for an incredible year!

For many of you, this may your very last week of school EVER.  Others of you will decide to pursue further graduate education, whether immediately or down the road.

Whatever comes next, I know that you have developed the skills, experiences, and connections with others that can guide you and help you on your way.

My hope for you is that your time here at UW–Madison has helped you to find, and stay true to, your own personal GPS.

The Global Positioning System that gives you a values-driven map to direct you.  The GPS that lives within you, but also outside of you, in your family, friends, and throughout your professional life.

Remember not to lose sight of that GPS as you navigate your many choices and opportunities.

I also am using GPS as a shorthand for three qualities that I hope you have meaningfully developed here, and that, on top of all of your academic learning and knowledge, will, I believe, serve you well in the future:  Gratitude, Purpose, and Service to others.

First, Gratitude.  Nothing worthwhile happens alone.  You are here today through your own work and drive, certainly, but every one of you also has been the recipient of the generosity of others — family, friends, professors, mentors, and so many others who have supported and believed in you, sometimes when you didn’t entirely believe in yourself.

So say thank you, often — authentically, and warm-heartedly.  Remember and appreciate the support that helped you along the way — and remember that sometimes, you may even have received a helping hand in ways you are not even aware of.

Second, Purpose.  I wish for each of you a life of purpose that gives you the chance to spend time pursuing things you care about. I’m not saying you need to live with purpose every single minute.  Carve out time for fun and for serendipity.  But do ask yourself, in the words of the poet Mary Oliver:  What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

And finally, Service.  I hope that you will be part of something bigger than yourself.  That’s also what it means to be a Badger!

Every one of you has a story about making a difference.  I’ll tell you just a couple.

Samantha Angelina and Akshay Kalra — where are you?

When Sammy and Akshay learned that people in our community were going hungry because they couldn’t get to the River Food Pantry during regular business hours, they worked with the Pantry to design food lockers that allow the user to pick up food with a limited-time code, reducing food insecurity and giving families a measure of dignity.

Today, they receive bachelor’s degrees from our School of Human Ecology.  Congratulations!

And Maren Seefluth — where are you?

Maren wanted to find a way to help preserve the way of life in the Wisconsin farming community where she grew up, so she developed a research project looking at how we can uplift small Wisconsin dairy farmers while also helping to reduce emissions from the big refrigeration trucks that are so important to the industry.

And then she interned with leaders in the state Assembly who are working on these issues to help create better policy.

Today Maren receives a bachelor’s degree from the Wisconsin School of Business.  Congratulations!

There are also 149 members of this class who have taken the Teacher Pledge and will soon be working in schools all over Wisconsin, helping to address the critical teacher shortage.

To all of you — and to our generous alumni whose support makes this program possible — thank you!

Pandemic impact

Class of ’23, your accomplishments are extra impressive given that most of you were just freshmen when the pandemic hit.

You left on your first spring break and suddenly everything changed.  You had to learn to learn virtually.

You came back to quarantines and face coverings and the Badger Badge and making reservations to go to your favorite State Street hangouts.

The pandemic changed so much, but it couldn’t take away your exceptional accomplishments.

• You won national awards for academic excellence.
• You started businesses.
• You made beautiful music together both literally and figuratively, live and on Zoom.
• You learned how to ask for help when you needed it.
• And when the pandemic ended, you helped us set a new record for numbers of students studying abroad!

You also showed up for each other.  Because that, too, is what it means to be a Badger!

Conclusion

Class of 2023, you walked into Camp Randall today for the last time as students, and you will walk out as alumni of one of the greatest universities in the world.

You are graduating into a world that looks pretty different than the one you might have planned for when you arrived here.

You’ve learned to adapt to monumental change — the one and only thing we know for sure the future will bring.

And you’ve learned what it means to be a Badger.

I hope you’ll continue to find gratitude, live with purpose, and be in service to something bigger than yourself.

And I hope that you will continue to be there for each other.

You share a deep bond that will last a lifetime.

And I certainly hope you’ll come back and visit us.  You will always find a warm welcome here!

Congratulations, Class of 2023, and On, Wisconsin!

May 12, 2023

Good evening and thank you, Provost Wilcots.  I am so happy to welcome you all to the University of Wisconsin–Madison spring commencement.  Congratulations, graduates!

Thank you to Justin Kroll for that beautiful performance.

And a very warm welcome to the many proud parents, spouses, partners, children, siblings, and friends who join us tonight from all over the country and the world —some of you are here in person, others are on our livestream.  Welcome to you all!

Acknowledgments

I also want to acknowledge and thank the members of the faculty who have taught and advised and mentored these graduates.  They have been your strongest supporters and, sometimes, your toughest critics … and they are extraordinarily proud of all that you’ve accomplished.

Faculty and advisors, will you please stand as you are able?  Thank you!

And a special thanks as well to two individuals who lead the University of Wisconsin System with a very “Wisconsin” blend of pragmatism and passion:  Regents President Karen Walsh and UW System President Jay Rothman.  Thank you!

Commencement is also bittersweet.  There are family members, friends, and colleagues who were with you on this journey, and who have passed away.  I know you are holding a place in your hearts for them tonight.

* * * *

I trust that your time with us has had both highs and lows, moments of inspiration and beauty and accomplishment and gratitude, and also moments of challenge.  And I need to say that this has been a difficult couple of weeks for us here at UW–Madison.  I know that some of you are feeling a great deal of hurt and frustration in the wake of the painful and racist video, and I want you to know that I see you and I hear you, and I am committed to doing the hard work that will bring us closer to the day when all people can feel a deep sense of belonging here.

Shout-outs

And speaking of hard work, that is something that you all absolutely know and understand.  Each of you has dedicated years of hard work to reach this moment.  But there is one group I want to call out for special recognition.  If you are here receiving a graduate degree today as a first generation college student — if you are part of the first generation in your family that earned a college degree, I’d like to ask you to please stand as you are able and make some noise.  Congratulations!

And to all of you — graduates as well as those here to celebrate our graduates — if you are a veteran or serving on active duty or in the Reserves — please stand as you are able so that we may thank you for service.

Finally, I want to recognize a group of graduates who earned their degrees 50 years ago but didn’t participate in the ceremony.   Tonight, they will complete that journey they began so many years ago.  Fifty-year graduates, please stand as you’re able.  Congratulations!

Leaning in

Our 2023 commencement is particularly meaningful for me — I am also graduating (in a manner of speaking) from my first academic year here at UW–Madison.

It has been the experience of a lifetime!  There is something wonderful (and sometimes a bit daunting) about starting anew.

When you wake up tomorrow, you, too, will be starting anew.  Getting ready to begin residency, or your career, or a postdoc, or a project that will take your work in a new direction.

Anyone here not feeling a little daunted by this new beginning, this commencement?  I dare you to raise your hand!

But you are entirely ready for the challenges that lie ahead.

Graduates, whether you have completed an MD or an MFA or a DVM or a PhD or one of the many other top degrees we’ll confer this evening, you have achieved something quite extraordinary.

To get here took perseverance.  It took resilience.  It took gumption.

You worked late nights, early mornings, and many, many weekends.  Whether it was monitoring experiments … teaching discussion sections … studying for the qualifying exam … writing your dissertation … doing clinical rotations … starting businesses … creating works of art … and so much more — you rose to the challenge,

I will tell you, candidly, that writing my own dissertation was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.  It challenged me intellectually and it was exciting, but it was also really hard.  Wrestling with the right intellectual framework. Trying to say something original while also staying true to my research materials.  Staring at the keyboard when some days the words flowed and some days they didn’t.

I am sure you had tough moments too, but I also know that those challenges, and surmounting them, will be a source of strength for you in the years ahead.

And you have taken part in some truly extraordinary things in your time here:

• Our medical researchers began clinical trials of a new vaccine for the deadliest form of breast cancer.
• Our pharmacists developed an injectable gel that jolts the immune system to kill off cancer cells left behind when surgeons remove a brain tumor.
• Our renewable-energy researchers and dairy scientists developed a way to turn the residues left over from cheesemaking into biodegradable plastics.
• Our veterinarians launched the largest clinical trial in the history of veterinary medicine — testing a vaccine for canine cancers.
• Our experts in business helped companies to retool, refine, and reimagine their products to be more sustainable.
• Our political scientists worked on better ways to run elections.
• And the people on this campus who create things — the engineers, the artists, the musicians — produced an abundance of incredible works.

Let me give you one example.  Monty Little is an Indigenous artist and an Iraq War veteran who served in the Marine Corps.

Monty’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and he now has a show at the Chazen that examines the erasure of Indigenous identities in the United States.

He is also a husband and a father, and the winner of our 2023 Prize for an Outstanding MFA Candidate.

And he has worked tirelessly to reach this moment.

Monty, thank you for your tremendous contributions to our campus and congratulations!

A proud legacy

Every one of you has been part of life-changing work in your time here — work that you’ve done despite, and in some cases because of, a global pandemic.  COVID-19 added extraordinary complexity to your work — for some of you, it delayed your graduation.  And for most of you, it made everything that much harder.

And still, you met every moment.

Like the incredible UW people who walked this campus before you.  People like:

Eudora Welty, who won both the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Medal of Honor.

Sister Mary Kenneth Keller, the first person in the U.S. to earn a PhD in Computer Science.

And Cecil Garvin, who recognized that every 10 to 14 days, somewhere in the world, the last speaker of a language dies — and the language dies with them.  And who said:  Not the Ho-Chunk language.  Not on my watch!

Tonight Dr. Garvin will receive one of the highest honors this university bestows — an honorary doctorate.  Congratulations, Dr. Garvin!

Each of you is now part of a legacy of people who have made history by showing up, doing more, and leaning in.

People educated in a place whose sheer intellectual firepower fuels a level of excellence and a passion for making a difference in the world.

That public service mission — which we call the Wisconsin Idea — has given us this virtuous circle that allows knowledge to flow from the campus to the community … and from the community to the campus.

Which is both the right way and the most difficult way to solve problems.

Because it requires us to get out of our lanes, to move not just forward but across.  Across academic disciplines, across the borders of the campus, and with people of every race, religion, nationality and gender.  With ideas, beliefs, and life experiences that may be nothing like your own.

To achieve excellence requires connection.  That is true here at UW–Madison, and it will be true in every moment of your career.

Self-care

To achieve excellence also requires taking care of yourself.

You can’t achieve greatness by ignoring your own health and well-being.  To carve out time for a walk … to play music or plant flowers or cook good food or spend time with loved ones … all of these are essential to human flourishing.  As is supporting one another.

So in the years ahead, I encourage you to lean into excellence, and to rise to the challenges that come along, but equally to take care of yourself, your loved ones, and your community.

Conclusion

Let me close with one more piece of advice.

You are graduating into a world that desperately needs a countervailing approach to belligerent and simplistic assertions of certainty.

A world that desperately needs people with credibility and expertise who can explain scientific principles and challenging ideas about the world without falling back on jargon or academic-speak.

Albert Einstein said:  If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.

If you can communicate about your area of expertise in a way that allows you to connect with people outside of your field, you will find yourself in an even better position to make a real difference in the world.

And if you need a pointer, your classmate Kaitlin Moore might be able to help.

Kaitlin won our campus-wide “3-minute thesis” competition by explaining their extraordinarily complex work that brings together poetry and astrophysics to illuminate new ways of thinking time and space, land and ocean, and the human connection.

Kaitlin, thank you for your tremendous contributions to our campus and congratulations!

Graduates, as you leave this campus, I hope you will stay connected to your fellow graduate students, your colleagues for life.  The people who will laugh and cry with you, and who will be there to celebrate successes large and small, no matter how many years go by.

I hope you will take care of yourselves.  And I hope you will continue to do more by doing more.

Thank you for being part of our wonderful UW–Madison community.  Please come back and visit us every so often here in Madison.  We want to know how you’re doing.

Wherever you go next, I hope that this will always be a place that you think of as home.

Congratulations … and On, Wisconsin!