Summary
Chancellor Mnookin's remarks to incoming students at Fall Convocation.
University of Wisconsin–Madison
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.