PRESIDENT'S WELCOME TO COMMENCEMENT 2005

College of the Atlantic, Bar Harbor, Maine

Steven K. Katona

June 4, 2005

Chairman Hamill, honored guests, trustees, faculty and staff, alumni and-- most specially-ñmembers of the Class of 2005 and your guests ó my warm and heartfelt greeting to all of you.

Today College of the Atlantic celebrates its 33nd Commencement and honors the intellectual achievements, creativity and perseverance of 55 men and women who completed their courses of study or will soon do so, and are candidates for the Master of Philosophy or Bachelor of Arts degrees in Human Ecology.

We honor them and everyone who made this day possible for them: their families, advisors, teachers and friends whose encouragement, knowledge, love and support helped them succeed.

We treasure this day of fellowship and achievement. We love the wholeness of being all together, here, on this beautiful campus. But we know you will shortly be off into the world, and we already miss you. Happily, you have been wonderful examples and mentors to younger students, and they will do us all proud in years to come, just as you have.

In that spirit, let me quickly note several awards given to members of next yearís Class of 2006.

The August Heckscher Scholarship is given to two outstanding students, one male and one female, preferably juniors. Matt Lavoie and Xander Karkruff received those awards.

The Maurine and Robert Rothschild Scholarship, awarded to students who show outstanding promise for working in the field of education, went to Amy Hoffmaster.

The Alice Blum Yoakum Scholarship, awarded to a student planning to work for conservation of biodiversity of marine species in various parts of the word, went to Kipp Quinby.

The Rebecca Clark Scholarship, honoring the memory of Rebecca Clark, a member of the Class of 1996, who died in the tsunami on December 26 while doing research on sea turtles in Thailand, went to Julianne Kearney. This new scholarship will be awarded each year to a student who demonstrates enthusiasm, passion and scholarship in the field of Marine Science and/or Marine Conservation.

Congratulations to those great students who will graduate next year.

Each year, our graduating class selects books for purchase by the Thorndike Library, thanks to a special gift from Nicholas and Joan Thorndike, made in memory of Elizabeth Thorndike. As those choices demonstrate the classes interests, dedication and concerns, I always enjoy sharing them at Commencement. This year, seniors selected Cloud Atlas: A Novel by David Mitchell; The Nature of Design: Ecology, Culture, and Human Intention by David W. Orr; The Cairo Trilogy: Palace Walk, Palace of Desire, Sugar Street by Naguib Mahfouz, winner of the 1988 Nobel Prize for Literature; Panís Travail: Environmental Problems of the Ancient Greeks and Romans by J. Donald Hughes; Forests in Peril: Tracking Deciduous Trees from Glacial Refuges into the Greenhouse World by Hazel R. Delcourt; and The Ghosts of Evolution by Connie Barlow.

You may know that some academic libraries have recently chosen to eliminate books and rely on the internet to support education. I prefer books; and I thank the Class of 2005 for selecting such important and engaging volumes.

Today we all feel proud and special. We are proud of the Class of 2005's accomplishments, and we feel special to be partners with them in this amazing young college that investigates a vital subject, Human Ecology, and has an urgent mission. The mission is to understand the relationships between humans and our natural, social and constructed environments; and to improve those relationships and make them more sustainable. By choosing actions that help people and nature to flourish, we will ensure that future generations enjoy a world that becomes steadily more just and diverse.

Few colleges have such an ambitious mission. It is one of the privileges of my life to be part of this committed, far-seeing institution, and I want to thank the faculty, staff, trustees, advisors, the Class of 2005, and the alumni who have preceded you for your extraordinary efforts on behalf of this institution.

Our collegeís bywords, "Life Changing, World Changing" express our hope that the campus community and the collegeís mission will change the trajectory of each studentís life, give her skills for improving the world and deepen her passion for that task.

But life and the world changed markedly for the Class of 2005 during their first week of college and I vividly recall sitting on this same lawn on Tuesday morning, September 11, 2001, crying together in sadness and confusion and trying to understand the tragedy that was taking place.

That morning shaped much about what you would seek from your education and what you would do with your lives. Indeed the shock waves of that day will long echo throughout our country and much of the world.

We were shaken again this year by the tsunami that brought untold death and destruction to coastal communities in Asia, Indonesia and Africa, including countries and communities of some members of the Class of 2005. Though thousands of miles from the affected populations, our community keenly felt their grief, and your class led our collegeís efforts to collect money and clothing for the relief efforts.

That tsunami was caused by a submarine earthquake, the largest ever recorded and geologists tell us that the whol e earth is still reverberating like a bell from the tremendous energy released.

With our world ringing like a bell, John Donneís famous words, written in 1624 as part of his 17th Meditation, come to mind:

Now this bell tolling softly for another, says to me, Thou must die....No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were. Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee...

But bells donít just toll sadness and loss. They also ring the happiness of peace, freedom, a new year, weddings, commencements and other occasions, and we could say that our job, personally and institutionally, is to tune our planetís bell to ring in a happier key. But how?

Now it is true that Superman reversed Earthís rotation and the direction of time itself to prevent Lois Lane from dying in the huge earthquake Lex Luthor created by activating the San Andreas Fault. But that was in 1978, before most of the Class of 2005 was born, and noone else seems capable of controlling the movements of planets or continental plates. And we probably canít stop a speeding airplane from crashing into a skyscraper. But the Class of 2005 probably has learned other, better approaches to preventing catastrophe.

For example, by improving early warning systems, education and communications systems; by revising policies for land use and construction standards, by fostering healthy communities of coral reefs and mangroves; by streamlining emergency preparedness systems and by investing in public health systems, the human and economic toll resulting from violent motions of the earthís crust will be greatly reduced.

A human ecological approach will also eliminate terrorism more reliably than dedicating ever-larger fractions of national budgets to military offense and defense. A more effective alternative is to create the world described in College of the Atlanticís vision statement--- a world where people value creativity, intellectual achievement, and the diversity of nature and human cultures; and where, with respect and compassion, individuals construct meaningful lives for themselves, gain appreciation for the relationships among all forms of life, and safeguard the heritage of future generations.

Whatís more, they are familiar with a Strategic Plan for accomplishing that. It is the Earth Charter, and it will guide us toward a beneficial future in which we increasingly (1) Respect and Care for the Community of Life; (2) Protect and Restore the Integrity of Earthís Ecological Systems; (3) Ensure Social and Economic Justice for All; and (4) Promote Cultures of Democracy, Nonviolence and Peace. In a world where people of all kinds are valued and heard, where human rights are affirmed and protected, where respect and consideration abound, where education begins in youth and continues throughout life, where study in science, art and the humanities enriches the purpose and sustainability of our lives, where work has meaning and poverty is eliminated, where the vulnerable are protected, where the diversity and function of healthy ecosystems is valued and preserved, and where individuals and groups have confidence that they can make changes through peaceful, democratic processes....in that world there are no terrorists.

Making that world will not be easy, but in principle it is not so hard either, and we have known that principle since we were toddlers. It is The Golden Rule, extended to all life. It is our growing wish and ability to live thoughtfully and gracefully and harmoniously. The Navajo call it "nizhoni," "walking in beauty," as Stephen Rockefeller, who played a leading role in writing the Earth Charter, taught us during a lecture at College of the Atlantic ten years ago. I am proud that one of our alumni, Johanna Bernstein ë, assisted in drafting the Earth Charter and that our All College Meeting became an official endorser of that document on June 4, 2003, and resolved to incorporate it in our curriculum wherever possible. And as I review that courageous document, as I frequently do, I am struck not by how hard it will be to create the world we all seek, but how much harder it will be if we do not.

I want to thank the Class of 2005 and everyone here for what you have done to make the college as strong a nd vibrant as it is today; and for all you will do to strengthen it further in the future. It is important that you continue those efforts. The college will always need you. Please come back to campus often. Stay connected. Be active in the Alumni Association. Keep up your superb progress in raising the money needed to make sure that future students will have even more educational opportunities than you had during your years here. Send great new students our way. And keep your personal commitments to Human Ecology and Sustainability strong throughout your lives.

It is fitting that you are culminating your years here with an event that will change the world. This unique celebration, the first Zero Waste Commencement ceremony ever held, has captured media attention throughout the nation. I am confident that ceremonies of all kinds will gradually become more sustainable as a result of todayís example and the hard work of so many of our students and staff. An early indication that your example is gaining traction is that an alumna from the Class of 2002 read about this ceremony and immediately announced her intention to have a Zero Waste wedding!

In closing, I thank the Class of 2005 for being the bright, dedicated, brave, zany, creative individuals you are, for sharing these important years of your life with us, and for all that I have learned from being with you.

Congratulations and may you always walk in beauty.