The Joy of Graduation Season and the Centrality of Education
It’s May, and with the return of the foliage and the feeling of life coming back and reviving, in Columbia, campus landscapers are working non-stop and graduation viewing decks have been built. Tents are erected for commencement and senior university administrators are praying for a sunny, balmy day as 30,000 people gather outdoors in the heart of our campus with the ever-majestic Low Library and semi-iconic Butler Books in the background Pavilion in the foreground. For the past few weeks, students have been posing for photos in caps and gowns with campus landmarks as backdrops. All of this builds on this week, when family, friends and graduates will gather in a predictable but always moving ceremony to mark the profound achievement of earning a degree from our University.
In both 2020 and 2021, Columbia University’s commencement ceremonies will be held virtually, which is a little sad, though better than nothing. Last year, we returned to the three-dimensional space in person, and we held two ceremonies—one for last year’s graduates and one for those who didn’t attend the ceremony in person. Remembering the face-to-face graduation in 2022, it seems that we can finally breathe a sigh of relief. People were happy to be together, and almost everyone felt the arrival of the long-awaited return to normalcy that had taken so long to come. A pandemic is a painful time when people are sick and dying, missing family events, and forgoing opportunities to connect. When we returned last year, I had a greater appreciation for these rites of passage and their importance to our way of life. Commencement is a time to step back, reflect and savor progress and accomplishment.
Similar ceremonies have been held this month at colleges, high schools, middle schools, elementary schools and even day care centers. One of my favorite photos of my oldest granddaughter is of her wearing a beanie and gown with her mother attending her daycare graduation in Washington Heights Park. These ceremonies do more than signify the passage of time, they are evidence of work, dedication and sacrifice. For some families, they see the first in their family to receive an earned degree. For this year’s graduates, nearly all have experienced educational hardship during the pandemic, and for many, their studies had to overcome isolation and loneliness.
There’s a lot of discussion about the monetary value of a college education and whether it’s worth it. Education has become more expensive as colleges struggle to meet growing demand from students (and parents) for higher quality services and facilities. Costs are also rising due to increasing regulatory requirements, and a culture that requires institutions to care about the physical and mental needs of their members. There are also problems with highly paid senior faculty who don’t do much teaching and adjunct faculty, graduate teaching assistants, and lecturers who teach a lot for very little pay. We hear discussions about threats to free speech on campus from politicians trying to make an ideological political point and students who have grown accustomed to hearing their own voices feel offended when confronted with voices they disagree with. On graduation day, most, if not all, of these issues recede into the background as politics give way to family, friends and celebrations of achievement.
Since 1985, I have taught at Columbia University for over 40 years and directed master’s courses at the university. I look forward to this time of year and meeting the people who emotionally and financially support the students I have the honor to teach. No one completes a higher education degree on their own. There are mentors, role models, friends and family to offer advice as well as moral and financial support, and to call at 3 a.m. for reassurance. While some of my students are undergraduates, most are graduate students earning specialized degrees in Environmental Science and Policy or Sustainability Management. One of the important tasks of our programs and faculty is to help our students access career opportunities. We do this because we want to be helpful to our students, but we also do it because we know how great our graduates are and are confident that we are helping the organizations that employ them. As the school year draws to a close, graduation celebrations and the anxiety of navigating a complex job market are mingled in a maelstrom of emotions.
As an educator, I have been fortunate to have the opportunity to watch my students grow intellectually and professionally while they are in school, and in some cases, to track their progress after they graduate. I work in an ever-evolving field as the world seeks to figure out how to build prosperity without destroying our planet. I am proud of the progress our graduates have made, and it gives me immense satisfaction to see the contributions many of our alumni are making to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and make our world a better place. In a field as rapidly evolving as environmental policy and sustainability management, I recognize that my students, graduates, and other staff must be lifelong learners in order to remain competent and professional in our field. When I was young, developments like the internet, smartphones, cloud computing, and amazing software tools required constant technical training. In addition, new substantive research areas such as life cycle analysis, greenhouse gas measurement, and supply chain management emerge to be studied and understood. Today, we see the development of artificial intelligence and ponder the dangers and opportunities that these new discoveries present. To minimize risks and maximize benefits, we need to study and understand these new technologies.
The academy is under attack today, and freedom of inquiry and freedom of speech will never be guaranteed. Some educational institutions seem irresistible to angry internal voices trying to silence speakers and teachers with whom they disagree. These educational institutions seem equally powerless in the face of politicians, parents, and angry outside voices that seem to confuse education with advocacy or advocacy when it comes to the free exchange of ideas. The freedom to inquire, debate, question and civilize discussion is at the heart of learning. Sometimes we learn about the world of the past and the world of the present, and we wish it wasn’t true. Reality isn’t always rosy, but hiding the truth guarantees we won’t learn and progress.
While education in the modern world must remain constant and intense, graduation ceremonies offer us an opportunity to pause and reflect. Sitting on stage in robes, I look at graduates in medieval attire smiling and cheering, but I also look at their family and friends, I may be a bit projective, but with their joy, I think I also look at To pride and a little surprise. For the parent, it can’t help but be reminded of the child’s first cry and first steps, and then suddenly, seemingly a nanosecond later, the parent sees the child, now fully grown, alone, shaking hands with the professor and the dean. In a world of conflict and struggle, in a country polarized partisan, these moments are precious and should be cherished.
