During annual Commencement ceremony, Governor Chafee, University President Farish and others encourage graduates to seek opportunities and leave no regrets

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Roger Williams UniversityDOCS@RWUFeatured News Story The Week at Roger5-17-2014Make Peace, Find Love and Don’t Settle – WithWords of Advice, the Class of 2014 GraduatesPublic Affairs, Roger Williams UniversityFollow this and additional works at: https://docs.rwu.edu/weekatroger_featured_newsPart of the Higher Education CommonsThis News Article is brought to you for free and open access by the The Week at Roger at DOCS@RWU. It has been accepted for inclusion in FeaturedNews Story by an authorized administrator of DOCS@RWU. For more information, please contact mwu@rwu.edu.Recommended CitationPublic Affairs, Roger Williams University, "Make Peace, Find Love and Don’t Settle – With Words of Advice, the Class of 2014Graduates" (2014). Featured News Story. 420.https://docs.rwu.edu/weekatroger_featured_news/420 News ArchiveMake Peace, Find Love and Don’t Settle – WithWords of Advice, the Class of 2014 GraduatesDuring annual Commencement ceremony, Governor Chafee, UniversityPresident Farish and others encourage graduates to seek opportunities andleave no regretsMay 17, 2014 Public A airs Sta Bristol, R.I. – The weather may have started wet, but the sun broke through and Commencementcelebrations among more than 6,000 graduates and guests were hardly dampened, as the 1,035members of the Roger Williams University Class of 2014 culminated their college careers onSaturday at the University’s annual Commencement exercises.In addition to awarding bachelor’s and master’s degrees to the candidates, RWU President DonaldJ. Farish conferred honorary doctorates to two special guests: the Honorable Lincoln D. Chafee, the74th governor of the State of Rhode Island; and Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian DorisKearns Goodwin.Selected as the university’s Commencement speaker in celebration of the growing array of projectsin which RWU students and faculty have partnered with organizations to improve quality of life in theState, Governor Chafee called upon Roger Williams, the University’s namesake and the State’sfounder, as an example for today’s graduates – and particularly his role as a peacemaker in his era.“To build an age of lasting peace for your generation will require concentration and will,” GovernorChafee told the graduates. “Perhaps we can draw inspiration from the examples of Roger Williams.If you learn languages, as he did, you can engage the world on its own terms. If you start newenterprises, as he did, you can invite others into the experiment and provide jobs and opportunitiesfor many others… If you speak truth to power, as he did, you will be faithful to your conscience andyou will help our society to stay strong. If you work to achieve consensus, as he did, you willbecome a meaningful part of whatever community you choose to join and you will plant your idealsin the hard soil of everyday reality.“If you do all these things, you will be living up to much more than the promise of Roger WilliamsUniversity or even Roger Williams – you will be giving new life to some of our oldest aspirations asfellow inhabitants of the same fragile planet.”In a deeply personal address, President Farish o ered the Class of 2014 a healthy dose of“unsolicited advice,” as he called it, in the very “o cial” form of “Farish’s Four Rules for a Happy andSuccessful Life.” First, be a lifelong learner. Second,  nd someone to love. Third,  nd somethingthat you love to do. Fourth, and most importantly, don’t settle.“If you don’t like the view from the particular mountain you’ve climbed, climb back down and climbanother mountain,” the President told the graduates. “It’s the easiest thing in the world to makeexcuses for putting up with something intolerable or distasteful or merely unpleasant. ‘I have aspouse, I have children, I have a mortgage… besides there’s something ennobling about putting upwith some level of adversity.’“Balderdash! If you don’t like your circumstances, change them… Don’t put yourself in a positionwhen at the end of your life, you  nd yourself looking back with bitterness and regret at the missedopportunities you chose to let pass you by.”In a lyrical speech punctuated with messages about community and inclusion, English andsecondary education double major Jesse Ramos ’14 – a slam poet and the  rst student speaker tohail from Bristol – expressed his gratitude for the care and kindness he felt at his hometownUniversity.“I remember growing up  ve minutes down the street thinking, ‘I’ll never go to Roger Williams’…Four years later I stand here. Five minutes down the road, in a whole di erent world,” said Ramos,who will work this summer at the Rhode Island Transition Academy helping young adults withautism transition to college and work life.“If I could o er any words that mean something to a group of people that taught me a lot andchanged my life for the better, keep on growing. Use your brains and hearts together and go  ghtlike hell against indi erence… Never forget your roots no matter where they started growing from,and keep feeding them everyday.”In what’s become an annual tradition since its establishment in 2007, 12 students took homePresident’s Core Values Medallions in recognition of their academic, professional and community-based accomplishments. And during the ceremony, Provost Andrew A. Workman presented theuniversity’s Seventh Annual Excellence in Teaching Award to Professor of English Deborah Robinsonof the Feinstein College of Arts and Sciences.The Class of 2014 featured an important academic  rst for the University, as the inaugural group ofjournalism graduates earned degrees, two years a er the journalism major launched. Versed in theessential skills of both print and multimedia journalism, the 12 graduates will hit the job market asexperienced, versatile reporters ready to take on an evolving media terrain.A number of the journalism students leave with jobs already secured – Christopher Ferreira, forexample, will chronicle live news as a general assignment reporter for KCFW News, an NBC a liatein Montana. An additional 64 underclassmen have already declared the journalism major, based onthe nascent program’s growing reputation.Among the 774 undergraduate day students who graduated, the  ve most populous majorsincluded psychology, architecture, criminal justice, psychology, media communication andmarketing.One day earlier, 169 students were awarded juris doctor degrees in a Roger Williams UniversitySchool of Law ceremony highlighted by an address by Judith S. Kaye, the trailblazing Chief Judge ofNew York and the Court of Appeals (retired), now with the Skadden  rm.As RWU Law wrapped up its 20th Anniversary year, the Commencement ceremony was the last overwhich longtime dean David A. Logan presided. Dean Logan. Logan has headed the school since2003 (more than half of its existence), which places him among the 15 longest serving law deans inAmerica. He will step down from the deanship as of July 1 to return to full-time teaching; foundingRWU Law faculty member Michael Yelnosky will succeed him.

Make Peace, Find Love and Don’t Settle – With Words of Advice, the Class of 2014 Graduates

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Make Peace, Find Love and Don’t Settle – With Words of Advice, the Class of 2014 Graduates

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