Commencement 2010

Dr. Robert Gilman '70
President of the Hobart Alumni Council
May 14, 2010

Good afternoon gentlemen

Today is a landmark. This weekend is a landmark.
You are ending your tenure as student members of this campus community and you are beginning your tenure as members of a much larger community…the worldwide community of alumni of Hobart College. This community along with our sisters from William Smith number over 20,000 members ranging from centenarians to twenty somethings. This community boasts such notables as Dr. Harry Coover, inventor and scientist who invented cyanoacrylates known to most of us as super glue and who is a recent recipient of the Hobart Alumni Association’s Medal of excellence and Brad Falchuk an executive producer writer and co-creator of the smash TV show Glee.

What we all have in common is our time on this campus in Geneva, NY and what I would want us to continue to have in common is our tireless support of this institution, now and in the years to come.

This support is not a one-way street. You can expect support in return. We are a network of brothers who are here for each other.

The diploma you receive on Sunday is a symbol of a quality education and life experience. HWS currently enjoys an unprecedented reputation for excellence.

But…the continued value and quality in education that your diploma of 2010 represents is contingent on the continuing high standards that the colleges currently achieve. 40 years from now the value of your 2010 diploma will rest on the quality of education and experience given the class of 2050 just as my diploma of 1970 reflects the achievements of the colleges today. Thus, the continued health of our institution as we go out into the world remains individually important to us and reflects back on all of us. Lack of institutional success likewise will reflect poorly back on each of us.

So…it is in all of our interests to support these Colleges. Support is often defined as TIME, TALENT, and TREASURE.

Time: Take a moment to volunteer your help whether it be with admissions interviews, regional club organization, career services or any of a myriad of things.
Talent: Take the skills you learned here and will learn in the future and share them and your life experience with students.
Treasure: Give financial support. It doesn’t matter what amount. School rankings look more at the percentage of giving than at the amounts individuals give.

Together we can help maintain the excellence of these Colleges and promote “lives of consequence”

On behalf of the HAA and as its president I welcome you to the worldwide family of Hobart Alumni. God bless and God speed. Hip Hobart.