Biden calls for optimism, change in address to alma mater

By: Bethany Bump and Shayna Meliker

Posted: 5/7/09

Joe Biden walked across the stage at Syracuse University in 1968, in what was then Archbold Stadium. He stepped into a world burdened by an unpopular war in Vietnam, one in which there was "no light at the end of the tunnel," he said.

Yet four decades ago, when graduating from SU with a law degree, he was optimistic about the future.

On a different stage in the same place 41 years later - and this time surrounded by Secret Service - Biden delivered the commencement address for Syracuse University and the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry in the Carrier Dome, with the same message of optimism during troubled times.

Commencement event organizers said 19,239 people attended the ceremony, more than 5,000 people less than they expected. When former New York City Mayor Rudy Guilliani delivered the commencement address in 2003, he drew 20,000 people. A year later, approximately 22,000 people showed up to hear former President Bill Clinton give the speech.

This was the 155th commencement for SU, and the 112th for ESF. The two schools awarded a total of 5,018 degrees, including 3,165 bachelor's degrees, 1,570 master's degrees and 140 doctoral degrees.

Biden was the first sitting vice president to deliver a commencement address at SU since 1965, when Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey spoke. No sitting president has ever given the SU commencement speech.

In his 27-minute speech, he reminded the graduates that they were facing difficulty in finding jobs, two U.S. wars, a global recession, a planet in peril and "a world in flux." He called this moment in time their inflection point. A point in which Biden said their hands are on a steering wheel, and one slight turn can send their car in a fundamentally different direction.

Three days after Biden walked off that field at his graduation, Robert F. Kennedy, one of his "personal heroes," was shot in a kitchen in Los Angeles. Martin Luther King, Jr. had been assassinated two months prior and the Vietnam War was dragging on. Peaceful antiwar demonstrations began to turn violent.

"That was the history, that up to that point had been written for us, not by us," Biden said. "But in spite of it all, as I walked across this stage like you, I never doubted for one instance that we can change that history, that we can rewrite the outcome that we were careening toward, and we did."

Back in that time, Syracuse University saw protests of its own. In 1970, a group of students entered then-Chancellor John Corbally's office and chained the door shut, demanding the university remove its ROTC program.

"Throughout the span of history, only a handful of us have belonged in a time when we can actually shape the course of history," Biden said. "Few people, few generations, get to put their hands on the steering wheel at that moment."

Though Biden got political at times mentioning the downturn of the country in the last 10 to 15 years, he focused more on what graduates could do and imagine, than actions taken in the past. He said his optimism, and the graduates' chance to make more than "incremental change" was a reason why he and Barack Obama ran for office.

In John Lennon fashion, Biden asked students to imagine what they could do. To imagine a country with renewable energy, with affordable college and healthcare, a diminished carbon footprint, and a country "not torn apart by petty ideologies" where every American has "a fighting chance."

"That's what you demanded of us in this last election. That's what the president and I are seeking to accomplish," Biden said. "They tell us we're dreamers, they tell us we're doing too much, they tell us that this is beyond our scope.

For Patrick Kimani, who received his doctorate in math education, Sunday had a global and generational significance. He traveled from California to study at SU, and his mother made the 17-hour trip from Kenya, so she could be here to see him graduate.

He said he sees the current challenges and problems, but said he hopes this generation can improve the world for the future, especially that of his daughter, 19-month-old Mwende.

"It was inspiring, talking about the opportunities we have right now," he said. "Yes, we have challenges, but we still have hope."

In a message before Biden spoke, Chancellor Nancy Cantor offered the graduates parting words, urging them to get up and enact change.

"At this point, you are not built to look the other way. So take a deep breath. Reflect on all that you've done, for it is a lot. And then get ready again to look in the face of challenge," Cantor said. "You will see possibility, even in these uncertain times. And since you know how to look, the world will see you coming."

John Shephard Sr., who attended commencement for his granddaughter Alexandra, said he enjoyed the overall ceremony, but that nothing in Biden's speech stood out to him.

"I don't believe anything he says. He was just rattling along," said Shephard, who served in the Army from 1949 to 1969. "I am a military retiree, and I don't believe in all he's trying to sell. He never served in the service. He wasn't in Vietnam, to talk about all that."

Amruta Dongre, who graduated with a master's degree in information management, said she enjoyed seeing the vice president speak.

"It was very nice. The fact that he talked about times of trouble, and how he related when he graduated to our times now," she said. "Our class has a lot of potential to make change, and somebody has to do it."

Biden encouraged the graduates to retain the same sense of optimism he felt 41 years ago, because they now live in a world waiting for them to change it.

"The cumulative effect of which you've already demonstrated the capacity to do will, I guarantee you, will change the world," he said. "Because it cannot sustain itself in the direction it's going now. Just as every generation that's found itself at an inflection point in history, it is totally within your power to change history and literally bend it."

blbump@syr.edu
shmelike@syr.edu