The
University of Rhode Island’s 2015 Commencement was a tremendous success – the
weather was perfect, the speakers inspiring, and joy and pride evident
everywhere on campus. All of us who
participated in the ceremonies and celebrations benefitted from the dedicated
and practically tireless efforts of the staff, faculty, and administrators who
planned and executed all the events so wonderfully.
One
of the many special moments of the weekend were the announcements and
presentations of those members of the university who had received awards for
excellence. Students, faculty, staff and
administrators were recognized for their significant and substantial
contributions to the success of the University of Rhode Island and to the good
of the URI community. You can read about
their amazing individual, and collaborative, contributions here: www.uri.edu/news/releases/?id=7512.
Whether
it’s overseeing the enormous and critical facilities and grounds operations of
the university, supporting one of URI’s largest departments, brilliantly
teaching generations of students, or establishing oneself as an innovative,
wide-ranging author/scholar, the URI Foundation’s Excellence Award winners have
benefitted us all. In addition, the
research and intellectual property award winners selected by the URI Research
Foundation span the breadth of the university’s scholarship, and all of them
have significantly advanced our knowledge and understanding of the world.
These
research and scholarship awards remind me, yet again, of the intelligence,
creativity, and energy of our students. I
frequently read criticisms of students today that characterize them,
inconsistently, as uninterested, unmotivated, or foolish on one hand, or
altogether too focused on careers, jobs or money on the other. These strike me as gratuitous
over-generalizations, and I seldom encounter either kind of student at the
University of Rhode Island. To the contrary, my overwhelming impression of
students here is that they are motivated, hard working, engaged, and passionate
about their studies and about making a difference. URI undergraduates are
increasingly engaged in research and creative work alongside graduate students
and faculty. Whether in the humanities,
social sciences, or science and engineering, our graduate and undergraduate
students are producing research and scholarship at a high level.
At
gatherings attended by the awardees, it was readily apparent that they were not
only proud of their own work, but also of each other and the institution in
which they worked. I think this both reflects the growing sense of community at
the University of Rhode Island, and contributes to it. We are increasingly a
community of scholars, striving for excellence in all areas of inquiry and
creative work represented by our faculty and students. Check out the most recent
issue of our publication Momentum:
Research and Innovation online at http://web.uri.edu/researchecondev/current-research-magazine/,
or pick up a copy at the Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic
Development. I think you’ll enjoy
reading about all the truly excellent work underway at URI
