Women's Forum; F60; Commencement Addresses by Ella Grasso and Shirley Chisholm

This is. I am a. Member of the class of 1975 and there are all of the other here present each in their various knitters to celebrate their great and wonderful happening. I'm proud to salute you. A salute but championing a challenge to the individual and the nation. These were the themes placed before the graduating classes of Mount Holyoke and Smith Colleges in 1975 at Smith Shirley Chisholm issued the call to combat not only racism and sexism but mental inertia and apathy and at Mount Holyoke one of its most newly celebrated alumni of the class of 1940 returned Ella Grasso governor of

Connecticut. When I went on home with pondering what to say at his 50th reunion he remarked to his wife. Life is not adding up and it is painting a picture. Believing that the canvas will fill out. I'm honored that you are the class of 75 are letting me share in your commencement exercises today. As you add more color to that great first wash of your personal canvas. I urge you to paint a picture that will be ample exciting and humane. I urge you to seek roles that are meaningful that will make you active participants in the important events of the day. People often ask me. How it has been possible to be a woman and a political leader. They ask whether I have ever found my female ness to be a liability. How it was possible to

conquer and demolish. Demolish so many of the stereotypes and to combine the role of political person mother and wife daughter neighbor and citizen. This line of questioning always surprises me because the fact of my gender has not been a pressing issue in my life. Perhaps the six years that I spent in South Hadley ever so long ago made this so here. I was always taken seriously. First as a student and then as a teaching assistant and a graduate student there were many models to emulate on the faculty in the administration and among the speakers invited to our campus. Here I was encouraged to think of my life not as something that what happened to me but that is something that I would shape for myself. We were encouraged in the view that to share a passion for helping others was a joy

and not a drudgery. The gifts of Holyoke to its graduates then and now are a taste for autonomy a capacity for commitment and the self-confidence that keeps us moving from one task to the next. Like yours my colleague's years were times of great uncertainty. Events in the world were frightening. There was a depression campus wimmin organized for and against Roosevelt. There were benefits from the streams of refugees leaving New York leading artist and thinkers of the period came to the college. Yasha Heifetz play Anna Rosenberg spoke and Carl Sandburg read from his works. Governor Saltonstall came to Founders Day in Granville hooks told us. That he left the communist party because of the Ruffo German pact. Linus Pauling explained some implications of the staggering new developments in chemistry and physics that would shape the era to come. Going through the old campus papers one is

struck with the visibility of women on the faculty on the campus as guests of the college functioning as we know to be role models today. Of course there was controversy and comment when a man the first male president of the college replaced Mary Wooley who by her life in their example was a symbol in the substance of the activist woman. Otherwise we did not question. And indeed we were not concerned about whether females were capable and equal to males. Our potential was so much taken for granted that it did not have to be discussed or defended. We dated on weekends. We had our own affirmative action programs. To get a favorite man to the college for a cloak for a Coke at blackface and perhaps an afternoon around the lake. There were lighter moments but in those days hall you had never seemed to be isolated from the serious events that were taking place home and abroad. I have

fears and expectations were summarized well in the letter of farewell to the class of 1940 of which I was a member. On the eve of World War Two Jeanette Mox who taught here wrote of the dislocation of civilizations that awaited us. She spoke of the economic injustices in the disease of leadership meaning Hitler said that these injustices had made possible. She concluded however that there was a role for women a greater opportunity to service than women had never known before. If a woman's love for the human race is deep enough and strong enough she can with plannings bring an end both to the new technology and the corruption which has made a mockery of all human values. And then she listed what women can do. We can stand against corruption. We can stand against cruelty hate. We can stand against injustice. We can stand against race hatred in any form. And these were stirring

words for future leaders to hear. But there is no question that in the years since 1940 something happened to many women whose older sisters had become more active. They were persuaded that service could best and sometimes only be performed as an extension of the wife and mother role. In 1940 40 percent of the nation's college graduates were women. And regrettably it was not until 1969 that the national proportion was that high again. We will never know why some women abdicated leadership and were frightened away from politics in the 50s and 60s. It may have been the war and brutality of the 40s. Post-war consumerism or the rise of the importance of science and technology that Holyoke specialized in but few other colleges encouraged women to pursue it. But if as it appears the whole joke of the 70s is trying to connect again with

the whole joke that I knew then we must all be grateful that the nation will make use of the talents represented in this audience today. We find that since the 1940s when the emphasis was on technicians and innovators and expanded industrial protests potential that there are limits to growth and that the limits come not only from the constraints of our resources and the growing ambition of our current neighbors but also because our most treasured institutions are not capable of growing at a rapid rate without fundamental change. We know that we cannot solve our problems as we have for decades simply by adding on. Budgets cannot go up every year social service is however necessary. It cannot be expanded without making painful tradeoffs and adjustments. As a result administrators in every sector have to take a long critical look at everything we are doing

and why. Management Science has given us tools to help and we must use them for the challenge of governing. In these times there's tremendous pride that inly colleges newly established program in the administration of complex organizations is timely and imaginative So it is the understanding and management of complex organizations whether in the corporate world in local state or national government that ideas become issues that policy is shaped and carried out. Above all an idea without a strategy for its realisation is but a mental exercise which is not useful in a world that is a desperate need of workable solutions to pressing problems. How to explaining the art of the possible has to address itself more and more into maneuvering within larger bureaucracy.

Clearly the study an analysis of complex organisations to be a significant part of any college curriculum that is to prepare young people for service in the real world. What I worry about is whether you have the range of skills needed for this important and challenging phase of our nation's history. I will continue to be attracted to government and social service occupations. Whether you will be willing to put up with the irritations and frustrations and disappointments that are often more numerous than the tangible marks of success. Today's leader has to deal with uncertainty. We never have all the information that we need to make a decision. Today's leader has to be persuasive and above all patient willing to explain again and again why a certain policy is needed but flexible enough to shift that policy when time has elapsed and today's leader above all must be a humanist. This

after all is the point of the our education to place human interests and ideals at the heart of your existence. You are dealing there if you are able to see life in all of its folly with a Don Quixote and its wisdom and its whimsy with Ogden Nash. To appreciate the ordered world of an Arnold Toynbee the perspective of a Barbara Tuchman. And the beauty of a Shelley is the key. To understand the torment of a Sylvia Plath the poignant imagery of a van to get to witness the spiritual and political growth of a Doris Lessing and the inhuman cruelty in the personal relationships of an Edward Albee to admit that odd musical music coats your ears and that the falseness of some contemporary art blinds your eyes. And yes to analyse fantastic little people of a Tolkien to say. To recognize

to understand that is the spirit of humanism. It is that which from the beginning I had to help you inspire your lives. It will teach you how to live it how to bring life to the world about you. I am sure that each of you through your lacks will assert the dignity and worth of every individual. By doing this you will be sure that the issue of equality is an enduring cornerstone of our nation's commitment to itself is the cornerstone of your Mount Holyoke heritage. Thank you little God love you. And the grass and to the graduates of Mount Holyoke from which she graduated in 1940. At Smith's The choice of the class of 1975 was

political as well. A woman educated at Brooklyn College specializing in early childhood and child welfare at Columbia University. Born of Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Barbadian parents and going on to represent the 12th congressional district as the first black congresswoman in the nation Shirley Chisholm. Responsible for planning and action by graduates. Our cell phones the faculty and administration is a play that I make to use this afternoon. Today our nation continues to enjoy many of the benefits of peace. But. Forced to adopt much of the urgency. And the pressures of wartime. Institutions all over this country are being deeply affected. By the winds of change that are sweeping across the land. By the women's and the black revolution. But will we have the courage.

The commitment to succumb to the action required. To bring about total and complete equality. By 1976 the bicentennial. And will we be able to work for the conservation. And the preservation of our most precious resources human beings will receive and research from. Back to say yes. That the prize blacks apply to Rican Indians are never minorities. From moving into the mixed frame of America. To partake of the American drain. Will we be strong enough. To transform our institutions to be relevant. And meaningful for today's world and not the world of yesterday. Today's graduates for the most part. Are a generation of students who introduced activism into our way of life. Today's graduates speak by much adult indifference. Are more

outspoken more independent and more sophisticated. Today's graduates reflect our nation's hypocrisy that has been indulged in by many of our country's leaders. Whose attitudes in and out of government service leave far too much to be desired. It is a period of rebellion against traditional concepts. And rigid institutions. The struggles on our temperatures in the past have been often times better and explosive but we needed actual polemics. We needed involvement in place of constant intellectualizing universities have got to become reconciled to the fact. That whole chunks of their traditional way of thinking have to be revised. Because a dying people tolerate the president. Rejects the future. And finds. Satisfaction in past

greatness. And half remember glories. Young Americans preach true have often times been rebellious have often times been angry. Have often times been searching. And the energy poured out and rumbles in strikes and in calling trees. But it was energy. Race state energy is only a little problem. Compared with the lack of it. You told the graduates you must employ your energy. As you leave the colleges to fight the battles against the injustices of the broader society. You must fight against racism and racial injustice at home. And against aggression. And nuclear confrontation on America's actions at home. And abroad. It will require graduates. Great moral

courage. To leave here this afternoon. And assert that you no longer wish to be merely complacent. Regarding the grievances and the ills that surround you. I join individuals in your respective environments. This ceremony this afternoon must be viewed as a time of commitment. It must be viewed as a time of courage. It must be viewed as a time of concern. And it must be view as a time of compassion. For your fellow men. It is your obligation. To fight for the equality of men. For the demise of the evil of racism should not be made dependent on the good behavior. Of a race or any ethnic group. That has for so long been abuse. There must exist within you graduates.

That willingness to innovate and to pioneer. Because we cannot claim to a force plan quality. In a time of jarring upheavals. For change affects Main of the society he builds and it behooves us who are charged with caring for those. Who cannot care for themselves educationally to observe change closely. To know how communities are altering their shape and to know who our fellow citizens are. And how they are fairing. Institutions must end their deceit. And planned today so those who come tomorrow. Will not be placed in the position of prolonging deceptions or. About the character of this great nation. We must not graduates permit our own minds to be like concrete all mixed up and firmly set. In.

Our education has been a failure. It's no matter how learned you are. It has failed to open your hearts. It seems to me that despite disparities in the charts in the surveys and the analysis of the Conference series the most important element is needed across the stream and the broom to breathe new life in our cities and in our colleges and our universities. To bring in matter to bold programs that will be meaningful to those. For whom they are designed and that is the crying need in this nation. I get a protrusion 200 anniversary for a new breed of men and a new breed of woman who is dedicated to innovate his change. Despite our academic gown and our academic can't. We can be just as transparent as the Emperor and his new

clothes. If an end of liberal education John Dewey has said. That public spending will range and the accuracy of one's perception of meaning. Then who is there. That our colleges cannot serve less well understood is the increase in student demand for educational relevance. A fundamental recognition of the need for social justice. And a commitment by the universities toward dress themselves through it. Unless our universities can help to make this demand especially where social injustice manifests. They will face increasing disquiet in the 1970s in the nineteen eighties universities today in this nation. Have a commitment to inclusiveness. Rather than to exclusivity.

To equality rather than to hear Rockey reorientation is slow. But thank God it's happening. A truly relevant education and able students to discover injustice and human race in the 60s in the schools and the police and the court systems. The goal of the diversity in academic university programs to be meaningful for the future. Must be to produce a student. Who is not only at home in a professional discipline. But in touch with himself. And with the current place time. And university just cannot continue with the baseness. As you will on a quiet camp course. Or a campus Iowa. That is paralyzed by student demonstrations. The challenge

is Haier one aloneness in Tennessee said quote. They keep asking me to give money to a place. That I no longer recognise how sad it is for him her really her in the perplexing period of change and the lashing out on our tempers have been symptomatic only. Of the green. Ills and decadent values in America today. Rebel leaders are saying do as I say but not I do. And as Clark's hair has aptly said. The university has become a prime interest of national purpose. This is a new concept and this is the Western use of the transformation that is now in Gulf an educational institutions across the region are for academic leadership that is attuned to the Times has

become the battle cry of the students. Large numbers of our students who have become defeated disillusioned young people. Are ripe for political agitators and yet many universities continue like the proverbial are stretched with their heads deeply buried in the sand and we can do very little at home to create a good society. As long as a vast proportion of public funds. Is allocated to warfare. The students. Can I thank God for you. Because the students of this era. And the activists have taught a great deal about how it's aged and how it ought to be. They have been in a real sense. Society says faculty over the last few years in America. They have shown that a degree of training can arise from protests.

The hope for America rests on a committed response. You are about students to play roles as mature citizens. All that we do not say America until we accept the believes not in rhetoric but in deeds. In the brotherhood of man I wish good luck to all of us in starting out in the direction is needed for change well before we are forced to change. And remember graduates the challenge to break down barriers which are not humanitarian is raging. And your education has been a failure. A complete failure. If it failed to open your hearts. To all of mankind. What you are is God's gift to you. What. You make of yourselves will be your gift to God. I do me here

today. I do leave here today. May your eye glistened with joy may your hearts be filled with cunt passion. May your minds be filled with concern. May your body be geared towards commitment and your very total being be enhanced. The courage. To put it together. Godspeed on your new journey in the broader world. I see you leave the academic arena. God bless all of you. Congresswoman Shirley twosome speaking to the class of 75 at Smith College on the university as catalyst for change. I am.

I am.