Wayne Danielson's Address
College of Communication Commencement
May 20, 1978
HAVING THE LAST WORD
There is something about this time of year on campus that brings out the "having-the-last-word" syndrome in all of us.
The editor of The Daily Texas and all the columnists wrote their final words to us a couple of weeks ago.
Teachers on the last day of class waxed sentimental or nasty -- depending on their temperaments -- in their traditional way.
This weekend, students can be seen visiting their favorite spots on campus and in town with camera in hand, taking snapshots and saying a final "be seeing you" to friends they won't be seeing for a long time.
Parents, glad that the end of the financial burden of college is in sight, but sad somehow that their emotional authority over their offspring seems to be ending as well, are absolutely full of "last words" they want to say to their children.
"You'll just have to buy a suit," your mother tells you. "You simply can't go to your job interviews in blue jeans and sneakers.
Yes, having the last word is important at this time of year.
You'll even notice that I cleverly arranged the program today so that Jeff Case would go first and I would go second.
But now, given the opportunity, I find it difficult to say those last words I planned. The words are difficult to say because this has been one of our finest senior classes and I am sorry to see these students leave.
These students were the ones who turned the corner from the political and social turbulence of the early Seventies.
They came to us as competent, fair-minded, intelligent, unflappable young people, interested in making the most of their time here and in preparing seriously for their careers to come.
They did what they came to do.
They leave with a record of accomplishment in all their fields -- in advertising, in journalism, in radio-television-film, in speech communication -- that will be remembered for a long time to come.
They leave those of us who will remain here a campus that is a better place than they found it.
So it is perhaps understandable that I find it hard to have the last word with this class.
What I'd like to do instead is to tell you about some of their own last words as discovered this spring when we were doing some planning for a new campus magazine scheduled to come out next fall. Our committee conducted interviews around campus. We asked students what they were interested in, what features they thought should be in the magazine, what photographs, what articles, what advertising. At first, the answers that came back covered such a wide front we couldn't understand them. Then, gradually, as we studied the results and listened to the tape recordings, certain patterns emerged. These patterns, it seems to me, tell us nearly as much about the qualities of these young people themselves as about the magazine they said the campus needed.
The first pattern dealt with the major problems of the day -- energy, conservation, health, the economy, inflation. The students said the magazine, above all, should face the issues, should help students decide what they should do about these problems. The emphasis is important. The students weren't interested so much in creating new issues as in facing those that already exist. They weren't interested so much in simply achieving an intellectual understanding of the issues -- though that was important; they wanted to move in on them, to make decisions about how to solve them. I am convinced that these are young people who can make decisions on issues, who want to make decisions on issues, and who, unless I miss my guess, will make decisions on issues. that's an interesting and significant development.
The second pattern of interests covered such a range of topics it was difficult to see the common element in them. Students said they were interested in articles on how to cook, how to improve their grades, how to cope with stress and anxiety. They were interested in what goes on at the MacDonald Observatory, in new kinds of music, in politics, in art, in the history of the University. What was going on? We couldn't decipher the pattern. Then, suddenly, we understood. The linking factor was self-improvement, that famous goal of all liberal education, the complete man and the complete woman. What we were seeing was a strong drive on the part of the students to keep on learning to keep opening up new fields, to keep adding new accomplishments that would make their lives and the lives of those around them more fulfilling. How satisfying to those of us who teach to think that maybe some of it rubbed off after all. And how satisfying to parents, I suspect, to realize the same thing.
A third pattern of interest that emerged from the interviews dealt with having fun and enjoying people. These students wanted the magazine to tell them where the best clubs were, where good music could be heard, where you could get a good Mexican dinner, how to set up a trip to Europe, or, failing that, how to set up a good bicycle ride around Travis county, interest was strong in all sports activities and a wish was expressed to have lots of stories in the magazine about people -- students and teachers on campus -- not necessarily big wheels, but people who had done interesting things and would be fun to know.
The fourth and final pattern will be of more than passing interest to the parents here today. It centered on being practical, primarily where money is concerned. Students said they were interested in learning where the best auto repair shops were, how to get a good deal in renting an apartment, how to choose a good bank, how to spend money wisely for clothing, in short -- all the good things their folks have been urging them to learn all these weary years.
The more I thought about these major themes the students said they thought should be in a campus magazine, the more I realized what fine last words they were. They constituted a miniature philosophy for living in our time. The first principle says -- determine what the important problems are, study them, and then do something about them; the second says -- keep on learning and growing and developing; run toward life and not away from it; the third says -- don't forget that life was meant to be lived, to be enjoyed. Be sure to stop and admire the roses along the way. Get to know and appreciate the people around you. The final theme says -- temper everything you do with a little practicality, a little of the American spirit that Ben Franklin captured so many years ago in Poor Richard's Almanac when he wrote such pragmatic maxims as ¨A penny saved is a penny earned¨ and ¨Many a mickle makes a muckle."
Yes, the last words today are yours and not mine. I am happy to give them back to you. I think they will serve to make a good magazine for the students coming on and they will serve you well indeed in the years ahead if you remember them and practice them. I hope that you will, for then, surely, you will lead interesting and worthwhile lives.
HAVING THE LAST WORD
They did what they came to do.
