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Congratulations, Class of 2025!

Take a moment and appreciate how far you have come. Five years ago, most of you began your college search at the height of the pandemic. You dealt with things no other age cohort had: Hybrid classes. Virtual interviews and campus tours.

Wondering if you were really about to pick a school, for the most formative years of your life, based on everything you could find on Google and Reddit threads. Choosing based on vibes, as my 14-year-old might say.

Yet at some point in that process, you did choose Dartmouth. 

Because, in large part, you knew Dartmouth stood for something. Because Dartmouth’s values aligned with your own.

Now, as you prepare to leave the Green, it is worth reflecting on those values—whether it’s academic excellence; independence of thought; vigorous and open debate, marked by a community of mutual respect.

These values will continue to ground you, even as things around you change.

You are entering the world in heady times.

A few weeks ago, Dartmouth hosted an event that brought together a proud member of the Dartmouth Class of 1968, Hank Paulson—Treasury Secretary under Bush—and Jake Sullivan, National Security Advisor under Biden.

They spoke about the challenges of this moment in our country, our geopolitics. They had lively dialogue on the issues, not agreeing on everything.

Yet they did agree on something they considered essential to leadership, no matter your career path.

It had nothing to do with policy, or ideology, or being an expert in a given field.

It was knowing how to distinguish between values and opinions.

How to root yourself in the principles that will define you, the values that you can return to for the rest of your life, while having the courage to constantly question and change your opinions. To be open and brave enough to reshape them in the face of new information, good arguments, and hearing different points of view.

I cannot think of a better articulation of what Dartmouth has prepared you to do.

Other organizations may exist to make money, or serve political causes, or be the outlets for certain views.

We exist to educate. To teach you how to think, not what to think.

To help you become independent voices in the wilderness—in the spirit of our motto, Vox clamantis in deserto. The world desperately needs this right now.

Some of you in your psychology or cognitive science courses have studied Solomon Asch—a pioneer in the field of social psychology.

In the 1950s, he conducted a series of experiments that showed how easy it was to quash differences of opinion. He brought groups of college students together to take a simple perceptual test with two answers: one right, one wrong. Only everyone in the room was an actor, instructed to say the wrong answer, except for one unsuspecting student who went last.

Three-quarters of those unsuspecting students went along with what they knew to be the wrong answer — the one the majority had given. When asked why, they gave the reasons you might expect: A fear of ridicule. Peer pressure that led them to doubt their own knowledge. Conformity won.

Yet when Asch re-ran the study differently—if even one other actor dissented first—the real student was far more likely to select the right answer; the one they actually believed to be true.

We are in a moment when the conformity and groupthink that Asch studied are everywhere.

A recent Gallup survey shows we are living through the most polarized moment since the Civil War. Every tweet pulls us further into our bubbles, away from the in-person conversations and debate that are necessary to see each other as human beings.

And yet for the past several years, you have had the great gift of being in the one place where people still come together to challenge each other, engage in civil debate, create knowledge, and move difficult issues forward. You are at an institution that highlights this vigorous and open debate as a core value.

You have been surrounded by diverse perspectives.

You have learned from our brilliant faculty how to entertain two competing ideas at the same time.

You have been challenged, had your opinions questioned, learned to stand on your own—and, in the process, you have grown.

Wherever your life and career take you, I urge you to bring those values into the world.

It can be challenging, even painful, to engage with someone who questions your deeply-held opinion, or your purpose. Do so anyway.

Take it from me: A few weeks ago I woke up to a headline in The Atlantic, in massive capital letters, that read: The Worst Job in America, which from then went on, for about 1,000 words, to literally describe the job that seven other people and I have: Ivy League university president.

A big thank you to my mom for texting me that article, by the way!

It can be difficult, as Sandra said, to live with discomfort—to have the hard conversations, and stand up for your values while acknowledging your blind spots. Do so anyway.

It can be frightening to lead; to stand alone as the independent voices, when everyone else has chosen the same answer. Do so anyway.

Dartmouth has given you these skills, and rooted you in these values.

As some question our mission and the very idea of higher education—and others, sometimes within higher education itself, forcefully argue that we have nothing to change or improve on, the best way to advocate for what you have experienced here, and push our institutions to continue to improve, is to put these skills, rooted in your values, to use every single day.

Embrace different perspectives and opinions. But always come back to your values. Seek out knowledge. Lean on your classmates, your professors, our incredible staff—the same people in your lives who have made this journey possible. And always, always remember: Your Dartmouth community and family, driven by our core values, are here for you. Congratulations.