University Convocation: President Simon's Address to Class of 2022

Class of 2022, welcome to Lehigh.

You are about to embark on a wonderful experience at a great institution. You’ve spent the past four days in the capable hands of your orientation leaders, immersed in all things Brown and White. It might feel overwhelming; but believe me when I say, you’ll all be seasoned veterans in no time.

It’s no secret that this is a challenging time in our nation’s history. Universities have an important role to play in times like these; namely, to give voice to the next generation … to enable them to engage around contentious societal issues through peaceful means … and to work toward a more just society and a better world.

You are the next generation of whom I speak. It is your time to find your voice. I realize that not everyone is comfortable or feels equipped to speak up. So I have some pointers for you. I’ll preface this by making an important point that I want you all to remember: At Lehigh, we’ll help you learn how to think; we will never tell you what to think.

With that in mind, I’m going to give you three pieces of advice as you embark on your college experience.

First, anticipate differences of opinion. Aristotle said, “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”

You will routinely come into contact with people who think differently from you – in the classroom, in your residence halls, at social gatherings, off campus in the South Bethlehem community. I’m not just talking about your fellow students; you may find that some of your professors, staff members, local Bethlehem residents, or citizens of countries you choose to study or intern in will have viewpoints that differ from your own. And in these venues, you may hear something that challenges your long-held opinions. Do you think about it, let it bake in your mind, question it, debate it, are you open to the possibility that the other person may be right and you wrong? Do you simply accept it because it sounds cool or because those most close to you agree with it? Do you reject it out of hand because it differs from your own belief? You will encounter many of these moments in college and in life. Only you can decide what you think. And you are here to be educated, so take Aristotle’s quote to heart: “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” Do the necessary due diligence to confirm the validity of an idea or point of view. If you have done your homework, it is easier to discuss and defend your thinking among people of differing viewpoints.

My second piece of advice: Knowledge is the ultimate tool in your toolbox; get as much of it as you can. How can you do this? One way is to read. As eloquently expressed by Mark Twain: “The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.”

Over the past year, I have enjoyed reading Pat Conroy’s novels: Prince of Tides and The Great Santini are my favorites. Conroy is recognized as a leading figure of late-20th century Southern literature. I quote from his novel Beach Music:

“The world of literature has everything in it, and it refuses to leave anything out. I have read like a man on fire my whole life because the genius of English teachers touched me with the dazzling beauty of language. Because of them I rode with Don Quixote and danced with Anna Karenina at a ball in St. Petersburg and lassoed a steer in ‘Lonesome Dove’ and had nightmares about slavery in ‘Beloved’ and walked the streets of Dublin in ‘Ulysses’ and made up a hundred stories in the Arabian nights and saw my mother killed by a baseball in ‘A Prayer for Owen Meany.’ I’ve been in ten thousand cities and have introduced myself to a hundred thousand strangers in my exuberant reading career, all because I listened to my fabulous English teachers and soaked up every single thing those magnificent men and women had to give. I cherish and praise them and thank them for finding me when I was a boy and presenting me with the precious gift of the English language.”

In the words of Owen Wister, who wrote The Virginian (the first critically recognized Western fiction novel): “Forgive my asking you to use your mind. It is a thing which no novelist should expect of his reader...” College is a time for you to acquire knowledge and use your mind. Do both.

My third piece of advice: Approach the challenges and opportunities in your life as an integrative thinker. One of the most interesting “business” books I have read in recent years is The Opposable Mind: How Successful Leaders Win Through Integrative Thinking by Roger Martin, who was dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto when he wrote the book. As an aside, in 2017 Martin was named the world’s #1 management thinker by Thinkers50, a biannual ranking of the most influential global business thinkers.

Martin begins his book by quoting F. Scott Fitzgerald from a 1936 interview Fitzgerald gave to Esquire magazine: “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless yet be determined to make them otherwise.”

In his book, Martin builds on this idea to develop the concept of integrative thinking, the key to which is: “The ability to face constructively the tension of opposing ideas and instead of choosing one at the expense of the other, generate a creative resolution of the tension in the form of a new idea that contains elements of the opposing ideas but is superior to each.”

Let that concept rattle around in your brain – go read the book! You can find it for less than $10 on Amazon; it is a concept you can apply to your education, your career, your life. Martin goes on to say: “Fundamentally, the conventional thinker prefers to accept the world as it is. The integrative thinker welcomes the challenge of shaping the world for the better.” And it all starts by realizing that “it is impossible to begin to learn that which one thinks one already knows.” So approach all your pursuits here with a mind open to learning.

I return to my opening words: Universities give voice to the next generation – that’s you. I urge you all: Speak up and speak out. Question things, offer your ideas, learn from others and let others learn from you. Let your voice be heard.

A final word about this city you will call home for the next four years. Lehigh University is not an island unto itself; we are part of the fabric of South Bethlehem. Our students visit the shops and restaurants, many of them live in town (and many more will when our new SouthSide Commons residence hall is finished next year). Some Lehigh students work on community service projects or tutor local children in afterschool homework clubs. I believe there is no limit to the things we can accomplish when Lehigh University and the City of Bethlehem work together, and I expect you to engage with your community. Now to talk more about this subject, it is my pleasure to welcome my friend and partner, the mayor of Bethlehem, Bob Donchez.