 Welcome everyone. Those of you who are still standing, please have a seat. It's great to see everybody here. Welcome. I'm Michael Barr. I'm the Joan and Sanford Wildein of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. It was a real pleasure to see many of you yesterday at our open house, at the Rackham Graduate ceremonies, or this morning at the Big House. And it's my honor to welcome you here this afternoon. On behalf of the entire Ford School community for our 2019 commencement ceremony, I'm going to begin by briefly introducing the members of the platform party up here with me today with more to say about our speakers later. With me on stage is our keynote commencement speaker, distinguished journalist, Michelle Norris. We're so honored to have Michelle with us this evening, this afternoon, and look forward to her remarks. We're honored too to be joined by Regent of the University of Michigan, Ambassador Ron Weiser. Regent Weiser is a leader in business, philanthropy, and politics. He and his wife, Eileen, have been incredibly generous friends to the University of Michigan and to the Ford School in particular. Ron, we're really thankful to have you here this afternoon. I'm delighted to welcome another longtime University of Michigan leader, Rob Sellers. Rob is the Vice Provost for Equity and Inclusion and the Charles D. Moody Collegiate Professor of Psychology and Education. Thank you, Rob, thank you so much for being here and also for representing the University of Michigan leadership. I'm pleased to be joined as well by a number of my faculty colleagues. At stage right is Elizabeth Gerber, our Associate Dean for Research and Policy Engagement. Next to Liz is Ford School Professor, John Chichari. John directs our new Weiser Diplomacy Center and our International Policy Center and he's gonna be reading names of our graduates as they cross the stage. You'll see he's very good at that. On my left, we have Sharon Messini, who is the Director of our undergraduate programs, Professor Brian Jacob, who's representing the leadership of our PhD program and our Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Director of our Master's programs, Professor Paula Lance. As you may be able to tell from the applause, Paula is also the elected speaker from the students on behalf of the faculty. Finally, elected by their classmates to provide the student commencement addresses are soon-to-be Ford MPP graduate, Jose Javier Lujano and our BA soon-to-be graduate. Oh, I guess as of this morning, is now a graduate. That's what the President University said. Jareen Fish. We are gathered this afternoon to recognize and celebrate the accomplishment of 166 outstanding students. Smart, driven, don't cry yet. You're supposed to cry at the end. Smart, driven, public-minded people who will be leading our communities in the next half century. I have the honor of talking about these students, what they've learned here, what they've brought to us, what they've learned, what we've learned from them and a little bit about what we know about what they're gonna do next. Let me start by sharing our school's mission statement, what our faculty and students and staff believe and do. The Ford School at the University of Michigan is a community dedicated to the public good. We inspire and prepare diverse leaders grounded in service, conduct transformational research and collaborate on evidence-based policymaking to take on our communities and our world's most pressing challenges. Yes, we do. Yes, we do. Our world indeed faces a time of truly daunting challenges. Outside this auditorium, spring has finally arrived just in time. Campus is full of flowers and buds and happy faces celebrating accomplishments and that is as it should be. But we are a community steeped in policy and politics and so we know that our world indeed faces many daunting challenges. Here in the US and around the world, the democratic institutions and global norms that we've relied on to build a better world are in many ways under attack. From xenophobia, racism, anti-Semitism, from leaders who have no respect for democracy or fear it, from corruption and skyrocketing inequality. The post-war global order, the rules-based international system, our commitment to fight bigotry, our dedication to the civil rights tradition, to embrace difference. Our openness, our vitality, our shared values emerging from the wreckage of World War II are in many ways all at risk. Graduates, none of this is new to you. It's why you came to the Ford School to take responsibility for the times in which you live. You've inspired me every single day of the past two years with your energy, your passion, your empathy and creativity. I believe in you. I believe in your capacity and your conviction and your preparation to take on these pressing challenges. Our school is named for one of the University of Michigan's most distinguished graduates, the 38th President of the United States, Gerald Ford. In 1975, as the Vietnam War ground to an end, President Ford faced a refugee crisis and he rose to the challenge. Many in South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia had been allies of the United States and they sought asylum here in this country. We were, in some large measure, responsible for the conditions they fled. Ford created an interagency task force that managed the resettlement of more than 100,000 refugees in a tight window of time because he believed it was the right thing to do. Coming on the heels of a devastating, deeply divisive war, Ford's efforts to help refugees were not popular with the public, nor with Democrats, nor with Republicans in the Congress, nor with many in state houses around the country. But he pressed his case, just nonetheless. It just burns me up, these great humanitarians. President Ford was quoted as saying of those opposed to opening America's doors. They just want to turn their backs, he said. We didn't do it to the Hungarians, we didn't do it to the Cubans, and damn it, we're not gonna do it now. Today, issues of immigration and asylum of building walls or building bridges are all too relevant once again, and they will be among the top issues today's graduates will face leading on in the years and decades to come. There are an estimated 25 million refugees around the world, and more than half are under the age of 18. Border policy, immigration policy, asylum policy, those are all in part political issues. There's room for plenty of reasonable disagreement about particular policies. What are the right number of people to admit, and what for what reasons, for example? The burdens and the benefits that new immigrants bring to our communities, the role that principled foreign policy can or cannot play in supporting just and stable governments and societies around the world. These are all valid policy debates. But here are three principles that I believe should guide us. First, a fundamental recognition of the humanity of each and every human being. Second, that those of us who live in places of relative safety and security should feel a profound sense of gratitude to our country and responsibility for those less fortunate. And third, that our differences make us strong. Our differences make us strong. You can see it right here in the Ford School community. We're a stronger, wiser, more caring community because of our differences, because of the unique contributions of every single member of our community. Members of our classes of 2019 hail from over 20 countries. They speak dozens of languages. They include a graduate, a dreamer, who earlier today gave a truly beautiful speech at the university's graduation in the Big House, declaring herself, quote, undocumented and unafraid. They include in our community descendants of enslaved people, whose brutal journeys to America cry out for justice, whose unpaid labor built this country, whose sacrifices and injustices and indignities day after day and decade after decade have worn on and without recompense. They include Midwesterners, Southerners, Red Staters and Blue Staters, Rural and Urban, Citizen and Non-Citizen, Black and White and Brown and every shade of the human condition. Students who worked in the White House for President Trump and a student who is the Easter Bunny for President Obama's egg roll on the White House lawn. Our Ford School community includes a senior member of our faculty who led and built this school for many years, the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica, a beloved teacher who emigrated from Cape Town, South Africa, a staff leader whose parents came to the US fleeing religious discrimination in the Middle East, a faculty member whose research demonstrated a huge positive impact refugees have right here in our community in Southeast Michigan. Myself, whose grandparents fled the rising tide of anti-Semitism in Poland in the 1930s, coming first to Israel and then to the United States with my father after World War II on a boat filled with oranges and old merchant marine to the port of New Orleans. And so many more of our faculty, students and staff all contributing to our strength. Our differences make us strong. Immigrants and children of immigrants make America stronger with their talents and drive. They bring us friends in far places. They help us understand and succeed in those far places when we negotiate and trade. Among the Vietnamese refugees that President Ford welcomed to the United States in 1975 were more than 3,000 orphans evacuated from Saigon as a major North Vietnamese military offensive approached that city. In April of that year, Gerald and Betty Ford traveled to California to meet one of the cargo planes filled with those young children and babies. President Ford entered the plane and carried the first baby off himself. There's a photograph of him sitting on a bus headed toward the hangar. He's cradling one of the Vietnamese babies in his arms, bottle feeding the orphan. President Ford was leading. He was using his power, the power of his office to show the capacity for American leadership and generosity and humanity. He took responsibility. Students, it gives me great inspiration and hope to know that soon you, you will be the ones out there leading and that you'll lead like Gerald Ford. With compassion and heart, with analytics, yes, with empirics, yes, but driven by our shared generous understanding of the human condition. How have we prepared our graduates for that? Let me tell you a little bit about our curriculum. For both our graduate and undergraduate students, we start with a shared understanding of and belief in facts. And today's graduates have learned to analyze complicated data sets, to think analytically, to evaluate benefits and costs. They know their stuff. That's a strong foundation to build on. We stress communication skills and so they learn to speak and write clearly. And we've taught leadership. Our graduates have been taught to listen and to talk and to think critically, ethically and compassionately. And let me tell you a little bit more at this point about our world-class faculty and our outstanding staff who have worked so closely with our graduates these past two years. Our faculty hold joint appointments all over campus in politics and political science and sociology and economics and in so many more disciplines and departments around the school, around the university. Their expertise is both broad and deep. They're thoughtful, enthusiastic teachers and mentors. They're doing cutting-edge research and they're actively engaged with critically important public policy challenges here in our community, across the nation and around the world. The Ford School's professional staff are a source of the school's strength at will. Our terrific staff team recruited, they counseled and they supported today's graduates. Let me ask all Ford School faculty and staff now to stand and please join me in thanking them for all that they do. There are others who deserve thanks and recognition and that's all of you in the audience and family and friends who are watching online. You've raised these students to care about what matters. You've nurtured them, counseled them and consoled them. They wouldn't be here without you. Graduates, please take this chance to thank your loved ones for their support over the years. Today, 91 of our students have earned a master's degree. They hail from 10 different countries and speak 23 different languages. A third have earned dual masters with other schools, the law school, public health, social work, the school of information, engineering, the business school and many more. They include the chair of the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners of RC athlete and captain in the US Army. For those of you who have seen their class photo, I feel like I might need to explain that they do not actually include a walking bagel. Members of this group led a fantastic course and study trip to Morocco. They led a successful charity auction to raise funds for a youth program in Detroit and afterwards led a rousing sing-along on a bus back to the pretzel. They've been intentional about their education and their career preparation. They've led by action by putting their heads down and getting to work. This group also overcame a lot of personal adversity and through it all, they took care of each other. Let me tell you now a bit about the 72 students who have earned a Bachelor of Arts in public policy. They are a very smart, very enthusiastic group. They've been part of one of the university's finest liberal arts traditions. In small classes with Michigan's top faculty are BA curriculum-trained students to think critically and across disciplines to understand policy challenges and to develop solutions. Today's BA graduates include 17 Phi Beta Kappas and 18 Angel Scholars. They include a student chosen to speak, as I've said, at the university's honors convocation last month, another who spoke this morning at the university's commencement ceremony in the big house and you'll hear more from our BA students in just a moment. They write for the Michigan Daily and the Detroit Free Press, led campus-wide student government, ran track, participated in ROTC and the marching band and advocated passionately for the causes they believe in. They helped Ann Arbor massively improve student voter turnout during last fall's election. These students have improved our school and the university, but what's truly remarkable to me is that somehow they've managed to do all that without ever once checking their email. It's pretty stunning. We celebrate as well two students who have earned PhDs, one in public policy and sociology and the other in public policy and economics. Those are pioneering programs for students who want to pursue research careers in a traditional social science discipline and who see themselves as deeply committed to the study and improvement of public policy. Taken together, the classes of 2019 are serious students, hard workers and dedicated leaders. Graduates, you are amazing. But let me give you five tips to help you on the path from here. The first I've said already, lead like Gerald Ford, find your passion, take unpopular stands when you know they're right, take responsibility. Number two, work hard, really hard, really, really, really hard. Anything worth doing requires an enormous amount of hard work. Number three, don't be a jerk. That might seem like one of these norms we've lost, but it's not, and I really implore you to be kind to your colleagues and friends. Number four, empower yourself. You can do anything. Don't talk yourself down, talk yourself up. We're facing enormous challenges and you can make the difference. Lastly, in number five, love your team. You can't do it alone, but you don't have to. Build a team around you that will help you solve our most pressing challenges together. As your time at Michigan draws to a close, I know you're thinking a lot about your team, about the classmates you've worked and studied and become lifelong friends with. You're excited, yes, about new challenges, new cities, but I know you'll miss a lot of things about your days here in Ann Arbor. At the very least, Dominic's, Rick's, Skeeps, Charlie's, you'll miss Calculus with Carl Simon, Statistics with John Hansen, you'll miss the patient ear of Corey Stark and the watchful guide of our Writing Center team and so many other beloved teachers and mentors. You won't miss the stressful hours, perhaps in the computer lab or debating endlessly about whether to provide forks in the student lounge, but you might miss naps in the reading room, the excitement of exploding water pipes in the Great Hall or the occasional windshield day off. Of course, for most of you, you'll miss each other most. Next year, your friends and classmates may not be just down the street, but I promise you that the ties you've made here, ties forged in mutual purpose and hard work, as well as in fun, will endure and will help sustain and propel you. Graduates, we are proud of you and we're all going to miss you. Congratulations and best wishes to the classes of 2019. Go Blue.