 Good afternoon. I'm Michael Barr, the Joan and Sanford Wildein of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. I am honored today to recognize and celebrate the accomplishments of our outstanding graduates who have earned their bachelor's, master's in public policy, master's in public affairs, and doctoral degrees. Smart engaged people who will be leading our communities for the next half century. Let me start by acknowledging the obvious. This year's celebration is difficult. Marking one of life's great milestones in the midst of a global pandemic is challenging. We are all practicing safe physical distancing and staying at home. We can't exchange high fives or hugs. We can't take group photos with classmates and friends. As I've told our students, we know that today's virtual celebrations are not a substitute for commencement. We promise to find a way to invite our classes of 2020 back to Ann Arbor for a communal celebration in person when we are able. And yet, finishing college, finishing grad school, earning a PhD, those are huge milestones which must be celebrated. And so here we are, graduates, family members, and friends, gathering together from across the country and around the world to celebrate your accomplishments under these extraordinary circumstances. Given today's virtual platform, I'll keep my remarks brief. I've got two points I'd like you to remember. First, I want you, our graduates, to know how proud I am of you. In the fear and sadness and uncertainty of this pandemic, more than anything else, it's been you who have brought me hope. You chose the Ford School because you care about the greater good. You worked hard at the University of Michigan, and you work together. Now you're prepared with the analytic, leadership, and communication skills needed to design, advocate for, and implement good public policy. Policy that can bring lasting and fundamental change. You're leaving Michigan and heading into the world in uncertain times. And yet I know you are resilient and strong. You persevered completing your Ford School degree at the height of a pandemic and helped our community and those in need along the way. The world needs you right now. Our population, our healthcare, and economic systems, our workforce, housing, and national security will all be affected in ways that are yet to be fully seen. The pandemic reminds us that although the virus touches us all, the most significant and direct impact will be on vulnerable people and communities. It's testing leadership at the local, state, federal, and international levels, and it's highlighting the importance of leadership grounded in service, decision making based on empirical evidence and expert judgment, and communicating and acting based on our shared values and shared humanity. I know you are prepared to take on these challenges. My second point is a call to action, a call for you all to get engaged in this election year. The United States is gearing up to exercise one of the most fundamental aspects of democracy. I think it's important to acknowledge that even in a year when we commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, many still face barriers at the ballot box. Passing the 19th Amendment was a hard one victory for women's right to vote, and yet it was just one of many movements before and after to expand voting rights. In 1866, 53 years before the amendment's passage, Francis Ellen Watkins Harper was the only African American woman to address the National Women's Rights Convention in New York. She said, justice is not fulfilled so long as women and us is unequal before the law. We are all bound up together in one great bundle of humanity, and society cannot trample on the weakest and feeblest members without receiving the curse in its own soul. While the 15th Amendment was ratified in 1870, African Americans were unable to exercise this right effectively across the country until the Voting Rights Act passed nearly a century later. And voter suppression, unfortunately, is still alive and well today. President Gerald Ford, for whom our school is named, extended the 1965 Voting Rights Act a decade later and said at the time, The right to vote is at the very foundation of our American system, and nothing must interfere with this precious right. The right to vote for many did not come easy, and it is our duty to exercise that right, to engage in the electoral process, and to continue the fight for these rights today. In closing, let me just say, this crisis has bonded us together forever. I have been moved by your compassion, your power, and your perseverance. You've inspired me every single day. I believe in you, in your capacity, and your conviction, and your preparation to take on the pressing challenges of the day. Graduates, we are proud of you. We look forward to hearing about your future successes. Congratulations and best wishes to the Classes of 2020. And now and forevermore, go blue. Next, we're going to hear from my colleague, Professor John Chachari, who is elected by the graduating students to provide this year's address from the faculty. Thank you, Dean Barr, for all you've done for the school and for the Class of 2020, whom we're so proud to celebrate today. I'm John Chachari, a faculty member here at the Ford School, and I'm honored to share a few remarks as you, the Class of 2020, mark your graduation with family and friends. You're a special class. You arrived at Ford at a time when so many accepted tenets of public policy were under challenge in the United States and around the world. Many of those challenges were valid. From climate change to surging inequality, from insecurity to corruption, public policies had failed a lot of people. Some people have demanded change with revolutionary zeal but diffuse policy prescriptions. Others have tried to turn inward to embrace and organize around exclusive forms of identity. In this divisive period, even the value of even-handed policy analysis, the bread and butter of a program like ours, has come into question. A lesser class than yours might have slid toward apathy or hid in the ivory tower hoping the storm would pass. But you didn't do that. From the day you arrived on campus, you showed empathy, engagement, knowledge, and optimism. Empathy comes first because we can only hope to produce sound policies if we try earnestly to understand what other people experience and what they want and need. Your empathy has shown inside and outside the classroom, like doing field interviews in communities in Detroit, on the US-Mexico border, in Syrian refugee camps, and so many other places. This isn't just about blending the quantitative and qualitative methods we teach you at Ford. It's about empathy. It's about what's in your hearts that drives you to get up and engage in policy even during difficult times. And engage you have dialogues across difference on campus, studying internships around the world, from Morocco to Costa Rica to Colombia to China and many other places. You've worked to share ideas, to understand differences, and to contribute constructively to the conversation. And you've done that with knowledge. That includes things you've learned here at Ford about the history behind policies, the norms, institutions, and actors that shape them, how to assess their impact on real people, and how to advocate for reform. Your knowledge also includes a lot that nobody here had to teach you, like the knowledge that community matters, that investing in people matters, and that fact-based policy analysis matters. And last but not least, you've kept your optimism. Even in the shadow of the current crisis, your conviction that with empathy, engagement, and knowledge, we can make a positive difference. It's been so uplifting to see how you've come together and supported one another, particularly in recent months. And I'm so excited and honored that you'll be going forward as graduates of the Ford School. Many, many congratulations and go blue. You now get to hear from one of your own, representing the BA class, Ashton Smith. Class of 2020, we did it. Congratulations to us for completing another chapter of our lives. Thank you, Professor Chachari, for your words and for your introduction. For those who do not know me, my name is Ashton Smith. I'm graduating with a bachelor's degree in public policy, concentrating in technology policy, and minoring in law, justice, and social change. I'm honored to be the undergraduate student speaker for Ford's Class of 2020, partially because I have the opportunity to speak to you all for an occasion as grand as this, but mainly because I've been recognized by such an amazing group of people. So first, I'd like to emphasize just how impressive Ford School graduates are and recognize how significant an accomplishment it is for all of us to earn our respective degrees. And again, I must recognize that you are receiving your commencement addresses by means of a video. When Professor Lance taught us about the history threat to research designs and program evaluation. I never predicted that 2020 might be one of those outstanding years that would mess with the data. What is happening is historical, which is not totally in common for the four years I've spent at the University of Michigan. Just some of what 2016 to 2020 has experienced includes an extraordinary presidential election, a trade war, the confirmation of a new Supreme Court justice and a pandemic. All alongside what appears to me to be an increase in publicized divisiveness and racial tension. As policy students, these things shape how we perceive and interact with our society. And as policy students, we're encouraged to think about what goes on in the world around us and decide how we will continue to engage in that world. I have hope for our society because I know that the Class of 2020 is full of people that are dedicated to a better future. And going to a top ranked public policy school, we have been equipped with education and skills designed to help us tackle those problems. And from discussions with many of you, I know that many of us want to do that, find our part in positively influencing policy. Our cohort will be remembered by people who have been part of building organizations at U of M that bridge political divides, support mental health and address climate change, just to name a few. And by people who will continue their studies in prestigious scholarship and fellowship opportunities in various parts of the world. And these accomplishments are indicative of the capabilities of our classes as a whole. I'm looking forward to seeing where we will go and what we will do. It is unfortunate that our timeline campus was cut short, and it will feel weird transitioning to the next parts of our lives without that ceremony that we all expected. But when you think back to this time, think about the best times, about the times you went to sporting events, the time you spent with friends, the time you spent interacting with our amazing faculty. Of course, you have to remember the Ford holiday parties. And lastly, always remember, go blue. Once again, congratulations to all will now hear from Aloka Narayanan, the elected graduate student speaker for the Class of 2020. Thank you for your remarks, Ashton. First off, I'd like to thank my dear classmates for trusting in me to speak some parting words. As I sat pensively watching the movie waves last night, which is tremendous and I highly recommend it. I started to think about the traits and actions that led the characters to do what they did. If you've seen this movie, you probably understand why this process is so important. I kept thinking, how did they get there? Look, it's really hard to write a graduation speech, especially in these circumstances, to going to have to throw me a bone here and get inspiration where I can, even from movies. At the risk of sounding trite, the question, how did we get here encapsulates much of the graduate school experience. It's what we wondered on the nights we spent pouring over John Hansen's problem sets in the computer lab past midnight. It's also what we asked ourselves as we snuck out of while on a sunny afternoon to visit Dom's before the last class of the day. And it's the question we pondered with the appropriate level of embarrassment, mind you, as we closed out Rick's on a Saturday night. How did we get here is also the question that we asked when we evaluate a policy problem. The world is asking that question today, as we consider the disproportionate impacts of the pandemic on our most vulnerable, seek to understand the gaps in our social safety net that have exacerbated the crisis, and evaluate the political actions that led to a delayed response to the global challenge. We can consider what could have been if things were different. Our responsibility as future policymakers is to use the answer to that question, not as a gotcha for our current leaders, but to pave a path forward. We're graduating into a challenging atmosphere. There is no sugarcoating it. But that also means that we have an outsized opportunity to steer the international response to one of the greatest challenges that we'll face in our generation. The challenges that we can see clearly now will allow us to rethink and reshape our social, economic and international policy. The question, how did we get here leads us to how can we help. This is what we went to school for. This is what we're ready to do. I have no doubts that one day we too will photo bomb an iconic picture of world leaders in the style of Michael Barr. Just kidding. We'll be the world leaders. So my stroke of inspiration at 2am this morning led to this point. Would it even be graduate school if I didn't procrastinate on writing this last official memo. It has been the utmost pleasure being your colleague, classmate, and serving as your 2019-2020 student affairs committee chair. I trust that you will go on to make positive change in the world and wish you the very best. Go Blue. I want to thank all of our speakers for their inspirational remarks. I encourage all of you to find safe ways to celebrate your accomplishments with family and friends today. And I hope to see you all back in Ann Arbor next spring. Congratulations and once again, Go Blue.