 I would like to welcome all of you to our virtual convocation celebration, and I would like to especially welcome all of the graduates from the Masters in Library and Information Science program, the graduates from our Masters in Archives and Records Administration program, and the graduates from our MS in Informatics degree program. Now earning a master's degree at any time is always a great feat, but my goodness, earning a master's degree during a global pandemic is an absolutely wonderful feat. It shows tremendous strength of character and individual grit and resolve to keep going day after day, moving forward one foot after the other while the world dissolves around you. And it will greatly enrich that individual strength of character that you have shown and the individual resolve that you have shown will greatly enrich the professions that you will enter or perhaps are entering and perhaps have already entered. Whether you are working as a team member or solo, you're going to have a tremendous amount to contribute. And I think if convocations have a theme, perhaps the theme for this one is the importance of that individual contribution and strength of character that you have shown and will continue to show as you move into your various work environments. And I'm hoping to introduce to you today some individuals who have shown that tremendous individual leadership as they have been involved in your success and also in the success of our school. Now I must admit that when I think of the importance of the individual, I always have a small smile because I think of a really good friend of mine who I went to university with, my goodness, years and years and years ago. And she went on to work in administration and education in the Republic of Ireland. And she was asked to be a convocation speaker. This was an onsite convocation. She's a passionate believer in the important contribution that individuals can make. So this was to be her theme. And as she got up to speak on the platform, she began to get cold feet because she looked down into the room and it was all a bit blurry, of course, because they had lights and various things shining in her eyes. But in front of her were about 800 people and they were all dressed in strange little black robes and strange little hats, funny little hats and weird little tassels. And they all looked absolutely identical. So she began to wonder if her speech about the importance of individualism was going to work. But then her mind drifted to the wonderful book by Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale, where all of the handmaids, of course, were identical and the Republic of Gilead. But she struggled on with her presentation that while groupthink and teamwork are very important, it is the individual that often makes change. And I think that's an important theme and thought for all of you to take with you today. And the first individuals that I'd like to move to who have enabled change and made change for all of us are people who work in our college. Now, as you probably know, academic units in universities are all grouped into colleges. And we are in the College of Professional and Global Education, Education, which we know as CPGE. And we have our two associate deans with us today. And I want to thank them for all the work that they do. Sandy Hirsch, who is the associate dean for academics, and Nami Shukla, who is the associate dean of operations and the lady who handles all things money. But the individual who really makes the change in the college is our dean. And we're very lucky with our dean. She is a woman of high energy and tremendous accomplishments and someone who is very invested in student success and keeps very close eyes on trends in the workplace, making sure that everything is current and up to date. And she understands and looks at changes that are happening in higher education. And not least, she is wonderful at helping us deal with the horrors of the bureaucracy that inevitably happen in a system as large as the California State University system. And she's a woman with great sense of humor. She has rather famously compared PG&E, for those of you not in California, PG&E is the Pacific Gas and Electric Utility whose faulty equipment was considered to have contributed to the fires that we suffered from rather badly in California last year. So she's contrasted those with her college, the College of Professional and Global Education, CPGE, and very famously pointed out that PG&E started fires and her college put them out. And we're delighted to have her here today. And I know she's happy to come and celebrate with us today. So I would like to pass over to Dean Ruth Hoard. Thank you, Director Linda Main. You have been an outstanding leader for the School of Information and it is no wonder that we have amazing programs with highly accomplished students and graduates. Now, Class of 2021, a warm congratulations on the culmination of your graduate and professional degrees. To the 682 graduates today, you have demonstrated your resourcefulness and your resilience by completing a demanding course of study in the midst of a global crisis. We are so impressed with your calm determination and commitment to finishing what you have started. This is a remarkable achievement, as Director Linda Main had said, especially in light of the challenges we have all faced this past year. Through the School of Information, you have been exposed to experiences, ideas, and knowledge that have prepared you quite well. You have chosen a vital and innovative 21st Century discipline and profession. You understand how critical information is addressing some of the world's most pressing problems like this pandemic. You understand that a human-centric approach to data and information is essential, especially in these times when millions and millions of data points are being presented every second of the day. You are deeply aware that there are people, humans, behind all this information, and that lives, organizations, and communities are impacted by your analysis, the applications you create, and the solutions you implement. As graduates of this specific School of Information, you are coming from a position of tremendous strength and experience. You know how to remain relevant and connected in this digital age. This is so valuable in these times where virtual interactions became a necessity. You have mastered fostering strong relationships at a distance, and you can effectively collaborate and engage across geographical boundaries, time differences, and cultures. This ability to create community, especially in this environment of social distancing, is needed now more than ever. Graduates, today as we celebrate you, reflect on your accomplishments and take great pride in your growth and your achievements. Keep this feeling close always, and know that our hearts too are filled with tremendous pride and confidence in each of you. You, or graduates, are exactly what our local and global communities need now and well into the future. Congratulations once again, and cheers to all of you. Now our next speaker is representing all of the students, and although she is from the MLIS program, she is speaking on behalf of all of you. She has a 4.0 GPA, and I don't think there's a multimedia tool that Samantha doesn't know how to work or handle. And she's not only done incredibly well in all of her studies and all of her classes, but she's taken a great leadership role in the school and been highly involved with all of our student associations. But her great love, her great passion, is for the environment and for sustainability, and for environmental studies and environmental science. She has been very active with the Wildlife Conservation Society, the Dallas Zoo, the National Park Service, and she is an annual report designer for Ecologic. In her spare time, goodness knows when she has any, she likes to go bird watching and be involved with species conservation in her home area of Las Vegas. And we're really very pleased to have her here today. And she's heading off to John Hopkins, where she's going to be studying environmental sciences on her way to being an environmental science librarian. And we'd like to hear from you, Samantha, and welcome. Thank you for the generous introduction, Dr. Main. I like to begin by extending a special thank you to the School of Information's administration and faculty who offer their support at every step of my academic journey. To be selected as this year's recipient of the Ken Haycock Award is a great privilege. And I'm honored to have been chosen among so many talented peers. Thank you, Dr. Haycock for making this award possible. To my parents, friends, and partner, I'm grateful to each of you for your endless support and unconditional love. It is because of your encouragement, advice, and care that so many of my dreams have been realized. Here at the iSchool, students are taught to juggle multiple considerations when offering services to our future customers. From emerging technologies to racial equity and accessibility, there are many ideas that should be at the forefront of our minds when we create programs or design information systems. Today, I'd like to kindly ask each of you to add one more thought to that list. Sustainability. When we are shelving books or organizing records, I admit that it is easy to get lost in the minutiae of our everyday tasks. Sometimes it even feels like we are already being pulled in too many directions to be able to focus on anything else. We've climate changed to the politicians, you might say. We don't have a role to play in this crisis. But if you believe, like I do, that libraries, archives, and other information centers make the world a better place, then it's time we stop being passive. The most important thing I've learned from the iSchool is that we are more than just gatekeepers of information. We are conveners who gather the community and catalysts who inspire change. We are the ones who kept the doors open when Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Sandy hit, when Ferguson, Missouri was in civil unrest, and most recently when COVID-19 struck. It's true that we information professionals have unique roles in our towns, schools, and businesses, and we need to leverage them if we're going to challenge our communities to think differently about the future. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, if we stick to our current habits, we are headed for a six and a half degree Fahrenheit increase in global temperatures in 80 years. If a three and a half degree increase is predicted to slash fish populations by half, cut corn production by half, and cause a two inch rise in sea levels, we should all shudder to think what six and a half degrees would do during our children and grandchildren's generations. Don't let this be the story of our planet. Whether you want the responsibility or not, you have a say in how this story will unfold. To my fellow graduates, I challenge you to integrate sustainability into the next chapter of your lives as librarians, registrars, or data analysts. Don't let the enormity of this crisis deter you. Don't let the lack of funds discourage you, and don't let your other duties distract you. Never underestimate the power you hold as an information professional, or hesitate to use your potential for good. After all, the planet is counting on you, the class of 2021, to take meaningful, urgent action before it's too late. Thank you and congratulations graduates. Thank you very much, Samantha, and clearly a very important individual theme that you have presented to us. Now, typically in a virtual convocation celebration, or indeed in any convocation celebration, we would have a graduation speaker, but today we have two graduation speakers. Because not only are you all leaving us to go on to, we hope, wonderful things, but we are also losing two individuals from our group who have played a very important role in our school and in your education. And they are both retiring next week. So we thought it would be really wonderful to have them speak to you today. The first one is Dr. Pat Franks. Now, what can we say about Pat? People think of her in terms of free ease, energy, enthusiasm, and expertise. Now, for the Mara students, Mara graduates are with us today. Pat, of course, is the coordinator of the masters in archives and records administration program. And she's taken that program to great heights and modernized it and made it a very successful program. But MLIS students, Pat has also taught in the MLIS program. And informatics students, not to be left out, you don't know this, but Pat was also involved with some of the development of the informatics program and the development of some of the classes. So an individual who's touched all of you. As part of the Mara program, Pat made tremendous connections and affiliated it with the Institute for Certified Records Managers and the Academy of Certified Archivists. She has written six books, one of which the Records and Information Management has gone into a second edition and is a textbook. She has written more papers than I can imagine. And she has attended 50 conferences all around the world giving presentations. And she's been invited 43 times to give guest lectures many times at other schools of information. And in addition, Pat loves to be in virtual worlds. And I believe and I believe can be seen in second life in various individual and different costumes and avatars. So I'm very much looking forward to hearing from her today. And we'll pass over to Dr. Pat Franks. Thank you very much, Linda, for that wonderful introduction. It's my honor to address the members of this incredible graduating class to whom I offer my sincerest congratulations. Although I can't see your faces, I'm sure they reflect pride in a job well done and a bit of relief as well that part of your journey is over. In preparing for today's talk I did, as would be expected of any information professional, conduct research into the qualities graduates would appreciate in a commencement address. Not surprisingly, brevity was at the top of the list. So sorry to disappoint you. Although it might be a memorable speech if I stopped right now, I can't pass up the opportunity to brag a little bit about all of you. The next few minutes will be used to share with you, the graduates. And more importantly, your family's friends and current and potential employers. My reflections not only on the knowledge and skills you have acquired while at SJSU's iSchool and the personal qualities that you possess that have contributed to our successful learning community, but also how the time you spent here has better prepared you for the positions you hold today and those you aspire to in the future. Each of the programs within the iSchool is designed to enable students to master specific core competencies, also known as program learning outcomes. With the exception of a very few students each year who receive permission to complete a thesis or an organizational consulting project, iSchool students complete an electronic portfolio to prove they understand these core competencies can provide evidence that they have mastered them and are able to explain how they will apply those competencies at work now or in the future. As all of you well know, having just completed your e-portfolios, this is no easy task. Examples of the core competencies this year's graduates have mastered include evaluating current and emerging information and communication technologies, demonstrating an understanding of quantitative and qualitative research methods and designing a research project, identifying the standards and principles endorsed and utilized by information professionals, applying fundamental management theories and principles to the administration of data, archives, information, and records programs, and describing global perspectives on effective information practices that are supportive of our cultural, economic, and social well-being. In addition to acquiring a common core of knowledge, you were expected to demonstrate you have acquired skills and demand by employers. These differ according to the career path each of you has chosen. For example, those pursuing positions in archives and records administration are expected to have an ability to work with various metadata schemas, including Dublin core and encoded archival description, and have hands-on experience with software such as Microsoft 365, SharePoint, Preservica, and Adobe's Creative Suite. Those pursuing positions in data management, analysis, and preservation are expected to be able to work with programming languages such as Python and JavaScript, use statistical software such as SPSS and SAS, and have experience with open repository software such as Dataverse and dSpace. Those preparing for positions in web services, user experience, and social media are expected to understand usability best practices, information architecture, and interaction experience design principles, and have hands-on experience with technologies including HTML, BHP, CMS Drupal, web APIs, and global analytics, just to name a few. Those pursuing positions in public libraries must be familiar with current library technologies including automation, statistical analysis, digital lending, and digital services, and all of you are expected to understand the application of emerging technology such as blockchain distributed ledger technology, machine learning, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence to programs and practices in your chosen fields. There is one core competency, though, that cuts across all programs within the iSchool. It is professional ethics, values, and principles. As information professionals, you will be guided by ethical codes approved by the professional organizations with which you most closely identify. Adhering to professional ethical codes will enable you to perform your duties with integrity, honesty, loyalty, fairness, objectivity, confidentiality, and professional competence. At the same time, you will be working in a constantly changing world, and you can influence its direction by being proactive and engaged in your profession. Apply your critical thinking skills to solve some of the most pressing challenges confronting us today, such as facilitating inclusivity and diversity, and ensuring privacy and security. I have also observed through personal interactions with many of you, the soft skills that show up in some form in nearly every job listing I've seen over the years, organizational skills, ability to multitask, interpersonal oral and written skills, and attention to detail. And those of you who have succeeded in completing group projects nor the value of collaboration, teamwork, even negotiation and compromise, such as when setting a Zoom meeting for team members living across six time zones, yes I said six, the continuous U.S. and Canada plus Alaska and Hawaii, seven if we add the outer reaches of Canada, and this doesn't even include the challenges some of you faced when traveling outside of the United States and Canada. Two of the most important qualities exhibited by you this past year were flexibility and the willingness to embrace change. As a result of the pandemic, some of you assumed extra responsibilities at work, such as assisting your colleagues, adapt to remote environments. Others took advantage of the opportunity to move projects that had been on the back burner to the forefront as normal operations were suspended. Others assisted the organization in implementing new technologies and practices to continue critical business operations. A large number of you became not only students, but also teachers for your own children, suddenly studying from home. And still others contended with illness, yourselves or the illness and sadly even the loss of a family member or friend. All the while remaining positive and with a can do attitude and demonstrating academic excellence. What has the SJSU experience done to prepare you for the jobs of today and tomorrow? We can all agree employers are looking for both hard and soft skills and those you possess in abundance. But this past year the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated changes in how and where we work. Many organizations have been forced to recognize the gap between the skills their employees have and the skills they need for jobs in this increasingly digital world. You, the members of the class of 2021 possess these skills. During your time in the school of information you have laid a solid foundation on which to build your professional lives. The rest is up to each one of you. You can do great work if you love what you do, so don't settle for less. But don't put your lives on hold until that ideal position presents itself. Education doesn't stop after you graduate. Continue to learn and grow. Take advantage of professional development opportunities, earn a new certification, build your professional networks and keep your eyes open for new opportunities. As Eric Schmidt, one time CEO of Google remarked, if you're offered a seat on a rocket ship don't ask what seat, just get on. Each one of you has purchased your ticket, your diploma. Now go out into the world, find your rocket ship and use your ticket. Congratulations everyone. Thanks so much Pat. It was really, really very relevant and very enjoyable and the good news not for all of our graduates today who are leaving us but for our school is that we're hoping you'll get a little bored and that you will come back in another semester perhaps as a part-time faculty member and teach for us. I will definitely do that and for all of my students please keep in touch. I still have my email and I'd love to hear from you. That's great and congratulations on being made Professor Emerita. Thank you. By the university. Now our next graduation speaker is our director for online learning. Still for another week she's our director for online learning and Debbie fares has touched your lives all of you in so many ways that you probably don't even realize. Debbie was actually involved with one of the very early grants that were awarded in early years of 2000. Looking at the feasibility at that time of perhaps delivering online education and seeing if it was even a possibility. And then fast forward to 2009 when Debbie as our director for online learning moved school into being 100% online and all of our materials being delivered online. She completely built our online program. She developed so many of our online classes and just led the way forward and we're really very sorry to see her retire. So many things to say about Debbie. She of course built and developed our onboarding Info 203 class which all of our MLIS students have to take. But Mara and Informatics again we're not leaving you out because Debbie also developed the self-paced technology class in Canvas that you all led. She's developed our peer mentor program. She's worked with various web conferencing and developed a wonderful set of materials to help students meetups and to help students get together. But she's taken her expertise even beyond that. She's been involved in many grants and helped with onboarding for a big grant project in Pakistan and a grant project in Vietnam working with social workers. And she's been involved in Sacramento with the California State Library with a large open data community information program. And she has always kept close to her heart her local community college and remained on the advisory board for the Diablo Valley College helping them move forward with all of their programs. She's gone to conferences and presented but I think the one thing that I think epitomizes this individual approach from Debbie is when we won the online learning consortium award. The online learning consortium is a group of people who give awards for very good stellar online programs and not just for schools of information but for people delivering online programs in all kinds of disciplines. And we decided that we wanted to try for this award as director for online learning. Debbie was writing up all the material but she had to make a trip back home to her for family reasons to Utah. So she and her husband got in the car and I hope he was driving but they set off with Debbie working on her laptop left the Bay Area they drove up over the Sierra Nevadas down through Reno and then right on through the hot flat sort of shimmering Nevada desert Debbie typing on the car and on the way they stopped at McDonald's leapfrogging from one McDonald's to the next not because they were having quarter pounders or Big Macs but because she was using the internet and so she would go in there and then she would upload documents to the server so other people could give input and ultimately submit the award and we won the award. It always has been a story that epitomizes to me the individual strength of character and leadership that Debbie shown. I think that there is not a problem that Debbie cannot solve. There is not a project she cannot manage and there is not a crisis she cannot work through and I'm delighted now to pass over to her and hear what she has to tell us Debbie. Oh thank you so much Dr. Maine you have been very generous in what you've said and in every project every accomplishment I've just been working shoulder to shoulder elbow to elbow with wonderful colleagues and certainly none of it was me alone what a wonderful experience I've had with the school and through my career. Graduates congratulations I am so pleased for you we all celebrate your great accomplishment this is a milestone day for you and you will always measure a portion of your life by this event and by this year. This day marks a major change in your life and I can promise you that no matter what your circumstances are change or at least opportunities for change will continue to come. Change is one of the things we can count on in life it can be intimidating it can cause you to worry but I encourage you to welcome it and keep looking for how you can be flexible and innovative and brave enough to grab those opportunities for transformation. As you move ahead in your careers you can be the change agents that help organizations to remain nimble and fresh and ready to better meet the needs of those that they serve. San Jose State and the iSchool in particular have a strong history of this ability to manage change with a pioneering and independent spirit that is the title of a book by Deborah Hansen professor emerita of the school and in that book she details the history of our school i'd like to share a few highlights did you know san jose state began as the california state normal school which opened 150 years ago next month it was june of 1871 when that school opened seven years later in 1878 the predecessor of our school of information began as the department of librarianship the program offered three degrees at that time two of which were undergraduate and the other one was a one-year postgraduate program through the years the programs have changed to meet the changing environment and today the school celebrates graduates from the three programs that have been mentioned the masters in archives and records administration masters in informatics and the masters of library and information science in the early years of our school there were of course academic prerequisites would it surprise you to know that as early as 1928 there was also a technology requirement for admission can you guess what it was it was the ability to type right accurately and as for fees at that time admitted students paid three dollars per class over the next 50 years the department implemented several changes to help students access the education they needed an innovative self-supporting summer program was developed short-term institutes and off-site courses were initiated and the school also introduced new uses of technology to support learning in the late 1950s a closed circuit television link provided opportunities for real-time observation of on-site storytelling and library instruction sessions at the time sjsu's librarianship department was the only one in the country offering this type of use of technology but each wave of change brought uncertainty challenge and often criticism this is true in our own lives too a master's degree program was developed in 1954 even that step had been controversial for several decades but by 1969 the department was the largest master's degree program at sjsu technology development continued to be a priority in the 70s numerous computing classes were introduced into the curriculum in the 80s faculty members with expertise in information systems were hired including linda main in the late 80s classes were offered not only on the sjsu campus but also in a number of other locations around central and northern california and then a major distance education hub for the program was established on the folton campus in southern california again the school faced concerns about the prospects of providing a quality education experience at a distance however the commitment was made administrative hurdles were overcome and the program was enthusiastically embraced in southern california and declared a great success it exceeded all expectations in the 90s the school installed a high-end interactive two-way video system that linked classrooms in various locations in california this allowed an instructor to simultaneously teach students gathered in classrooms for example on campus in san jose and also in folerton and at this point the school's history becomes intertwined with my own i'd like to share my own story and how i've had the great privilege to participate in the school's move to the online environment in the late 90s i entered the mlis program at san jose state in my first semester one of my professors announced that applications were opening for a student assistant position to support the exploration of online delivery of classes via the internet doctor main referred to this in her introductory comments when i heard that announcement i was interested and i applied i was fortunate to be selected and i think it was partly because i knew some html you never know when something you've done in the past will end up opening doors later just a few years earlier i had taken a class at the local community college diablo valley college to learn more about this new thing called the internet i've saved my textbook through the years because i love looking at the full page explanation about how to click on a hyperlink and what will happen when you click it it was such a new concept at the time a year later i worked on a project at our local elementary school and helped to build a website i was consumed with learning how web pages worked and i enjoyed the project but i never dreamed it would be so pivotal in my future we never know when the unexpected projects and opportunities that we act on will end up benefiting us in the future as i progressed through my master's program i continued working as a student assistant on that project the school began offering classes in hybrid mode and finally the first two completely online courses were offered in the spring semester of 2001 20 years ago this semester i graduated at the end of that semester after graduation i began working part-time for the school i taught a class each semester i worked on the school's website more classes were moving partially or completely online some courses were offered in three different formats one section might be on site on campus another section might be hybrid that was a mix of on site and online and another section would be completely online over and over we saw those online sections fill with enrollments while the onsite sections often didn't have enough students to continue being offered students were basically voting and determining the future with their registration choices the school's leaders had to be very entrepreneurial in thinking creatively about how to manage these big changes i give credit and thanks to the directors i've worked with blanche wools ken haycock sandy herge and linda main for their brave forward thinking decisions and their creative strategies we collaborated to some extent with others on campus but we also moved independently in developing many aspects of our students online experience at sjsu we pioneered new solutions to the challenges of supporting online learning with a host of issues such as how to access course content we had to get our own license for a learning management system blackboard was our first we had to be creative in areas such as how to get id cards for students who did not live close to campus we had to work out enrollment procedures advising and administrative support figure out how students would access library materials and services textbook purchases writing tutoring career services managing our own websites and servers as well as faculty training and support it was exciting to meet each of these challenges and to work creatively on solutions now as dr main mentioned earlier i'll use the same analogy i'll hit the virtual fast forward button and jump ahead 10 years to 2009 by that time i was working as a full-time lecturer and the assistant director for distance learning our faculty members met in a retreat to discuss the idea of becoming a program that would be 100 online as we voted to move fully online i recognized that moment as a milestone after a pivotal decade of development when i was hired as a student assistant i never could have dreamed where the school and my own career would be 10 years later the next few years were full of changes the school's offices in fullerton were closed the mar program launched in 2008 under pat franc's leadership we earned national recognition for excellence in online learning and by the way the reason i was doing all that work in the car that day as we drove across the desert was because of a very important but unexpected last minute development we had to scramble that day to take care of things so i had not just put everything off till that day of travel but it was memorable our programs were successfully reviewed and re-accredited more recent changes include the start of our informatics program in 2019 and this fall we'll begin a new undergraduate program in information science and data analytics if the school had not moved to change with those environmental shifts particularly those involving technology i am quite sure it would have withered and eventually been discontinued instead it has flourished and remains strong and vital this is a good model for each of us in our own lives now before i close i want to say just a few words about gratitude i'm sure there is not anyone here who's accomplished this degree without encouragement and support in your lives i've seen and heard many expressions of gratitude and i'd like to say thanks to the many people who've helped me i'm very grateful for my husband who has been a tremendous support through the years i'm grateful for students and colleagues who have enriched my life and helped me in so many ways gratitude is good medicine make it a point to note things for which you're grateful every day let others know of your appreciation for them you and they will be happier so graduates i congratulate you on your tremendous accomplishments in the face of unprecedented challenges and a time of great change may you continue to move forward with happiness fulfillment and gratitude thank you thank you so much debbie and we will miss you we still have you for another week and we hope that you have great fun in all the things that you're going to be doing and don't forget you still retain your email so we will we will probably still be in touch now the last group of individuals that we're going to hear from are some of our graduates and many of them not all but many of them sent us in information about themselves and their their feelings as they graduate and we've put this together into a graduation video now the video will run for about 28 minutes and 42 seconds and will introduce you to a whole variety of individuals and their accomplishments and this will conclude our convocation celebration and we're also turning on the chat so that we can all be congratulating all of the all of the graduates today and enjoy hearing from them or seeing their feelings about this important accomplishment in their lives so again thank you all for joining and please stay and enjoy the information that our graduates are going to present