 It was not my intention to be your commencement speaker this morning and you're no doubt looking forward to having one of California's brightest legal and political minds, United States Center Kamala Harris to share her wisdom with you today. I'm sorry she could not be here but I understand her decision not to attend this ceremony as the University of California continues important contract negotiations with one of its labor unions. The staff that this union represents are essential to student life and to the operation of the university and I very much hope that negotiations may yet be fruitful. In Senator Harris's stead as your chancellor it's my great honor to formally address the UC Berkeley graduating class of 2018. Graduates today is both an ending and a beginning. The two names often given to this morning's ceremony commencement and graduation capture its Janus-like quality. As you may recall the ancient Roman god god of gates transitions and passages is often portrayed with two faces looking backward and forward just as you do at this moment. Your future and the promise the potential the different trajectories the many storylines that will come with it lie open ahead of you. At the same time today also marks a conclusion to one of the dominant arcs of your life. For most of you this is the end of your time in a system of education that has set the rhythm of your days and years for nearly two decades. More immediately it marks the end of a period of your life tied immediately to Berkeley. The college years in contrast to many other periods of our lives have a special self-contained quality. You share a distinctive place with your classmates for a set number of years marked by rituals as minor as morning study sessions in dough library or afternoon coffee dates at Cafe Strata or as consuming as the weekend's worth of festivities that surround the annual big game. You share these rituals with generations of students who have graduated before you but for all the similarity that this gives your college experience to that of previous students your Berkeley is also colored by the particular events that took place both here and in the world during your time on campus events that guided your class discussions that you and your friends debated until late into the night it may have shaped the decisions you made with regard to courseworks internships or even your major your Berkeley the years that you have been on campus have been marked by momentous change in the world you saw the rise of the strongest woman candidate for president in US history ultimately delivered a stunning defeat in an election that upended American politics you saw important demands for justice and equality in the Black Lives Matter movement as a challenge intellectual racism in law enforcement and as the Me Too movement toppled abusive men and positions of power and look to right historical wrongs yet you also saw major setbacks as disdain for immigrants and refugees took hold here and around the world and as fear and hatred of the other became a dominant theme in many countries national politics in your time catastrophic natural disasters from monsoons in south asia to a hurricane in Puerto Rico to wildfires up and down the california coast have motivated national discussions about wealth privilege and our country's responsibility to aid victims and help rebuild communities not to mention debates about science and climate change a host of man-made disasters too including acts of terror and numerous mass shootings have renewed disputes about gun rights and seen thousands take to the streets in protest against gun laws while you've been at Berkeley concerns about cyber security changes in the media we consume and questions about privacy rights have asked us to reconsider our relationships to now ubiquitous technology and modes of communication many of these historic events and the intense discussion of responsibilities rights and privileges that come with them have had their analogs here on this campus it's a defining quality of those at Berkeley that you do not sit idly by when you see injustice whether in the larger world or more locally you reflect on the issues at hand consider solutions and confront problems in all their complexity and with all their deep and enduring difficulty as surely as this institution has left its mark on you you've left your mark on Berkeley when you saw the need for change at our institution you seized it and our university is richer and better for your efforts it was your classmates in the black student union who were behind the creation of the fanny luhemer resource center and the ones who helped craft the african-american initiative which is now working to improve our campus climate for black students at Berkeley it was the work of survivors and student advocates among you who in 2016 and 2017 helped this university critically examine its policies and procedures for handling cases of sexual assault and harassment and take up the process of improving them you modeled strength and resolve in support of our undocumented student population even as these students were villainized by the leaders of our country and threatened by anonymous chalkings and posters on campus in 2014 you celebrated the 50th anniversary of the free speech movement then this past year saw Berkeley cast in the national spotlight as we endeavored to navigate a new free speech debate about how best to reconcile maintaining a sense of community alongside a belief in the university's role as a public forum open to speakers even whose views we may find abhorrent last february you helped clean up the mess literally left by rioters in the wake of milo yinopoulos's appearance as well as joined us this past fall in efforts to use dialogue not violence to bridge the partisan divide as raw and difficult as these processes have sometimes felt they vividly show how social change happens i do not believe that Berkeley is truly a bubble as it's often called but i do feel that in this campus we share a small and bounded world that each of us can influence shape and make different by what we do and say just as we are influenced shaped and made different by the words and deeds of others complex and thorny issues are not solved by dictate they reach conclusions through the willing engagement of a diverse thoughtful and open-minded community now however at this point of transition what has become your Berkeley becomes part of your history now you find yourselves on the cusp of life after college a phrase i often imagine in all capital letters at a time when much a broader society seems to be broken down by mistrust resentment and fear as i've seen in working with members of your class you are already exercising your capacity to make a difference and even as some of you will want to pursue lives of large public ambition others may not remember that the cumulative power of unhistoric acts can still strongly shape the world we inhabit in 2002 after spending my entire academic career as a professor of english and administrator at Berkeley i underwent one of the most significant transfers transitions of my own when i moved to massachusetts to become the president of smith college as i was preparing for that move i spent weeks physically packing 30 years of my life into boxes but i also thought a lot about the essential learnings and knowledge i would bring to smith and what in my experience i would leave behind in the past as you walk through campus in for your last time as a student as you take a well-deserved post commencement toast and as you pack away your clothes into suitcases i'd like you to think about what lessons experiences and memories you will take and what you will leave here i hope you will leave behind midterms paper deadlines finals and anxiety about grades you may wish to leave behind eight a.m classes and the jittery feeling of too little sleep and too much coffee i imagine that you'll happily leave behind the many cal messages you receive in your inbox and i wonder how many among you will sigh at the thought of not being approached by flowering students on sprawl i'm afraid you'll have to abandon the notion that arriving 10 minutes after the hour is considered on time so prepare yourself for that adjustment but what will you take from berkeley what are the great lessons the qualities of character that you wish to carry forward in your life i have a list of hopes for you myself i hope you'll take the capacity for empathy for understanding perspectives different from your own which berkeley has tried to instill in you through its liberal arts curriculum especially now we all need the humility that helps us realize things may look different through the lens of a different experience as well as the willingness to learn from that difference i hope you'll take the ability to voice what it is you believe even when you know others may not share your perspective do this without wetting disagreement to disrespect on your own part or that of others i hope you'll take with you a sense of confidence in your own abilities and powers in whatever sphere you choose to live and work you have much to contribute belief in yourself is the foundation of leadership i'll hope you take with you the capacity for moral reasoning the ethical judgment you'll need to exercise in many areas of your life let it become your lodestar as you navigate a tumultuous time finally i hope you take from berkeley a sense of public responsibility i'm immensely proud and grateful for the hard work and the sacrifices that you and your families have made to bring you to this moment yet a berkeley degree is also a privilege and with it comes the responsibility of using your education to contribute to a society that needs your energy your intelligence and your help today as generations in your family come together you will be the center the pivot point of it all as you look back at the experiences you've had as you reflect on the ways in which you and others have shaped your world and your worldview and as you look forward to what the bright breathtaking and sometimes daunting future will hold may the education you've received here serve not just your lives but your society well may your years ahead be richly rewarding and fulfilling and may you enjoy much happiness though i will not say that this is world world to save it is yours to shape alongside many others in the long but persistent march towards progress congratulations and good luck fiat lux and go bears