 Hi, I'm Kate Young, and you're listening to This Is Purdue, the official podcast for Purdue University. As a Purdue alum and Indiana native, I know firsthand about the family of students and professors who are in it together, persistently pursuing and relentlessly rethinking. Who are the next game changers, difference makers, ceiling breakers, innovators? Who are these Boilermakers? Join me as we feature students, faculty and alumni taking small steps toward their giant leaps and inspiring others to do the same. It's an experience you get once in a lifetime. It's for you. It's for your loved ones. It's a celebration. Take a minute and take it all in. The hard work that you've done, give yourself that recognition and a moment of appreciation for all the work because it is not easy to get a Purdue degree. It is not easy. Getting into college, graduating from college, landing your dream job, all huge milestones you won't forget in your lifetime. Unfortunately for many college and high school students, commencement celebrations were held virtually in 2020 when COVID-19 swept the nation. Students were not able to walk in a traditional ceremony with their family cheering them on from the crowd. We can mail a diploma to you. We can't mail this experience of walking in your procession and having the commencement. That was Lisa Beals, senior associate registrar at Purdue University and one of the leaders who helped bring Purdue's commencement ceremonies to life. Purdue has been hosting commencement at the iconic Elliott Hall of Music since the 1940s. But like a lot of things in 2020, COVID-19 changed that. But Purdue is full of innovators. So what did the commencement team do? They innovated, they pivoted, they mapped out a new plan. One that allowed students and family to safely in accordance with Protect Purdue guidelines celebrate their time on campus with an in-person ceremony. And on May 15th, Purdue hosted its first outdoor commencement ceremony at Rossade Stadium. When Purdue University President Mitch Daniels first came to Lisa and Chris Pass, senior assistant registrar at Purdue and asked them to brainstorm new ideas for the spring 2021 commencement, they were excited about the opportunity. Chris explains. We were ready to have something for our students. We were in a virtual ceremony setting for three ceremonies, our last spring, summer and winter. So we were ready to give our students and our parents something to celebrate their students' academic achievements. This core commencement team was also a bit nervous too. They knew there were factors that were simply out of their control. The biggest issue they knew they would be facing, the weather. We're not in sunny California, it's Indiana. Snow in April, 85 degree weather in November, anything is possible, really. Yeah, it's the roll of the dice, what kind of weather you get in Indiana on any given day. It does seem like a daunting task initially when you've never done it before, but when you compare what we usually do with our traditional ceremonies and how individualized they already are, what we do historically is quite daunting to a lot of universities of our size. And I would just say kudos to the team that we have internally that make the magic happen and the army of campus partners that we're able to pull in, that just roll their sleeves up and jump in and help us in any way we can. They're all driven and motivated by that student experience just like we are. Another challenge, going from planning a group of six smaller ceremonies of around 1,100 students each to one large ceremony with 5,000 students. Here's Chris. Where were we gonna stage that? Where were we gonna have them check in? There was a lot of things that we had to, and then to also consider social distancing because we were still under COVID constraints. You won't hear me discuss that other in State Big Ten School much on this podcast, but Chris actually referred to Indiana University as Purdue's partners in crime when it came to collaborating with them on this spring commencement ceremony. Excuse me? Well, let her explain. They were a huge help. We met with them and then they were anxious to hear what we were doing on our campus. So I think just sharing and collaborating was something new because we never really had done that before. So it was great to know that we even have partners that aren't even Purdue people that were able to help us and then we were able to share that with others too. So that was a good collaboration of all partners. I, you and Purdue help in each other out. You don't hear that every day, right? Yeah, I know. So yeah, so we rolled apart sleeves together. So it was great. Lisa chimes in with another Big Ten School they were able to join forces with. It's one that also shares our Midwest weather woes. I don't know how many people know, but our current registrar is a former, dare I say, buckeye. And they also do traditional outdoor ceremonies for their largest ones. And so the idea that he had some knowledge and some context for how Ohio State did it and he fed us some information. And while we didn't duplicate exactly what they did, we were able to kind of glean some things that might be helpful and other things that we thought, and we don't want to do that. So another funny kind of rivalry partnership as well. They even came up with a challenge. Could they see Purdue's candidates in less than 60 minutes quicker than it took Ohio State to see their candidates? Spoiler alert, Purdue's team did indeed complete this massive feat in under an hour. I always am amazed and overwhelmed that we can get 1,100 young adults to mostly follow direction and command and get them from the armory to the hall of music in some semblance of order so that when they cross the stage, they get their diploma that we have planned to give them. And the idea that we did something similar for 5,000 graduates and we seated them in just under an hour. And it would usually take me 30 to 45 minutes to seat 1,100 in Elliott. So the idea that I close to match that for 5,000 graduates and the smiles on their faces, even with the mask on, you could see it in their eyes that they've been waiting for this. They've been waiting for this. So that was the best part for me. I asked Chris and Lisa what it felt like when the day finally came on May 15th and all their hard work came to fruition. For me, it was emotional. I mean, it really was to watch the parents. I mean, everybody was so happy and we had the drone there and we had the train. So it was just like a homecoming game. There was activities that the students could do on campus. We're back in the stadium. I mean, the stadium was alive again. So that was really something to watch. Until that last candidate was up on the stage, I had that exhale and then I sat up there with the graduates and took in and the Purdue for life video, I mean, literally gave me goosebumps and the tribute to the graduates for the class of 21. Again, I mean, brought tears to my eyes. It was just such a well put together event. Why do you guys think it's so important that these students and parents and families get to witness this, you know, for some people once in a lifetime opportunity in person? Why was that so important to Purdue and the community? I think it was just, you know, we love our students. We love Purdue. So it was just something we wanted to give back. We know, I mean, it takes a lot of work to get that degree and they have family and friends that are there supporting them along the way getting that degree. So it was something that we wanted to do for them so they could celebrate all of their hard work. So it was important for us to be able to do that. Agree, agreed. I think the bookend that we provide, BGR crossing the tracks when you start on campus and then having that same kind of experience to close that chapter as you start the next one in your adult life. I just think it's a rite of passage that we really take seriously to offer our students and their families. It's an experience you get once in a lifetime. It's for you. It's for your loved ones. It's a celebration. Take a minute and take it all in. The hard work that you've done, give yourself that recognition and a moment of appreciation for all the work because it is not easy to get a Purdue degree. It is not easy. So we encourage anybody that's considering it, do it. To all of our Purdue alumni out there, I'm sure you can agree that earning your Purdue degree and celebrating that commencement is a memory etched into your brain. However, I will say I envy this year's students who were able to experience this special moment. You see, with an outdoor ceremony comes more opportunities for, shall I say, grand entrances. This year, President Daniels didn't just walk into the ceremony. He drove in. Nathan Percy, who graduated this year from the College of Science, drove President Daniels around Rossade Stadium on the Couch Cart, a love seat placed on a motorized cart. The cart then delivered President Daniels to the speaker's platform for the commencement ceremony. The best part, it was all a surprise and the crowd loved it. Chris explains why it was one of her favorite memories from the weekend. This was all the president's doing, his idea, he wanted to do it and he got us together and was like, how can I do it? And so we practiced and got the couch cart over there because we didn't know if it was gonna go on the football, on the grass. So we went through it several times, getting on the couch cart and then coming in live in the stadium. The roar from the students was just, it was great. So it set the tone for the whole ceremony. Although Elliott Hall of Music Commencement ceremonies are a tradition at Purdue, for such a unique school year, it was only fitting to have that unique setting and entrance for this year's commencement. I've done it for almost over 25 years of doing it in Elliott. So I love Elliott. I mean, the ceremony, the sound, you can't duplicate that. But it was a totally different experience. Like I said, the crowd, the roar of the stadium, the life, you felt it in there. And what about President Daniel's commencement speech? What did it mean to Chris and Lisa after facing all of the adversity from the past year? His speeches are always personal. He writes them himself. He doesn't have a speech writer that writes those words that he gives to the graduating class. I mean, those are things that he does personally that he takes great pride in. And you can tell it's a message from him and from his heart and waist killing and thinking for them. I appreciate the fact that he, in my opinion, I think he strives to challenge your thinking and your beliefs and to push you to do more and be more, to represent, because he expects that. He expects greatness out of these students. And I think they step up and they meet that goal. And sitting with the graduates during that speech and hearing them, they love him. His keynote address was picked up by national news outlets and highlighted Boilermakers Place as bold leaders and how their experiences at Purdue, especially in navigating the pandemic as they completed their education, prepared them. And now Purdue proudly presents President Daniel's Spring 2021 commencement address. This year, when I say I'm happy to be here, I'm not just making small talk. If you're like me, you're happy to be anywhere after the year we've all been through. I wish we were over in Elliott Hall, celebrating your achievements individually as only Purdue does among schools our size. But this beats the virtual version. We were forced to in 2020 and marks a long step back on the path to fully normal life. As we've never done an outdoor commencement before, we may have gotten a few things wrong. For one thing, way out here on the 50 yard line, it feels like we carried that social distance thing a little far. Well, however well it goes, like everything about your senior year, it'll be one for the history books. For all the trouble and downsides, there can be some real value in living through a time like this. For decades to come, scholars and ordinary citizens alike will look back on your senior year, trying to identify its consequences and imagine what lives so disrupted were like. As they do so, they'll know more than we can now about the results of the choices today's leaders made. They will reach judgments with the benefit of hindsight about the wisdom and maturity with which our nation handled this challenge in this particular pandemic. Odds are, not all those judgments will be favorable. Time will tell. An ability to comprehend and work with complex facts and data has always been part of a Purdue education. At least since the industrial age, that's been an essential for a useful life of the kind at which Boilermakers excel. But that's never been nearly so true as today. Massive amounts of information are being collected intentionally by us and silently by the machines we invent and use in daily life. Interpreting its meaning and discovering patterns within it is perhaps the most important skill in the economy of 2021. Our faculty has determined that data analysis, as we now call it, should be as universal a part of a Boilermaker education as English composition. You will leave this stadium able to evaluate statistics and whether they are significant or meaningless. You'll know better than to confuse correlation with causation. You'll look at decisions critically and holistically, understanding that any objective pursued too far eventually yields diminishing returns not worth their cost. That just as all medicines have side effects, almost all actions produce collateral consequences, often collateral damage. It doesn't stretch a point to say that we wouldn't be meeting here today without those skills. Keeping Purdue open last fall so that you could stay on schedule and graduate today required the daily examination of COVID-19 infection rates and patterns of its spread on and around the campus. Prior to that, the decision to reopen at all involved a reading of the available data which showed even then that people your age were at far less risk from the virus than from a host of other dangers. Starting soon, these decisions will be yours to make. In businesses you start or join, in causes in which you feel called to enlist, or in that most important of all organizations, the families, I hope you will form. Wherever they are, the very essence of your coming leadership roles will lie in making hard choices. After weighing all the options, the competing priorities, and the uncertainties that even the biggest databases cannot totally eliminate. Others will look to you to choose. The risk of failure, of a hit to one's reputation, or just that the gains don't outweigh the costs. All these can deter or paralyze a person out of fulfilling the responsibility someone has entrusted to them. Should I make this investment or husband my cash? Take that job offer, or stay where I'm comfortable. Engage in this debate, or sit silently. Choose this life partner, or play it safe. This last year, many of your elders failed this fundamental test of leadership. They let their understandable human fear of uncertainty overcome their duty to balance all the interests for which they were responsible. They hid behind the advice of experts in one field, but ignored the warnings of experts in other realms that they might do harm beyond the good they hope to accomplish. Sometimes they let what might be termed the mad pursuit of zero. In this case, zero risk of anyone contracting the virus to block out other competing concerns, like the protection of mental health, the educational needs of small children, or the survival of small businesses. Pursuing one goal to the utter exclusion of all others is not to make a choice, but to run from it. It's not leadership, it's abdication. I feel confident your Purdue preparation won't let you fall prey to it. But there's a companion quality you'll need to be the leaders you can be. That's the willingness to take risks, not reckless ones, but the risks that still remain after all the evidence has been considered. Great societies before us tended to look backward for their inspiration to locate their golden ages in the past. Here, our eyes have always been forward, but now signs abound of Americans losing that eagerness to move ahead boldly. Before the virus visited us, there were already troubling signs that fearfulness was beginning to erode the spirit of adventure, the willingness to take considered risks on which this nation's greatness was built and from which all progress originates. Rates of business startups moving in pursuit of a better job or the strongest of all bets on the future, having children, all have fallen sharply in recent years and now there are warnings that the year 2020 may have weakened that spirit further. As early as April of last year, researchers at the Federal Reserve of St. Louis documented the quote, belief scarring effects of COVID-19. Psychologists proved a long time ago that we humans tend to overestimate how common terrible events are because they are terrible. We're more sure to hear about them and we trick ourselves into believing they are far more likely than they really are. Now we learn that such misconceptions can be long lasting. The scarring effect that the Fed's economists tell us, quote, a persistent change of beliefs about the probability of an extreme negative shock producing long-lived responses to transitory events, especially extreme unlikely ones. Fortunately, Boilermakers don't scar easily. If Amelia Earhart had been intimidated by uncertainty, we wouldn't know her name. If our recent board chair, Keith Crock, had stayed within the safe confines of a giant corporation's career ladder, the world would not enjoy the huge efficiency breakthroughs of Ariba and DocuSign. If Neil Armstrong, Gus Grissom, and more than a score more Purdue astronauts had run from risk, humanity's knowledge of its universe would be far short of our current boundaries. In the most jarring book of recent years, the Israeli philosopher Yuval Harari predicts that humans your age will live to see, quote, the last days of death. When the species we call Homo sapiens becomes, he calls them, godlings, and immortal, he sees this happening through one of the same technologies at which this university excels, either biological engineering or cyborg engineering of our organic beings, or simply the complete replacement of humans by super-intelligent machines. Immortality sounds good until Harari points out the implications. One of them would be a total aversion to risk. If you believe you can live forever, why would you ever take a chance of any kind? I hope that the experiences of 2020 left you with an attitude not of fearfulness, but of confidence, confidence that we can tackle hard problems and that hiding from them is rarely the best course, but given a careful examination of the available facts and a thoughtful calculation of relative risks, we can overcome even the biggest obstacles and be the masters of our fates and our futures. The school started again at her campus. The provost of Kansas University sent a message to her students and colleagues that's relevant far beyond the present day or the recent pandemic. She wrote, in times of high anxiety, it is human nature to crave certainty for the safety it provides. The problem with craving certainty is that it's a false hope. It's a craving that can never fully be met. She quoted the astronomer Carl Sagan. The history of science teaches us that the most we can hope for is a successive improvement in our understanding, learning from our mistakes with the proviso that absolute certainty will always elude us. Maybe the greatest story in Jacques Barzun summed it up best. The last degree of caution is cowardice. Certainty is an illusion. Perfect safety is a mirage. Zero is always unattainable, except in the case of absolute zero, where, as you remember, all motion and life stops. You are leaving here ready for leadership. Your academic records say so. The history of Purdue graduates says so. The character you demonstrated this last year, when your embrace of the Purdue pledge enabled this place to stay open at all, clearly says so. We expect, no, we know, that you will tackle leadership's challenges as they present themselves to you. You're taking with you all the tools to weigh alternatives, balance priorities, assess relative risks. All you'll need is the courage to act on the conclusions you reach. Now take that readiness into a fearful, timid world crying for leadership and direction and boldness, where the biggest risk of all is that we stop taking risks at all. Hail Purdue and each of you. If you haven't heard our episode with President Daniels yet, be sure to listen after you finish this episode. He details his experience riding into commencement on the couch cart, what it was like to write that speech, and how he felt when he told the world last year that Purdue would be operating in person. Trust me, it's an episode you don't want to miss. And if you want to experience President Daniels' speech from commencement, check out the full video on our YouTube account. Just head over to youtube.com slash Purdue. Thanks for listening to This is Purdue. For more information on this episode, visit our website at purdue.edu slash podcast. There you can head over to your favorite podcast app to subscribe and leave us a review. And as always, boiler up.