Commencement Address By Alan Felton '96

December 12, 1998

President White, Members of the Board of Trustees, Members of the President’s Council, Members of the Faculty and Staff, Distinguished Guests, and Graduating Seniors:

It is a privilege to be here today to speak on this special day in the life of the College. I admit this is not where I expected to be today. In fact, if someone had told me a month ago that I would be speaking at the first December graduation at North Carolina Wesleyan after having joined the staff of the College a mere three weeks ago, I would have called that person a lunatic and that would have been an understatement. But the world turns in strange ways and often fate delivers us to the places where we least expect to be. It makes no difference about why or how I came to be here because I am delighted to have this opportunity and am deeply honored to be able to share this day with all of you.

Graduation Day is a time of recognition, a time of celebration, a time for rejoicing in the glow of hard won achievement. It is a time for families. I am sure that we have many graduates here today who are the first members of their family to receive a college diploma. For them, this must be an especially proud day and rightly so. For others, graduation is a continuation of family and personal expectations, another link in a chain of excellence that joins generations together. But whatever this day and the degrees conferred here mean to each individual, we know that this is a proud and happy day for all of us to be gathered here at North Carolina Wesleyan College.

Graduation Day is also a time of affirmation, a moment when we come together as a community of educators to honor the intelligence, discipline and drive of those graduating students and to legitimize their accomplishments through the issuing of degrees. But the affirmation that we bestow today is not only for those graduating, it is an affirmation for the institution itself. For as these proud graduates move out into the world, the very purpose of the College, in fact the purpose of higher education in general, takes on a stronger and more permanent legitimacy. This is no insignificant or unnecessary accomplishment. Higher education, especially that which is committed to the liberal arts, is besieged on all sides these days. From those who are saying that institutions such as Wesleyan are incapable of educating and training our students adequately for the new millennium to those who say higher education is hopelessly awash in left-wing social theory and committed to the politics of a long ago day to those critics who assail the high price tag for what they consider limited benefit, college education is being attacked on many fronts and for an array of reasons more varied than these.

For these critics and others who doubt the value and purpose of higher education, I say—let them come to Wesleyan. Because at Wesleyan the flame of progressive education is indeed burning brightly. At Wesleyan the core skills of a liberal arts education—critical thinking, the ability to formulate an opinion and defend it, and the desire and ability for life-long learning—are alive and well. Wesleyan is a special place filled with extraordinary people, all working to continue to make higher education a relevant pursuit.

But why is Wesleyan a special place? What sets this institution apart from others? Is it the beauty of its landscape or the feeling one gets when strolling among the famous pines in front of the main campus? Is it the awestruck pride one feels when walking into the lobby of the Dunn Center? Is it the quiet pleasure one receives by gazing on pieces of the Robert Lynch Collection displayed in the Four Sisters Art Gallery? Is it the excitement of being part of the constant buzz of activity in and around the Hartness Student Center and the Everett Gymnasium? Is it the personal renewal felt by attending a religious service in the Leon Russell Chapel? Is it the comfort felt when students and faculty trade banter and ideas in hallways and classrooms?

I don’t think it is any of these. Of course all of these things I have mentioned are important to the feelings most people have about Wesleyan, but many of our students, especially those who participate in the Adult Degree Program attending college at night here on the main campus or on one of the extension campuses in Raleigh, Durham or Goldsboro or those who graduated in years long past, have never had the opportunity to see many of the landmarks most commonly associated with the Wesleyan of today. But for them, this too is a special place, a place where they have chosen to dream their dreams and improve their lives through pursuit of higher education. Why is that?

It is because North Carolina Wesleyan College is more than the pines, and the buildings and the classes and events of the academic year. What makes this place special is the Wesleyan Spirit--a spirit dedicated to educational excellence, a spirit committed to vesting our students with the knowledge and skills necessary for a quality life. It is a spirit that remains alive and vibrant long after the echoes of the class room lecture and the graduation ceremony have fallen silent. The Wesleyan Spirit flows through all of us who call this place home. It is what attracts quality faculty and keeps them here. It is what brings our students, young and old alike, to study here. It is what makes us all part of something that is greater than any single individual or any single cause. And, the Wesleyan Spirit is why our critics are wrong when they doubt the necessity and value of what we do here.

But to effectively answer higher education’s critics and prepare North Carolina Wesleyan and the students it serves for the new realities of living in the next century, the Wesleyan Spirit must also serve as a call to innovate and create new ways of operating the institution. This Spirit must breed fresh ideas about how we should go about the business of educating young minds. Far from the calm atmosphere found in the days when higher education was mainly the province of the elite few, colleges and universities find themselves in an increasingly competitive and turbulent market with greater demands to provide more and more services and unique opportunities to students. Colleges are being asked to engage in more remedial training for incoming students who come from a public school system that, sadly, is losing the means to provide adequate preparation for a college education. And, while meeting these challenges, we face an uncertain world. Colleges are faced with the need to prepare students for a future where whirlwind change and breathtaking technological innovation create a need for a varied base of knowledge and a constantly shifting set of skills. To meet these challenges the innovative nature of the Wesleyan Spirit will have to be particularly strong and active. We will have to stride forward confidently as education entrepreneurs to build new opportunities that will allow us to be competitive in the new education marketplace.

The necessity of examining and updating the way colleges operate is clear and it is compelling. But, the methods we use to usher in these changes and what we create through these efforts is open to debate. There has been a great deal of discussion recently about the "Old" and the "New" Wesleyan. This debate is good. Vigorous debate and heated, but productive, arguments are keys to improving any organization and among a community of educators and intellectuals such an energetic discussion should be encouraged. Such debate needs to be viewed as an innovative exercise that will create "One" Wesleyan better able to meet the demands that face the institution in the coming years. During this debate, respect for all opinions, especially those held by the minority, should always be taken into consideration and valued. But let there be no doubt—if Wesleyan is to be a place where the citizens and leaders of the 21^st Century are educated, then the spirit and substance of change exhibited by the College over the last few years must be more fully embraced to make this institution ready for the new realities it faces. Tradition should always be honored, but when tradition becomes a roadblock to progress, we must not be afraid to take the necessary action needed to move forward. For if we are unwilling to adapt, if we are paralyzed by fear rather than energized by opportunity, we risk falling prey to those institutions that welcome change and recreate themselves to better ride the stormy waves of the future. In short, if we are reluctant to change, we may already be extinct and not even know it.

What is called for is a united college community if we are to keep the Wesleyan Spirit healthy so as to be a driving force in the future. We must work to strengthen those areas where we as a community agree and strive to settle those issues over which we are divided. And, most importantly, we must never forget why we are here—to educate the students who place their trust in us, no matter what special needs they have, no matter how much effort it may take, no matter how hard we have to work, and no matter how meager our resources. We must go forward from this ceremony today and rededicate ourselves to the Wesleyan Spirit to meet the challenges that await us.