Good morning!
This week marks the end of the Spring semester and on behalf of the
entire UNM community I want to wish everybody good luck on their
finals. As well, I think I speak for everyone when I congratulate
those that will be graduating on Saturday. Commencement is a time for
graduates to reflect on the years spent working towards a goal: your
college degree. It’s a time to celebrate with friends, family,
professors and your peers. And it marks the moment in time when you
are declared prepared to enter the workforce, equipped to address the
most critical needs of the 21st Century. We all look forward to your
future endeavors and wish you nothing but the best. Just like the
“Golden Grads” of the class of 1958 will be joining us this Saturday at
commencement, we look forward to seeing all of you in 2058 to celebrate
a lifetime of achievement. Good luck, class of 2008!
Last week I had the opportunity to visit my alma mater, the University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and deliver the convocation address to
the school of Integrative Biology. It was great to be back in my old
stomping grounds and see some of the wonderful changes that have taken
place since I last went to school there. As with anything, some
changes are good and some are bad, but one thing remains constant:
change happens. The idea of change and adapting to change was the
cornerstone of my comments to the graduates there. It is something
that is unavoidable. I have found that an individual’s ability to
succeed oftentimes hinges on one’s ability to adapt to change.
I also spoke to the graduates of U of I about the changes that are
occurring on our planet. I am proud of the initiative that the
University of New Mexico has taken to help to address some of these
issues. This week is “Strive Not to Drive” week in Albuquerque and
I’ve been encouraged by the number of people that I’ve talked to who
plan on participating. The city is sponsoring a number of great events
to encourage people to use alternative methods of transportation. In
an effort to reduce the number of single occupant vehicles on the road,
they will be highlighting various alternative methods each day of the
week. Visit http://www.cabq.gov/transit/strivenottodrive.html for more
information.
As part of our ongoing efforts to provide information regarding
cultural diversity, equal opportunity, and the issue of sexual
harassment, the University will soon begin offering two on-line
courses, titled ‘Preventing Sexual Harassment’ and ‘Preventing
Employment Discrimination.’ This training will provide faculty, staff
and students with valuable information, help them learn their rights
and responsibilities, and help to preclude future incidents. The
‘Preventing Sexual Harassment’ course will be available beginning May
19th and will be mandatory training for all faculty and staff. I am
asking you to give serious attention to this initiative and take away
from this training a personal commitment to comply with our policy of
zero tolerance. Further details regarding this training will be
forthcoming from the Office of Equal Opportunity (OEO).
Have a great finals week!
David J. Schmidly
