At 269th Commencement, Eisgruber '83 discusses importance of humanistic imagination
Do-Hyeong MyeongHumanistic imagination is crucial in forging a public culture that enables respectful discourse to bridge the increasingly polarized society, University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 said at the University’s 269th Commencement on Tuesday. Noting how the American society has become more and more polarizing over the past years, Eisgruber said that the University’s residential liberal arts education can forge discussions about ideas that can bind people together and allow students to connect with one another as fellow human beings despite their difference. Referring to the recent campus dialogues on diversity and inclusion, Eisgruber noted that for the University community to collectively decide about its future, it is crucial to understand each other.“Understanding one another requires, among other things, finding new ways to comprehend the history that has affected, and continues to affect, different groups and individuals in different ways,” he said. He noted how the musical “Hamilton” provides inspirational narrative of America that transcends the political line, explaining that imagination and creative construction can allow us to claim our pasts in new ways. “The world that awaits you will sometimes be frustrating and difficult, but it is a world that needs your talents, your citizenship and your engagement,” he added. Valedictorian Cameron Platt ’16, an English major, reflected on the importance of speech and conversation. Noting that she is less interested in the freedom of speech than in what people decide to do with that freedom, Platt praised her classmates who have “stood up, spoken out and declared that no one should have to suffer under the silence that is so often the burden of a marginalized identity” throughout the year. Platt noted how speech can heal the “aches of the silences” through the story of her grandfather who died of AIDS before she was born and whose story was silenced until recently.
