The following is excerpted from St. Lawrence University President
Daniel F. Sullivan's remarks to the Class of 2010 and their families
at a Matriculation ceremony held on campus August 28, 2006.

What you, America’s new generation, are about to prepare to enter and
confront is a global economy characterized by relentless, exponentially
growing competition that threatens a global race to the bottom with
regard to ultimate quality of life. And as economic activity
increasingly transcends the physical boundaries of nation-states, those
nation-states become less and less able to assert values and enforce
controls over how the competition will be conducted. Yet you, and we,
must find ways to assert and enforce values other than those of the
market if we are to be fully human. That’s what the liberal arts
education you have come to St. Lawrence to pursue is ultimately for.

But what is liberal education? The faculty of the University has spent a
great deal of time making clear the aims and objectives of a liberal
education that we think are central. You will be discussing them in your
first-year colleges. They describe what we will be about together in the
next four years:

"A liberal education requires breadth, depth and integration in
learning. It also requires the cultivation of those habits of
intellectual and moral self-discipline that distinguish a mature
individual. To these ends, St. Lawrence seeks to provide an education
that fosters in students an open, inquiring and disciplined mind, well
informed through broad exposure to basic areas of knowledge; an
enthusiasm for life-long learning; self-confidence and self-knowledge; a
respect for differing opinions and for free discussion of those
opinions; and an ability to use information logically and to evaluate
alternative points of view.

"A liberal education frees students from the confines of limited
personal experiences and limited knowledge of the physical, historical,
social and cultural world. In return, this liberation gives an
enlightened understanding of that which is singular, immediate and
limited. Thus, a liberal education is always relevant to the world in
which students must live at the same time that it attempts to maintain a
certain detachment from that world."

The kind of education we’re describing in these aims and objectives is
the kind of education I want those who are tackling the world’s tough
issues on my behalf to have: the diplomat who seeks to contribute to
peace in the Middle East; the physician who is going to diagnose and
treat not just my illness but me as a valued person; the mother and
father who are going to bring children into the world and help them
grow; the lawyer who is an advocate but also knows and pursues justice;
the novelist whose insight will help me understand the human condition
better; the manufacturer who is not just good at making things but who
also cares about the lives of his or her workers and the environmental
impact of his or her manufacturing processes and products; and, most
importantly, the person who can use the global market economy to help
produce greater overall world wealth and standard of living in an
environmentally sustainable way and in a way that also preserves and
enhances our ultimate humanity. The kind of education we’re about at St.
Lawrence is not just important—it is absolutely essential and totally
practical: it is a means to the end of making a powerful and positive
difference in a world that has never been more challenging or complex.

It is also not easily won, if it is truly going to stand you well in the
future. We are the most affluent society in the history of the world.
Affluence really does breed a feeling of entitlement, but you are not
entitled to the kind of education I’ve been discussing. You have to earn
it; you have to work hard for it. I am not being hyperbolic when I say
that the future of America and the world depends on you not feeling
entitled, on your willingness and commitment to absorb all you can and
grow as far and as fast as you can—to use the rich resources of this
University in the most transforming way possible.

We are ready to do our very best for you. We’re going to be academically
demanding and provide you with a rich array of academic opportunities,
but we’re also going to give you hundreds of opportunities to develop
yourselves in ways other than just the intellectual, so that you will be
able and courageous enough, we hope, to introduce and support just the
right frictions in the world economic marketplace—those that preserve
and extend our humanity. It is my deepest hope that you will leave St.
Lawrence having been challenged powerfully, and that you will have met
the challenge. If everything works the way we intend it, you will also
leave St. Lawrence loving this place in a way that will last a lifetime.
You will have been affected profoundly, and your attachment to St.
Lawrence will be permanent and deeply meaningful.

So we welcome you, the Class of 2010, with the greatest enthusiasm. You
are well prepared. We know you can do what is necessary to succeed here,
and of course we know that you have chosen a marvelous university. You
have my best and most heartfelt wishes as you begin this journey!