Fall Ceremony

Naropa University Fall Ceremony
December 13, 2008

“Peak Oil, Peak Water, Peak Education”
by President Thomas B. Coburn

It is always a great privilege for me to address graduating students, and that is certainly the case this afternoon. It will come as no surprise that the first thing I want to say is “congratulations.” However, I want to say congratulations not just for one reason, but for two. The obvious reason is that we are here acknowledging and celebrating the accomplishments of these students who are now concluding their courses of study at Naropa University. This is great work, hard work that you all have accomplished, and I am proud of you, on behalf of Naropa’s faculty, Naropa’s staff, your fellow students, your friends and families. All of those people share, in varying ways, in what you have accomplished, but the bottom line is that it is work you have accomplished. Because this work has not just been cognitive and intellectual, but has entailed inner work that has asked you to come to know yourselves deeply and honestly, in ways you scarcely imagined when you began your studies with us, it has offered you challenges that most college and university graduates have never had to face during their degree programs. You have surmounted those challenges, completed your degrees and are now about to take the intellectual knowledge, the wisdom and compassion that you have cultivated with us out into the world that so sorely needs you. This is all grounds for justifiable pride, and so I invite us all to join in a rousing round of congratulations for this fall’s graduates.

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