2005 UC Davis Fall Convocation

Final comments

By UC Davis Chancellor Larry N. Vanderhoef

Please join me in thanking Keltie, Art, Paula, Eric and Naomi for offering us the benefit of their insights, of their beliefs.

And I thank you, as well, for respectfully listening.

Please consider writing your own brief essay and submitting it for posting at our special Web site that is being launched today.  Its Web address, which is noted on the back of your printed program, is mypersonalcompass.ucdavis.edu.

In addition to Web posting, a sampling of essays will be periodically printed or excerpted in Dateline UC Davis, our faculty and staff newspaper, and made available for podcasting.

I welcome your thoughts about how we can help make this initiative live and breathe throughout the year, to help it be more than a passive posting of words on a Web site.

It's hoped that these essays will be discussed in classrooms, in dining halls, among friends, among those drawn together simply by a quest for greater understanding.  And it's hoped that they'll be a catalyst for further reflection and dialogue in everyday interactions both on the campus and within the broader community.

One by one, we can contribute to a growing national dialogue about personal values and civic ideals.  One by one, we can help to revive the art of “deep listening."  And, together, I'm confident we will discover that what can unite is so much greater than what can potentially divide.

Thank you very much for coming this morning and for demonstrating once again that we are truly family.

Last updated Oct. 3, 2005

Questions or comments? Contact Susanne Rockwell, UC Davis News Service, (530) 752-2542