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Rector’s Introduction – CEU 21
stGraduation Ceremony, June 14, 2012
As I look out at all of you I can see a great tapestry of the world – a tapestry of many countries woven from a single far-reaching idea.
The idea is that a university of students and faculty from around the world can be brought together to teach and study what makes an open society.
This is the idea behind our university, and today we will award degrees to 613 students from 73 countries on every continent.
These degrees are in many fields, but all are based on the same principles – the principles that define a CEU education:
Commitment to the pursuit of truth.
An honest relationship with history.
Freedom of thought and expression.
Respect for the dignity, identity and autonomy of individuals and groups.
The rule of law.
And a determination to resolve differences through debate, not denial.
Twenty-three years ago, these were the principles that propelled the great changes in Central and Eastern Europe.
Today these principles are under great stress – from the global economic crisis, from the struggle over resources and the environment, from the erosion of democratic institutions, from new attacks on human rights, and from the seductive appeal of nationalism and authoritarianism.
The very concept of open society is under challenge. But as this challenge has grown, so has our university.
We have recruited outstanding students. We have an international faculty immersed in the study of society. We are a center of excellence in teaching and research. And the generosity of our founder and other supporters has allowed us to make ambitious plans for growth at a time when most universities are cutting back.
Our academic assets have strengthened our mission.
We have deep regional roots and a global perspective. We are a “crossroads university” – linked to the history and culture of Central and Eastern Europe, and immersed in the world through our own densely international community.
We connect theory with practice.
We teach and research across disciplines.
2 We are agile and entrepreneurial in developing new cutting-edge programs like cognitive science and network science, and new areas of history and humanities like Eastern Mediterranean and Ottoman Studies.
How can CEU use these assets to respond to the challenges we face today?
Above all, by thinking critically.
We live in an age of information overload – and information overload. Facts are less clear than opinions, analysis less understood than advocacy, fairness less apparent than prejudice.
An educated person today must navigate through a world drowning in propaganda.
As CEU students, you have learned to think for yourselves, to sift, analyze and weigh the information that bombards you every day. You have learned to guard against attractive falsehoods, to resist easy conclusions, to exercise your own informed judgment.
As you make your way in the digital world you must think critically about the competing models of how society is being organized today.
An authoritarian model challenges the view that democracy and human rights are necessary for society to flourish, and silences outspoken and creative citizens.
A majoritarian model is dangerous if it undermines the checks and balances of constitutional democracy and weakens democratic institutions.
A model of unregulated financial markets causes global economic chaos, and imposes hardships on the billions left behind.
Another model of development emphasizes civic health and sustainability over limitless economic growth.
CEU’s mission is to prepare future leaders like you to live in a highly contested and rapidly changing world. It won’t be easy. The good news is you won’t be alone.
Today you join a vast network of CEU alumni, now more than 12,000 strong, who are emerging as international leaders in 117 countries.
Thirteen years ago, CEU bestowed its highest award, the Open Society Prize, on a courageous leader of a world in transition the late Vaclav Havel. In his acceptance speech, Havel defined the meaning of open society in words that describe the CEU network you are joining:
“An Open Society – that is a society of free people exercising free association, a society that does not defer to the dictate of any ideology – requires an open human being with an open mind.”
In a few minutes, when you come to the stage to receive your degrees, you will be able to thank the University’s founder, George Soros, as you enter the ranks of CEU alumni who are working each in their own way, with their own talents and contributions, to build a more just, sustainable, and open world.
An with that, I congratulate each one of you for all that you have accomplished as CEU students, and all that you will accomplish as CEU alumni!
