The qualities that distinguish Santa Clara graduates—compassion, purpose, preparation, and courage—don’t come with a lifetime guarantee. They require daily fortification and commitment to uphold the values that set Broncos apart in work, life, and love.
That was the message of Kirk O. Hanson, the outgoing executive director of Santa Clara University’s acclaimed Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, as he addressed nearly 1,300 members of the Class of 2018 at a ceremony at Buck Shaw Field in Stevens Stadium Saturday morning.
“You will shape your own character and your own strengths every day of your life,” he said. “You will weaken or strengthen your compassion, your purpose, your preparation, your courage, by the decisions you make every day. Who you are tomorrow depends on what you do today.”
Hanson, who is stepping down after 17 years at the helm of the Ethics Center, said his perspective from different universities has led him to conclude that Santa Clara students are different in four key ways, each of which provide profound advantages:
- Compassion. “When I have been more compassionate and attentive in my own life, I think I have been a better teacher, a better friend, a better manager,” he said. “Those times I was preoccupied with myself, things always started to go wrong. And those have been painful lessons.”
- Purpose. “Employers often tell us Santa Clara graduates really do dedicate themselves to a purpose, a passion in life beyond getting rich and looking out for number one... They say that there is another dimension to a Santa Clara student—a depth, a commitment to bettering this world we live in, a willingness to cooperate, a commitment to using your talents for others. Don’t underestimate the importance of this advantage. It will enable you to accomplish more, have deeper relationships, and be happier for your entire life.”
- Preparedness. Santa Clara graduates “know you have to create some space in your life to think before you act, to ask the really important questions in life – particularly when the pressure is greatest. There will always be someone hoping that you won’t reflect too much.” He added “I have spent my life studying how people prepare for, recognize and handle life’s ethical choices—when a boss asks you to falsify a report; when you are tempted to lie to cover up a mistake you made yourself; or when you have to deal with a colleague who thinks everything is competitive and that cooperation is for losers...I have learned that every job and every role you will have has a set of predictable—even unavoidable—ethical choices.”
- Courage. Hanson said he knows of countless confidential examples of Santa Clara University alumni who bravely spoke up in sticky ethical situations, “who headed off engineering disasters because they persistently raised safety questions at the right moment; corporate whistleblowers determined not to let misbehavior continue; graduates taking great risk to create companies with humane and ethical cultures and to create programs and ventures for the poor around the world, and of countless graduates before you who have stood up for women or minorities who are demeaned in their organizations. We salute your forbears who have made this a characteristic of their lives.”
Hanson led the Ethics Center as it became the largest and most active university-based ethics center in the world. He also holds the John Courtney Murray S.J. University Professorship in Social Ethics at Santa Clara. A graduate of Stanford University and the Stanford Graduate School of Business, he has held graduate fellowships and research appointments at the Yale Divinity School and the Harvard Business School, and received an honorary doctorate in 2013 from the University of Portland. At the ceremony, Santa Clara University awarded him an honorary doctorate in education.
A founding chair of numerous national and international business-ethics organizations, Hanson writes extensively on managing the ethical and public behavior of corporations, including co-editing a four-volume series titled The Accountable Corporation. Since 1973, he has advised over 100 businesses on the design of corporate ethics programs.
He currently serves on the board of directors of the Skoll Community Fund and sits on the advisory board of the Neely Center for Ethical Leadership and Decision Making at the University of Southern California.
TRANSCRIPT: SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS
KIRK O. HANSON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, MARKKULA CENTER FOR APPLIED ETHICS AND JOHN COURTNEY MURRAY, S.J. UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR OF SOCIAL ETHICS
Father President; Trustees and other members of the University Boards; distinguished guests; deans and faculty; parents, family, friends of our graduates; and the Bronco Class of 2018.
I am delighted to be an honorary member of Santa Clara’s Class of 2018. For the past 50 years, it seemed everyone in my family was getting a Santa Clara degree – my brother, two of my sisters-in-law and both of their husbands, five nieces and nephews – but not me. Now I will finally get respect at family gatherings! I too am a Bronco!
As fate would have it, 50 years ago today, June 16, 1968, I walked across the stage and got my own undergraduate degree. I hope that 50 years from today, you will feel as fulfilled and blessed as I do. However, at my graduation, my godfather, a crusty Irish policeman, had enough half way through the commencement speech and disappeared. We later found him in the bar back at the hotel. Godfathers, I am watching you as a leading indicator of how I am doing.
It is easy to make broad statements today about millennials, Gen Xers, about all college students. But I want to reflect this morning on how you, Santa Clara graduates, are different from most other college graduates – both because you were different four years ago when you arrived here and because of how you have been shaped by your Santa Clara education. Fortunately, what is different about a Santa Clara graduate makes you more attractive to employers, to the friends we all hope will accompany us through our lives, and to a future wife, husband or partner (Now I have your attention!).
Having taught for 23 years at a well known secular university and now for 17 years here at Santa Clara, I am convinced Santa Clara graduates are different. I am going to talk briefly about four characteristics which I think set Santa Clara grads apart. I hope each of you in the Class of 2018 embraces these four traits as part of your own identity. I hope you will always BE DIFFERENT, in these ways. However, if you don’t recognize any of these traits, we will have a remedial year of Santa Clara undergraduate education beginning tomorrow morning!
First, Santa Clara grads, I believe, are more compassionate, more empathetic about what others are feeling, and how others experience this often challenging life, particularly when the other person’s experience is very different from our own. One of our distinguished professors, Tom Plante in Psychology, developed a test of compassion, primarily to track the impact of a Santa Clara education on your values. It is given to entering freshmen and graduating seniors. Professor Plante hypothesizes that you were already different from the typical college student when you arrived – more compassionate and empathetic as a product of your family’s influence as well as your own personal choices before college.
Your class’s survey data is still to be analyzed, but based on past classes, the compassion and empathy you have for others has increased while you have been at Santa Clara. And greater increases in compassion are correlated with, and increased by, feeling valued as a part of the Santa Clara community, participating in service learning opportunities, taking workshops on racial and cultural sensitivity, and exploring the varied religious and spiritual experiences available here.
Here’s the advantage of being more compassionate and empathetic. If you are, you recognize how the lives of others are different from yours, and how others may think and feel differently. You can manage teams and organizations more effectively, you can tap into the feelings of consumers and audiences more effectively, and you can create ventures and public policies that address the real problems others have. When I have been more compassionate and attentive, I think I have been a better teacher, a better friend, a better manager. Those times I was preoccupied with myself, things always started to go wrong. Those lessons were painful.
So BE DIFFERENT, be compassionate.
Second, employers often tell us Santa Clara graduates really do have a purpose, a passion in life beyond getting rich and looking out for number one. You are less full of yourself than the graduates of some other universities. Employers and friends and spouses like that. This is what employers mean when they say there is another dimension to a Santa Clara student-- a depth, a commitment to bettering this world we live in, a willingness to cooperate, a commitment to using your talents for others. Don’t underestimate the importance of this difference. It will enable you to accomplish more and be happier your whole life.
Some of you have found a passion while at Santa Clara – in engineering design projects featuring environmental sustainability, in business entrepreneurship which serves the least advantaged, in education for the underserved, in a legal career that seeks justice for all. Some of you will find your passion later. I found my passion for business ethics in a summer internship at Hewlett-Packard between my junior and senior years, and it has shaped the rest of my life. But our passions evolve over a lifetime. You will spend a few years working on one cause or in one profession, then pivot and work on another goal, equally as worthwhile.
So BE DIFFERENT, be purposeful.
Third, you are prepared for the unpredictable and sometimes troubling world you will face. I have spent my life studying how people prepare for, recognize and handle life’s ethical choices-- when a boss asks you to falsify a report, when you are tempted to lie to cover up a mistake you made, or when you have to deal with a colleague who thinks everything is competitive and cooperation is for losers. (Now where have I heard that?) I have learned that every job and every role you will have has a set of predictable—unavoidable --ethical choices. One role many of us here this morning share is that we are parents. Boy, do parents make a lot of ethical choices. My wife and I raised three children and I think we got better at when to show anger and when to let it go, when to let our children so something risky and when to protect their safety, when to advise and when to shut up. My biggest ethical failing, however, was as a spouse when I accepted a job in another city on the spot after promising my wife that any career move would be worked out together in advance. That was 30 years ago and I am still doing penance for it. It is not worth it.
Santa Clara graduates know there are unavoidable ethical choices in business, engineering, science, medicine, law – and any career path they pursue. And they know the questions you can ask when you face an ethical dilemma –which choice does the most good and least harm, whose rights are affected, what is the fairest way to handle this, what action contributes to the common good of all, and what does having a good character require here.
Santa Clara grads also know about the Jesuit concept of “discernment.” They know you have to create some space in your life to think before you act, to ask the really important questions in life – particularly when the pressure is greatest. There will always be someone hoping that you won’t reflect very much.
Graduates, BE DIFFERENT, be prepared.
The fourth difference is that Santa Clara graduates have significant courage. Making good choices in life will involve deliberate sacrifices, to turn down a questionable assignment or to admit your mistakes rather than cover them up, to pursue your passion rather than solely the path to fame and wealth. It will sometimes involve putting some of your goals on hold for the sake of your spouse’s career, or while you care for an ill parent. My three thirty-something children are here this morning, I hope they are paying attention to that one.
There are many stories of courage we could tell today, and some we can’t – of Santa Clara graduates who headed off engineering disasters because they persistently raised safety questions at the right moment, of corporate whistleblowers determined not to let misbehavior continue, of graduates taking great risk to create companies with humane and ethical cultures or to create programs and ventures for the poor around the world, and of countless graduates who have stood up for women or minorities in their organizations. My best and in some ways my most courageous decision was to leave Stanford and its comforts to come to Santa Clara to grow the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics. It turned out to be the second most important choice in my life – after marrying my life partner Kathryn. It brought a greater sense of fulfillment and happiness than I have ever had.
Our experience and our hope is that the Santa Clara graduate is the courageous one, the first to speak up, to take the risk, even to pay a price to do the right thing.
So, BE DIFFERENT, be courageous.
Class of 2018, I have a warning for you this morning, however. The traits you came with and were shaped by your Santa Clara education do not come with lifetime guarantees. You will shape your own character and your own strengths every day of your life; you will weaken or strengthen your compassion, your purpose, your preparedness, your courage -- by the decisions you make today, tomorrow and every day of your life. Who you are tomorrow depends on what you do today.
I hope you and your families will celebrate this morning that you are different from other college graduates. You are entering the world with great intelligence and a top quality education, but even more importantly, with a set of values and skills that the world desperately needs. And we believe those values and skills will lead you to a life of deep fulfillment and happiness.
Santa Clara Class of 2018: BE DIFFERENT, and Godspeed.