In June of 2022, as the Chair of the Academic Senate at Cal Poly, I was given the opportunity to deliver remarks at Cal Poly’s 2022 spring graduation on behalf of the faculty for each of the six college ceremonies.   Since serving in this role starting in July of 2020, I’ve really enjoyed giving graduation speeches during both Fall and Spring commencements.  

The Chair of the Academic Senate also has the honor of marching with the ceremonial Mace at the head of the processional and recessional.  The Mustang News wrote a nice article with a section summarizing the history of the Mace at Cal Poly.  The current mace was designed and created by Professor Emeritus Crissa Hewitt in 2001.   The commencement pamphlet states “The tradition of the academic mace dates from the Middle Ages when two ancient instruments, the royal scepter and the battle mace, were combined to form a symbol of the authority of the rector of the university.”  In my own mind, while I wield it, I imagine it to be less a symbol of authority, but rather a symbol representing the faculty defense of, and commitment to, seeking Truth.

For several of the ceremonies, I was also given the honor of distributing the graduation participation certificates to the students as their names were called (they don’t give the diploma’s out at commencement).  It was really an amazing experience to see each student’s face as they basked in the joy of their special moment.

Me with the ceremonial academic Mace just before the December 2021 commencement.

While crafting my remarks, my goal was to put the graduate’s pragmatic educational experience into a bigger picture while philosophically zooming in from the cosmological to the neurological to the subatomic.  I used a quote from Neil Peart (from the song Time Stand Still) and some science inspired by Carl Sagan. I also drew from mindfulness meditation traditions while sprinkling in a little stoic philosophy.

My remarks are only about 3 minutes long from when the clip starts.  This video is part of the full Cal Poly College and Science and Math ceremony, which was on Sunday, June 12, 2022 at about 12:30 (lasting about 2 hours). The sound isn’t great, so you might have to turn it up.  Below the video on this page is the text of the remarks.

I’m Tom Gutierrez, Chair of the Academic Senate at Cal Poly and Professor of Physics.

Let’s reflect a little on how you ended up here today.

Most of the electrons in your body, which mediate the everyday chemistry and biology we so know and love, were witness to the big bang over 13 billion years ago.

The heavy nuclei in your body, giving you most of your mass and keeping those electrons bound in their quantum haze, were forged at the center of stars, in supernova explosions, or in neutron star collisions billions of years ago.

As a former plasma of quarks and leptons, subject to fickle quantum fluctuations, you’ve come a long way since those early days!
Your matter has precipitated, emerged, and evolved against all odds from the beginning of time into you — the sentient creature sitting here in this moment.

You are an entity who has a wetware neural network so powerful in its skull, it can learn, it can ask questions, and has the potential to Understand the nature of humanity and the universe that birthed it.
As Carl Sagan said, “We are a way for the universe to know itself.”

Drawing inward and bringing ourselves into this moment, on behalf of Cal Poly’s Academic Senate and our faculty, I would like to congratulate all of our graduates! The faculty- student relationship is profoundly special, and we will continue to support you in pursuit of your professional and personal aspirations however we can. Faculty worked tirelessly to foster your content mastery and also expose you to a balance of breadth and depth across the curriculum. One goal was to create a space where you learned how to learn. I hoped this helped you develop the skills necessary to understand your humanity, learn about and apply the laws of nature, and to use the wetware in your skull to nudge the universe along in its journey to know itself.

I’d like to leave you with a quote from Neil Peart on the importance of living in the moment:

Time stand still
I’m not looking back
But I want to look around me now Time stands still
See more of the people
And the places that surround me now
Time stands still
Freeze this moment
A little bit longer
Make each sensation
A little bit stronger [because] Experience slips away

Looking forward, I wish you tranquility, happiness, and growth opportunities into the future! And stay connected to your cosmological roots. Again, congratulations!