As chair of the Board of Directors of Université de Montréal, I had the honour of addressing the doctoral students, their families and friends, guests and members of the University community at the May 2013 convocation ceremony.

The Board is a governing body, which sets the strategic directions for the university and ensures its sound management.

The Board is run by volunteer members who come from academic as well as non-academic backgrounds.

We are involved in the Board’s work partly because we want to contribute as citizens to the world of knowledge.

But, we are also and above all involved because this university, with its exceptional talent pool that enables Quebec to make its mark, in French, in the global scientific community, is extremely important to us.

“Dear new doctors, I want to congratulate you, to thank you, and to make a wish for you,” I said.

“First, congratulations on having earned your degree. As you know by now, writing a thesis is a not a sprint, but a marathon.” It is not unusual to run out of steam midway through the process and feel like giving up. But they persisted and won.

“Second, thank you for having helped raise the profile of your university.” Some of them were part of research teams, others were teaching assistants. All worked in the shadow of their professors. This is part and parcel of PhD work, “but it still deserves our sincere thanks,” I immediately added.

Third, and last, I told them my wish: “Get involved!” Taking care to choose my words carefully, I continued: “You have gained an impressive breadth and depth of knowledge. Use it to serve your community. Contribute to a cause that is important to you. Trust me, your life will be so much richer for it. You will learn that you can be agents for change. That you can make a difference.”

Citizen involvement is the enemy of cynicism and disillusion. It is democracy’s greatest ally. And these days, I think we would all agree that a lot more involvement is what’s needed.

Educating a generation is a collective effort. The 472 new Université de Montréal doctoral graduates are the result of this effort. “You are our future. It is your task to build a society that reflects who you are, that is open-minded, inclusive, honest, and which places value on knowledge.”

Our graduates will not forget their alma mater, of that I’m convinced. One thing’s for sure – we will always be there for them.

Louise Roy
Chancellor, University de Montréal

NB: this blog has been adapted from the speech given at the doctoral students’ convocation ceremony at University de Montréal on May 31, 2013.