Remember your time at BU, as it will guide you in the toughest moments.
We will again be faced with challenges and moments when we feel like we’ve hit rock
bottom. And in that moment, I want you to remember Martin Luther King Jr. who once said,
“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in a moment of comfort and convenience
but where he stands at a time of challenge and controversy.”
Thank you all of you. God bless you all.
As head of the NAACP, you follow in the footsteps of many great civil rights leaders. Cornell
William Brooks—attorney, activist, and pastor—Boston University is proud to confer upon you the
degree of Doctor of Laws honoris causa .
Most famously you pulled JCPenny out of deep decline, making it both profitable and fashionable.
Now you have so richly endowed the school that has an exceptional opportunity for greatness.
Allen Questrom, we at Boston University are proud to call you our alumnus and friend and
also proud to confer upon you the degree Doctor of Humane Letters honoris causa.
Through the Allen and Kelli Questrom Foundation you have endowed chairs for the Dean and several
professorships in the School of Management helping us attract and keep some of America’s
most talented educators here.
Kelli Questrom—marketeer, educator, philanthropist, fashionista, and friend—Boston University
is proud to confer upon you the degree Doctor of Humane Letters honoris causa.
For more than a century, historians, musicologist, sociologists, and interested observers have
struggled to define jazz.
You provide that elusive definition not with words, but with your life. It always comes
back to the jazz.
George Wein—musician, author, philanthropist, jazz impresario—we are proud to confer upon
you the honorary degree of Humane Letters honoris causa.
You first caught our eyes as an insightful, award winning news correspondent. Through
a television career as reporter, editor, anchor, and moderator your intelligence impressed
us, your judgement informed us, your wit entertained us, and your style charmed us.
Meredith Vieira—journalist, entertainer, and role model—Boston University is proud
to confer upon you the degree Doctor of Humane Letters honoris causa.
Throughout your life, you will have to set your own priorities, make your own decisions.
And they won’t always be the best or the brightest ones, but that’s how you learn
and come to understand who you really are and what matters to you.
So don’t strive for somebody else’s notion of perfection. It’s an unattainable and
ultimately ridiculous goal. Strive instead to be uniquely yourself.
And when in doubt, listen to your gut. Because it already knows what you want to become.
Be the left shark. I’m thinking of Katy Perry’s half time performance. She was onstage
dancing with two sharks. The shark on the right knew every dance move and performed
perfectly.
But it was the left shark, the one who went rogue and danced to his own crazy beat who
stole the show.
Be the left shark.
Upon the recommendation of the faculty and by the authority of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,
I hereby confer upon you the degrees that you have earned together with all the appropriate
honors, privileges, and responsibilities in token of which you are granted diplomas.
My congratulations to you all.