Summers Bids ’02 Fond Farewell

University President Lawrence H. Summers said his goodbyes to the Class of 2002, mixing words of wisdom and wit at yesterday’s Baccalaureate service in Memorial Church.

Summers told the overflow crowd of graduates-to-be to embrace their individuality, find a calling and—if they want to receive diplomas tomorrow—pay their phone bills and return their stolen dishes.

The speech was part of a traditional service dating back to Harvard’s first Commencement in 1642.

Summers opened by joking that Commencement ceremonies will mark the beginning of many things for the class, including a lifetime of mailings from the Harvard alumni office—“the kind with a return envelope enclosed,” Summers quipped.

He conjured up details of Commencements past, explaining that at the first graduation exercises eight of the nine students graduated with some type of honors. In jest, Summers said research had found that the ninth student was forced to wear a scarlet B-minus, a reference to current controversy over honors inflation.

And he recalled his favorite memory from this year—when his twin daughters switched a draft copy of his installation speech for their own shorter version.

“It read, ‘Harvard is good, Harvard is great, let us go forth and educate,” Summers said.

More seriously, Summers advised students to be excited by the opportunities open to them upon graduation.

Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis ’68 may have advised students to slow down to get the most out of life, but Summers counseled otherwise.

“So take it slowly from Dean Lewis, but from me: blow off the rest of this week, have a great Commencement, and then on Friday, get cracking,” he said.

Summers reminded students that Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein did some of their best work before they were 30.

He then told seniors not to be anxious when they find their options beginning to narrow. There will be “forks in the roads, and roads not taken,” Summers said, but graduates should embrace the chance to find their calling.

They should relish their changing roles as they move from “absorbers of knowledge” to teachers and accept their newfound independence without forgetting friends and family, Summers said.

The service opened with a series of prayers after the Class of 2002, clad in cap and gown, marched through the Yard.

Summers’ speech and the choir’s hymns echoed over sunbathed Tercentenary Theatre, where parents and siblings of the class listened over a P.A. system.

—Staff writer David H. Gellis can be reached at gellis@fas.harvard.edu.