On a beautiful spring morning, replete with sunny skies and warm temperatures, commencement speaker Jane Alexander delivered a relatively simple message to the Class of 1996: support the National Endowment for the Arts and be nice to people.
Alexander, who has served as chair of the NEA since October 1993, emphasized during her 10-minute address in Wallace Wade Stadium on May 12 that her organization exemplifies what is "right" with the federal government.
"There may be some things wrong with government, but I have to tell you, there's a lot right, too," Alexander said. "And I think that tends to be obscured in the rhetoric today."
The 35-year veteran of the arts then pointed to the current economic hardship that her group is enduring, citing previous and future budgetary threats presented by the Congressional axe as the NEA's greatest foes. Along the way, Alexander poked fun at North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms-a renowned antagonist of the arts.
"Out of 110,000 grants given in [the NEA's] 30-year history, we've had about 40 that have caused some people some problems," Alexander said with a smile. "And when that someone is a certain senator from North Carolina, the whole country hears about it."
Emphasizing that she wanted to use her tenure as NEA chair-which will end in two years-to combat this negative perception that Helms and other politicians may have engendered, Alexander said that she has and will continue to view her position as a springboard for positive promotion of the group.
"I wanted the entire country to hear the good side of the story as well because art, of course, is challenging-but it is also beautiful," she said.
Playing on the fact that the University's commencement exercises were held on Mother's Day, Alexander dubbed the approximately 3,300 graduates her "sons and daughters in spirit." And after commending them for completing this "rite of passage," Alexander then asked that they become "working citizens... who take care of this world." A past recipient of the Tony Award, Alexander said she hoped that the graduates eventually come to be known as the "I care" generation "because I know a lot of people your age and I know that you do care."
In this more traditional part of her speech, Alexander employed an extended metaphor likening the years 1999, 2000 and 2001 to three different millennia. Attempting to convey to the members of the graduating class that they have a unique opportunity to affect the way the world functions because it is entering a turning-point in its history, Alexander dared graduates to "seize firmly the challenge of good stewardship" and care for the environment and each other.
"Long after wars are won or lost, art and science endure," she said. "Our cultural legacy tells the next generation about the people who lived then and there-how expansive they were or how prosaic."
Saying that "an indignity suffered by anyone is our indignity as well," Alexander concluded her talk by encouraging graduates to have a vested interest in their fellow man and to uphold a good citizen's sense of social obligation.
"Live up to your intelligence," she said. "Others have cared for you-now, sons and daughters, it is your turn."
The award-winning actress is also a producer and an author. In addition to receiving the Tony, she has been nominated for an Emmy Award and an Academy Award. She has appeared in about 40 films, 100 plays and numerous television programs, prompting President Nan Keohane to call her "the mistress of every medium."
At the commencement ceremony, the University also awarded honorary degrees to Alexander; Julius Chamber, civil rights attorney and North Carolina Central University chancellor; Frank Kenan, business leader and philanthropist; Daniel Tosteson, scientist, educator and former University trustee; and Sir David Williams, Cambridge University vice chancellor and legal scholar.
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