Remarks By:
Ursula M. Burns, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Xerox Corporation
at Xavier University Commencement 2012
President Francis, distinguished faculty, alumni, students, graduates, family
and friends of Xavier University … I am so proud to be with you today and to become
a part of your vibrant community - if only for a day.
You are unique in all of American higher education. There are more than 250
Catholic colleges in our nation. There are more than 100 historically Black colleges.
But there is only one college that is both Black and Catholic and that’s the Gold Rush
and the Gold Nuggets of Xavier. What a special tradition!
It’s hard for me not to reflect a little on my own graduation in 1980. It was a
dream come true. I grew up in a single-parent household in the public housings
projects of lower Manhattan.
My mother’s highest income year in her life was $4,400. Yet she managed to
send me and my two siblings to private Catholic schools from kindergarten through
high school. I didn’t fully appreciate it then, but it was a gift of immeasurable value.
That was followed by a scholarship to Brooklyn Polytechnic - now NYU Poly - and on
to a Master’s degree in mechanical engineering at Columbia.
Mom saw education as a way up and out of the projects. She made whatever
sacrifices were necessary to see to it that we had an opportunity to get a good
education and then she insisted that we take advantage of that opportunity.
All of the graduates here today have that same opportunity. Don’t ever take
it for granted. All of you will immerse yourselves in a world full of opportunity and
challenge.
I’ve given some thought about what my advice to you would be and I’ve
come up with five simple items. So here goes.
First, I would encourage all of you to follow the example of Xavier and
embrace change and learning willingly and with a sense of excitement and wonder.
The University is approaching its centennial anniversary. Think about that. It has
survived and excelled and re-invented itself for nearly 100 years because it has
evolved and changed.
The only thing I can predict with any certainty is that change will be a
constant in your lives as well. Back in 1980 when I sat where you are sitting today,
there were no cell phones. The Internet, let alone the iPad, was not even the stuff of
dreams. The fax machine was considered close to magic. Chinese capitalism and the
fall of the Soviet Union were unimaginable. Genetics was in its infancy. The word
terrorism was not a part of our vocabulary. Even as recently as a few years ago, the
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thought of a global economic melt-down was beyond comprehension.
I can't pretend to know how your world will change - but I know it will and at
a pace that will continue to increase exponentially. You can’t stop it. In many ways,
you are the cause of it. Learn to love it. Make it your ally. Stay relevant by devoting
yourself to a lifetime of learning. You are being given a wonderful academic
foundation - an invitation to begin a journey of learning, exploration and growth.
Treasure it.
Second, have fun. Enjoy life. Choose a career that gives you pleasure and
fulfillment. Surround yourselves with people who make you laugh. Don't fall into the
trap of letting someone else define your success and happiness.
Some of your parents here won’t like what I’m about to say. When they left
school, their immediate future was pretty well prescribed. The vast majority of
college graduates got a job, settled down, bought a house and had a family - all by
the age of 30.
That has changed dramatically. Now the decade after college is spent trying a
few jobs, getting a graduate degree, traveling, living and then settling down. I, for
one, think it’s a very good development.
That’s because people are more likely to be successful if they have a passion
for what they do. Finding it takes time. Make yourself a promise today. If down the
road, you find that your career is not fun, revert to my earlier piece of advice change!
Third, be true to yourself and your values. Your family … Xavier … your
church or synagogue or mosque or mountaintop … have given you a set of core
values - a moral compass. Hang on to it.
A predecessor of mine at Xerox used to say he tried to live his life as though
any piece of it might end up in his obituary. Would he be proud of it? That's not a
bad test. I have an even better one. It hangs on the wall of my office: “Don’t do
anything that wouldn’t make your Mom proud!”
Fourth, do good in the world. Our planet is in trouble. We need your help.
When your life’s journey ends, I promise you that you won’t care very much about the
money you made or the status you’ve achieved if you haven’t made the world a better
place along the way.
Doing good is not an “add on” but central to leading a rewarding life. As my
Mother used to tell anyone who would listen, we all have an obligation to “put back”
more than we “take out.” Leave more than you take - - not a bad formula for true
success.
Ursula Burns Remarks
Xavier University
May 12, 2012
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At the risk of getting preachy, I’d like to ask you to reflect for just a few
minutes on how privileged you are compared to most of the world’s population.
Think about this:
One-fifth of the world’s people goes to bed hungry every night and wakes up every
morning without hope.

Four billion people - that’s two-thirds of the world’s population - lives on less than
$2 a day.

More than one billion of the world’s population can’t read or write.

More than 40 percent of the world does not have basic sanitation.

More than a billion people drink water that is unsafe - leading to the death each
year of two million children.
Our brothers and sisters are in desperate need of a helping hand. Who will hear
them? If not us, who? If not now, when? As scripture tells us: “To those to whom
much is given, much is expected.” Live your life so that at the end of your journey,
you will know that your time here was well spent, that you left behind more than you
took away.
Fifth, do Xavier proud. You have a rich tradition to uphold. Saint Katherine
Drexel created a special place here in Louisiana. The mission of this university has
remained constant for the better part of a century - “to contribute to the promotion
of a more just and humane society by preparing students to assume roles of
leadership and service in a global society.”
Let me repeat that so you can let it sink in: “Xavier’s mission is to contribute
to the promotion of a more just and humane society by preparing its students to
assume roles of leadership and service in a global society.”
What a tradition to follow. What an opportunity you have been given. What a
responsibility you have - not just to contribute but to lead … not just to succeed but
to serve.
You are entering a world full of challenge. You will search for jobs in an
economy that is still struggling to emerge from the harshest downturn since the
Great Depression. You will enter a workforce in which careers and even entire
industries disappear or move around the world with breathtaking speed. You will
raise a family in which words like terrorism and climate change are part of our
everyday vocabulary. You will live on a planet that is overcrowded and struggling to
find ways to sustain itself. As our world grows flatter and smaller, you will live and
work with people who neither look like you nor share the same beliefs.
Ursula Burns Remarks
Xavier University
May 12, 2012
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At the same time, you will have extraordinary opportunities to live out the
aspirations that Xavier intends for you. You are well on your way to becoming part
of what Dr. W.E.B. Dubois called the "talented tenth" - the men and women he
believed would emerge as the leaders of black America. He coined the term "the
talented tenth" a decade before Xavier was founded. Imagine if he were here today
beholding the sight that I am privileged to see from this podium. He would be proud
and pleased beyond all belief.
Dubois would be proud, too, of the great strides that Black America has made
in the past century. Some of us have gained great political power and amassed great
economic wealth. We have succeeded in every facet of American life - sports and the
arts, government and business, academia and the military.
Yet, the work of the "talented tenth" is far from done. As we sit here, there
are more black men in prison than in college. More than 80 percent of Black and
Hispanic children cannot read or do math at grade level. You can add to the list of
disparities that lead to an unmistakable conclusion. As my friend and mentor Vernon
Jordan likes to say "you cannot concentrate on the best of what we have done; you
must focus on the worst of what we need to do."
That is your charge - to define your success at least in some measure by what
you do for your brothers and sisters. You cannot enter the ranks of the elite and then
close ranks behind you. You are part of a chain of those men and women who have
gone before us - those who broke the shackles of slavery ... fought for freedom and
justice ... took to the streets to demand voting and civil rights ... giants like Martin
Luther King and folks like your teachers and parents who now pass the baton off
justice to your care. It is at once a sobering and exhilarating responsibility.
To all of the graduates, allow yourself to bask in the glory of what you’ve
accomplished. And pledge to yourself that you will cherish what you have learned
here - - and use it as a foundation to do good.
My congratulations to all of you. You’ve worked long and hard to arrive at this place.
And my congratulations also to all the parents, grandparents, spouses, family
members and faculty that helped push you across the finish line. All of you should
feel, very, very proud. I wish you all the very best. May you live up to the mantle
you inherit. And may all your dreams come true.
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Ursula Burns Remarks
Xavier University
May 12, 2012
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