UpDate - Vol. 14, No. 34, Page 1
June 8, 1995
Class of 1995 urged to 'say no to the status quo'

     Cool weather and clear skies presented a perfect setting May 27
for the University's 146th Commencement, attended by some 25,000
persons in Delaware Stadium.
     More than 4,400 degrees were conferred at the ceremony.
     Featured speaker was Allen H. Neuharth, founder of USA Today, who
built the nation's largest newspaper company and started the nation's
most widely read newspaper. Currently, he chairs the Freedom Forum,
one of the nation's largest private foundations with assets of about
$700 million.
     In his remarks to the Class of 1995, Neuharth quoted the
philosopher Plato, who said, "The direction in which education starts
a person determines his future life."
     Neuharth added, "Your education here has started you in the right
direction. You chose wisely by coming to the University of Delaware.
This month and next, over one and one half million graduates will
receive degrees from the U.S.A.'s colleges and universities. You can
hold a candle to any of them."
     After quoting from experts who had predicted that trains would
never travel faster than 10 miles an hour and that human space travel
would be impossible, he told the graduates that, while intelligent and
well educated, these forecasters had "no street smarts, no
imagination, no vision, no guts."
     Risk takers, he said, are the ones who make the world a better
place. "They say no to the status quo. And, in 1995, there is no
longer any status quo anywhere in the world."
     Neuharth predicted that the "global agenda of the future" will
not be set by the military or politicians, but by professional and
business leaders, "by entrepreneurs who develop and market better
ideas and better products."
     With this global outlook in mind, he said, traditional careers in
conventional, big businesses are not "the sure bet for success that
they used to be. Globalization now favors flexibility and
entrepreneurship and risk taking.
     "Small and speedy now often beats big and burdensome. The hare
generally will finish ahead of the tortoise," he said.
     Quoting Thomas Paine, Neuharth shared a personal example of "the
dearness of doing the difficult." "Thirteen years ago," he said, "we
at Gannett tried a little experiment in journalism called USA Today.
Critics and competitors said it couldn't be done. They wrote USA
Today's obituary before it was born, sarcastically labeled us McPaper,
the fastfood of journalism. Now, most of them have stolen McPaper's
McNuggets. And that little risk-taking rebel is the biggest newspaper
in the U.S.A., with over 6 million readers a day. USA Today simply
looked the establishment in the eye and said, 'It's time to reinvent
the newspaper.'
     "Well, better newspapers, better mousetraps, better widgets or
better whatnots, they are out there waiting to be invented or
reinvented by risk takers," Neuharth said.
     Neuharth concluded with the words of his favorite poet, Robert
Frost, who wrote, "Two roads diverged in the woods, and I, I took the
one less traveled by and that has made all the difference."
     "You, too," he said, "can make a difference on any road you
choose."
     University President David P. Roselle welcomed graduates,
families and friends, noting that the graduates came from more than 35
states and 70 countries and ranged in age from 20 to 79, with 13
graduates 65 or older. Of the nine graduating 20-year-olds, one
achieved a perfect 4.0 grade point average.
     The Class of 1995 also included one set of triplets and three
sets of twins, along with 35 Smiths, 22 Johnsons, 15 Browns, 14
Millers and 13 Taylors.
     Chris Matthews, president of the senior class, presented Roselle
with the class gift, $7,735 to be used for campus beautification and
the beginnings of the Class of 1995 scholarship fund.