The 137th Commencement of the University of Kansas was also the 14th and final ceremony for Chancellor Robert Hemenway. In his remarks, Hemenway encouraged graduates to take risks and adapt to change, intermixing anecdotes from graduating Jayhawks with stories of his son Arna and father Myrle.

“Never let the promise of hope lose its power and brightness. Take the risk. Seek to change your world and the world of those around you. You walked today because others walked before you, and you will empower others to walk after you,” Hemenway said. “My father helped me to walk 60 years ago, and your family and friends empowered you to do the same today.”

As a demonstration of the changes that have taken place just during his time as chancellor, Hemenway asked graduates to use their cell phone cameras—a tangible sign of changing technology—to take photos of themselves and their friends.

“We are going to try something different. I don’t know how it will work. It might be a disaster, but that’s what risk is about,” Hemenway said before giving Jayhawks an e-mail address to send photos to be posted on facebook.com/KU.

So far, more than 400 photos have been posted, enabling graduates to see and “tag” themselves so that, as Hemenway said, “Years from now you can see how much you’ve changed.”

Hemenway closed his final address to graduates by joking that he’d been using Twitter to keep an eye on them because, “Change happens—even for chancellors.”

Chancellor Hemenway's speech
KU's Facebook page
Chancellor's Twitter
Commencement photo gallery