1. RSVP today for the Law School groundbreaking picnic and ceremony
2. Natsios calls on graduates to be principled leaders
3. Get paid to represent Marquette at State Fair booth

 

1. RSVP today for the Law School groundbreaking picnic and ceremony

Today is the final day to register for the free picnic lunch and groundbreaking ceremony to celebrate the construction of the new Law School building, Eckstein Hall, Thursday, May 22, at the future site of the facility on Tory Hill at 11th Street and Clybourn Street. Lunch will begin at 12:15 p.m., with the groundbreaking ceremony at 1:15 p.m. All members of the university community are invited for lunch and to participate in the group “dig” at the building site.

Marquette President Robert A. Wild, S.J., will lead the program and Rev. James Flaherty, S.J., rector of the Jesuit community, will bless the construction site. Chief Justice Shirley S. Abrahamson of the Wisconsin Supreme Court and Chief Judge Frank H. Easterbrook of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit will also give brief remarks.

Law School Dean Joseph D. Kearney said he expects hundreds of students, faculty, staff, alumni and members of the legal community to attend. Everyone present will be given a shovel to participate in the actual groundbreaking. Participants will receive a memento of the occasion.

RSVP on the Law School Web site by Monday, May 19, to be sure there’s a shovel for you. Contact University Special Events for any special needs.

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2. Natsios calls on graduates to be principled leaders

Basing his comments on a 37-year career that has taken him to 108 countries, Andrew Natsios, distinguished professor in the practice of diplomacy at Georgetown University and the former administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, shared his personal principles of leadership — and what he called “a bit of fatherly advice” — with Marquette graduates at the university’s 127th Commencement ceremony Sunday.

More than 1,300 undergraduates and nearly 600 graduate students received their diplomas.

Natsios urged graduates to “Do what is right.” He recalled a school reconstruction effort in Afghanistan. USAID built 673 schools, rather than the 1,500 originally projected, because Natsios ordered that the schools be built to earthquake standard 4, making construction more expensive. In light of the recent Chinese earthquake, Natsios said, “What we did in Afghanistan was the right thing to do, but it made USAID and my staff a target of critics.”

“Integrity is non-negotiable,” Natsios said. “Compromising ethical standards is a short road to disaster.” He urged graduates to make character and integrity the “watchwords of your life.”

The third principle Natsios addressed was “Know yourself.” He said self-reflection, including knowing one’s strengths and weaknesses, was important. “The question is whether you let your weaknesses and handicaps dominate you and become your demons, or whether you compensate for them and overcome them,” he said. He noted that Winston Churchill had a speech impediment that he compensated for by avoiding certain words in his speeches.

Natsios encouraged graduates to “Regard every job you have as the last you will ever hold” and to “Take some risks.” He cited his position as director of the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance in USAID as a job he had no interest in but that offered “fascinating and fulfilling experiences.”

Natsios stressed the importance of family in his sixth principle, “Take care of yourselves and your family.” “They are all that will be left of you one day,” he said. “The most important factor in the quality of life for your children will be your care and attention: not to smother them, or try to control everything they do, but to pay attention, to teach them your values.”

Finally, Natsios talked about the importance of faith. “Cultivate the inner life, the life of the spirit or you will miss what is most truly human in you,” he said.

“My charge to all of you is to transmit your country to the generation that follows you, greater and better than you received it from your parents,” Natsios concluded. “The world will soon be in your hands. Treat it with great care.”

Natsios was one of six individuals who received honorary degrees at Marquette’s Commencement. The others were: Dr. Benjamin S. Carson, director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins University; Andreas Delfs, music director of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra; Margaret Farrow, former lieutenant governor of Wisconsin and a Marquette alumna; Rev. John P. Foley, S.J., founding president of the Cristo Rey High School Network, a national association of Catholic, Jesuit college preparatory high schools; and Kate Huston, retired city librarian, City of Milwaukee.

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