Commencement 2008

Jamshed Bharucha
Provost and Senior Vice President
Remarks at Commencement Ceremony for Music & Drama/Dance
May 18, 2008

Music, drama and dance always have been among the defining elements of culture.

And yet, even though we as a nation have achieved unprecedented affluence and longevity, the arts are less well supported than they have been in decades. Over a period of 25-30 years, the arts have been systematically eliminated from public schools in the less affluent communities.

So ravaged have been budgets for the arts that there is now a desperate attempt to justify music in terms of its possible role in enhancing non-musical skills such as math. Music may well have these powers, but it is unfortunate that we feel the need to justify music on terms other than its own.

Some of the people I play chamber music with got started on their instruments in public school. Today, some of those same schools have no music program at all - except perhaps the marching band.

We live in an era in which anti-intellectualism holds sway. Education is reduced to unfunded slogans like "No Child Left Behind" and tests like the MCAS force schools to divert scarce
resources from creative activity to test preparation and bureaucratic documentation.

But there is hope.

We built this music building because we at Tufts are committed to the centrality of music and the arts in education.

You - our graduates - are the fortunate few who have had the privilege of an education in music, drama and dance. Whether or not you go on to work professionally in the field of your major, I urge you - please - to do your part to raise the consciousness for the arts in your communities.

Get onto your local school boards and fight for the arts. Join organizations that bring music, theater and dance to children who might otherwise never be exposed. Support efforts that deploy the arts as no other human activity can be deployed.

When I think of the power of the arts to transform children, I think of the Children's Orchestra Society in New York started by my friend Yu Chin Ma, in which mostly African-American and Hispanic kids in inner city neighborhoods now play classical music concerts they otherwise would never have imagined playing. I think of the orchestra started by Daniel Baremboim and Edward Said that brings together young Israeli and Palestinian children.

Tufts is a unique environment in that it fosters a spirit of civic engagement and public service. I know that some of you have worked with children in Medford and Somerville through Tufts programs. I also know from talking to community leaders that this outreach is having a powerful impact on kids.

I will end with something I often say because it is so rarely said: artists are leaders in society. Not always recognized, but leaders nevertheless. The arts lift people above their lives of quiet desperation, reinvigorate decaying neighborhoods, and express the optimism of a society. The arts can bring people together across divides that our politicians cannot seem to straddle.

You are therefore leaders. I look forward to hearing about the many ways in which you use your education to make the world a better place.