(Music Playing) Good morning.

Today we celebrate the graduates of the College of Arts and Letters.

Please stand and join in one stanza and singing on stanza of America the Beautiful.

Lead by Tiffany Williams, a music performance doctoral student in the College of Music, who will be accompanied by the MSU Symphony Band under the direction of Emily Trompitan.. (Singing and performance of America the Beautiful) Please be seated.

On behalf of the faculty and staff o the College of Arts and Letters, I welcome all graduates, families and friends to the Michigan State University College of Arts and Letters class of 2026 commencement ceremony.

As we begin our ceremony today, I'd like to acknowledge the land Michigan State's main campus occupies.

We collectively acknowledg that Michigan State University occupies the ancestral, traditional, and contemporary lands of the Anishinaabeg Three Fires Confederacy of Ojibwe, Odawa, and Bodéwadmi peoples.

In particula the university resides on land ceded in the 1819 Treaty of Saginaw.

We recognize, support, and advocate for the sovereignty of Michigan's 12 federally recognized Native American nations for historic indigenous communities, and Michigan for indigenous individuals and communities who live here now, and those who were forcibly removed from their homelands.

Thank you.

Today, we honor our outstanding graduates.

Please stand if you are able.

Before we turn to celebrating their accomplishments, let us reflect on the relationships and the people who helped bring them to this day of commencement, and take a moment to consider how we might live in ways that honor the spirit of those no longer with us.

The ceremony we celebrate today is called commencement because it marks a beginning.

As you walk across this stage, you step onto a new path, leaving behind the campu you called home and continuing to chart the meaningful course of your lives.

At such moments of beginning, it is fitting to reflect on all that has brought you here.

Today we celebrate not only the classes you completed, the co-curricular experiences you pursued, and the internships you can now place on your resume.

But the full breadth of your education and education that has prepared you to think critically, to respond ethically, to imagine creatively.

Your College of Arts and Letters degree calls upon the power of varied perspectives and diverse backgrounds.

It has given you a foundation to move confidently across multiple environments, and to create a more just and meaningful world.

Now, it is my pleasure to introduce the Honorable Brianna Scott, chair of the Michigan State University Board of Trustees, to welcome yo to this commencement ceremony.

Good morning.

I am honored to stand before you today representing the Michigan State University Board of Trustees.

I would first like to acknowledge my colleague, the Honorable Rebecca Bahar-Cook of the Board of Trustees.

Thank yo for attending today's ceremony.

It is a significant moment, as we gather to celebrate the graduation of our Spartan Scholars, a milestone that marks both an ending and a beginning.

First and foremost, allow me to extend a warm welcome to our graduates, as well as their families and friend who have joined us here today.

Your presence reflect the sheer joy and the unwavering support that defines our Spartan community.

The MSU Board of Trustee is deeply committed to upholding the principles entrusted to us by the Michigan Constitution.

Among our responsibilitie is the privilege of conferring degrees, a duty that we carry out with great pride.

Today's ceremony is more than a formal acknowledgment.

It is a celebration of your dedication, perseverance, and creative contributions that each of you has made.

The degree you are about to receive represents the knowledge that you have gained and the challenges that you have overcome, as well as the growth that you have achieved.

It is a testament to your hard work and the sacrifices made by you and those who have supported you throughout this journey.

As you begin your next chapter, we encourage you to lead with conviction.

Use the knowledge and the insights that you have gained here to uplift communities, to advance the well-being of society, as well as to inspire others.

Now that our faculty know that our faculty and our administrators, as well as my fellow trustees, celebrate you and you achievements with great pride, we would also like to recognize the 16 College of Arts and Letters scholars who are graduating today with a perfect 4.0 GPA.

These graduates have received the prestigious Board of Trustees Award, and we commend your hard work and dedication.

Your achievements reflect the highest standards and values of our institution and bring honor not only to yourselves, bu the Spartan community as well.

I invite these distinguished graduates who have received the Board of Trustees Award to stand as I call your name, and remain standing as all of the names are called, so that we may recognize the significant academic accomplishment, let us hold our applause unti every name has been announced, so that we may properly honor each and every one of ou remarkable individual graduates.

Zachary Anderson, B.A.

of Experience Architecture.

Brooke, I am Buzz Barker, a B.A.

in English.

William Ward Downey, a BFA in Graphic design, an honor college Caitlin Casper, a B.A.

in sociology, a B.A.

in Humanities, Pre-Law, a B.A., and Women and Gender Studies and Honors College.

Allison, Donna.

A B.S.

in neuroscience, a B.A.

and French in Honors College Megan Hill a B.A.

in English Marilyn Hillman, a B.A.

in Humanitie pre-law Shannon Humbert, a B.S.

in Communicative Sciences and Disorders.

A B.A.

in linguistics.

Hailey McCullough, a B.A.

in Experienc Architecture, an honors college Charlotte Minor, a B.A.

in Experience Architecture.

Honors College Donovan Morris, and a B.A.

in English in Honors College.

Mairin O'Connor, a B.A.

in Experience Architecture Colette Paranal and a B.S.

in zoology.

A B.A.

in French Josephine Sullivan, a B.A.

in English and Honors College.

Grace Tuck, a B.A.

in English, an honors college.

And Riley Wine, a BFA in acting.

An honors college.

On behalf of your peers, our distinguished faculty and the University's leadership, I extend my heartfelt congratulation and best wishes to each of you.

Now, will everyone pleas join me in a round of applause to celebrate these 2026 Board of Trustee Award recipients.

Thank you and congratulations once again to all of our graduates.

Your future is bright, and we look forwar to seeing the incredible impact that each of you will make in this world.

Thank you.

And go green.

Go white.

Thank you.

Trustee Scott.

At this time, I would like to recognize our citizen scholars who are graduating today.

Created in 2016, the Citizen Scholars Program establishes rigorous standards for high achieving student who seek intellectual challenge.

It prepares these students to succeed academically while gaining experience with high impact learning opportunities such as study abroad, undergraduate research and internships.

Today we have two students graduating from the Citizen Scholars Program.

These two students are also the first to graduate from the program with an undergraduate certificate and Reflective Leadership in the Arts and Humanities.

They are Olivia Seljannin in B.A.

English Literary Studies.

And Alison Deadline, BFA, Stage Management and B.A.

in management.

What each of you please stand to be recognized.

Thank you, Olivia and Alison.

Now, I'd like to recognize those graduates who have received the top undergraduate awards presented by the College of Arts and Letters.

First, the Louis B Sutler Prize, which recognizes graduating seniors who have demonstrated outstanding achievement in the area of performing and creative arts, including the fin arts, music, creative writing, theate or electronic photographic arts, and who also show promise of future achievement in these fields.

The class of 2026 Louis B Sutler Prize Award winners are Allison Doderlin BFA, Stage Management and B.A.

management Trevor Sullivan, B.A.

in English Kurt Thomas, BFA studio Art.

And Aaron Young, B.A.

Film Studies, B.A., English.

Would you each stand?

We now turn to recognize the winner of the Outstanding Senior Achievement Award.

This award is given annually to a student who embodies four hallmark characteristics of an outstanding graduate.

One.

Leadership and service.

Two.

Personal and professional development.

Three.

Interdisciplinary scholarship and practice.

And for a commitment to cross-cultural diversity.

This year's winner is also the 2026 recipient of the Richar Lee Featherstone Endowed Prize, which is awarded to MSU's most outstanding graduate senior.

And as determined by the Featherstone nomination committee, please join me in congratulating this year's winner of the College of Arts and Letters Outstanding Achievement Award and MSU's Richard Lee Featherstone Endowed Prize.

Kaylin Casper, BA, sociology BA, Humanities, Pre-Law.

BA Women and Gender Studies and Honors College.

Kaylin would you please stand to be recognized?

In honoring these students and celebrating all of our graduates today.

We affirm the core values at the heart of the liberal arts education.

Each of you has pursued, at its core, a liberal arts education cultivates intellectual creative, and ethical capacities that will sustain you not only in your careers but throughout your lives.

The arts and humanities have shaped how you think, how you interpret the world and how you engage with others.

They've taught you to tell meaningful stories, to thin critically, to reason ethically, and to communicate with clarity and purpose.

These are not abstract ideals.

They are durable, practical skills that will serve you in every profession and in every community.

You join.

You carry these strengths into a world defined by constant change.

One in which artificial intelligence is transforming industries.

Career paths are less predictable, and the pace of change can feel unrelenting.

But this moment does not diminish the value of your education.

It affirms it.

In this moment, your ability to adapt, to remain curious, and to continue learning is your greatest advantage.

The habits of mind you have developed here will allow you to not onl navigate change, but to shape it for generations.

Alumni from the College of Arts and Letters at Michigan State University have transformed lives through engaged leadership, and I am confident you will do the same.

That impact depends upo put in your values into practice and acting with intentio so that your passion, leadership and talent can fully realize the power of your degree and help bring greate justice and humanity to a world that deeply needs both.

On behalf of the faculty and staff of the College of Arts and Letters.

I wish you joy and fulfillmen as you pursue your next goals.

As you begin this chapter, we hope you will remember your time here on the banks of the Red Cedar and how it has shaped you to become the person you will be, and we hope you will return often to mentor and support the next generation of Spartans.

Just as those who came befor you supported and encouraged you on your path to this moment.

Now Justus Nieland, chairperson of the Department of English, will introduce our student speaker.

Congratulations, graduates.

It's my great honor to introduce our student commencement speaker, Sloane Barlow.

Sloane is an honor college student who's graduating with dual Bachelor of Arts degrees in English and journalism, and a minor in media photography.

Sloane als is currently pursuing a graduate certificate in Global Nonprofit Leadership, which she plans to complete next year.

In eighth grade, Sloane picked up photography as a hobby when her father bought a professional camera for family trips.

What started as landscapes and wildlife evolved at MSU into finding connection with people.

Sloane has spent the last few years taking pictures for the Honors College, the State News and MSU's yearbook, the Red Cedar Log, where she's also served a marketing outreach coordinator.

A Thai American.

Sloane reconnected with her heritage and spent three weeks in Thailand in May 2024 through Give Volunteer Hours, an international volunteer organization.

Since then, she's continued volunteering, including a program in Hawaii last summer.

This summer, she'll participate in another Thailand program and serve as program guide fo Give Volunteers Hawaii cohort.

Sloane als maintains a volunteer internship with Allen Neighborhood Center, a nonprofit that is focused on neighborhood revitalization, food security health and economic development.

I invite you all to join me in welcoming to the podium the MSU College of Arts and Letters.

2026 Undergraduate Commencement Speaker Sloane Barlow.

One minute while I adjust the stand.

Because Docto Nieland is a bit taller than me.

Thank you, Doctor Nieland.

And congratulations to my fellow graduates.

I hope that when you hear this speech, you are not just hearing about me and my story.

I hope my words are a testament to the hard work we have each accomplished individually and together as students of creativity, artistry, language, and the humanities.

Students of history who make history.

Students of exploration and diversity.

Community.

We are a driving force in a new generation of innovation and leadership.

Now that we are graduating.

Many of us are likely being told that we are now entering real life.

That we are being released into the world and into our new lives.

However, it's hard for me to believe that because we have already bee making an impact in this world.

We have already taken a hold of our destinies.

We did that when we sent our applications to MSU.

We made an impact when we chose our English degrees, our Spanish degrees, our studio art degrees, our women's studies degrees.

We made an impact while studying at MSU, coming from across the nation, from overseas.

And as first generation college students, we made it to this moment.

Finally adorned in our caps and gowns, walking out of this room as graduates, as alumni.

It is not finally real life.

We have already been living real life, walking out of this room means we are leveling up.

We are gaining more access and chances to expand our leadership, our impact, our skills, our passions, and our students of creativity.

Sometimes we end up with too many skills to count.

Being an arts and letter student has allowed us to pursue those multifaceted interests.

The College of Arts and Letters has given me the freedom and flexibility to study creative writing, photography, literature, journalism, foreign languages, and even global nonprofit leadership.

But with these multifacete skills, many of you may wonder what exactly does your life path look like?

It's not like our fields of study directly point us to a specific, limited job option.

We each have so many diverse talents in this college, ultimately leavin a winding split path to travel.

There is an ever lingering question of the future.

A question that echoes in my own mind as well.

But as students of creativity we know who we are pretty well.

We have spent time self-reflecting to write, to listen, to create art.

I owe much of my confidence and my identity to my time studying and reflecting here at the College of Arts and Letters.

My name is Sloane Barlow.

I am a writer.

I am a photographer.

I'm an artist.

I'm a second generation Spartan and now a second generation MSU commencement speaker.

I am a Thai American Michigander.

I am a global citizen.

I am a daughter, a sister a partner, a and I am a leader.

Even if I have to remind myself often, my collegiate education may end here, but I am forever a student of life.

If there is one thin you remember from this speech, I hope it is something I learned not long ago while I was volunteering in Kiowa Bay, collecting trash washed up on the shores of Hawaii's Big Island, the local and Native Hawaiian guide, looked around at us volunteers breathing in the land of his ancestors and told us, you have two eyes, two ears and one mouth.

What that means i you should look and listen twice as much as you speak.

Many of us in this room may be perceived as introverts.

The books, our written words and our canvases are safe spaces of introspection and reflection.

I know all of you know how to listen and observe, but I want you to remember that observation is a power.

It may not be flashy, like super strength or super speed, but it is an internal power of reception, processing and action.

Believe it or not, no many people are great at that.

As a photographer, my camera is my tool of observation.

I can see how the same thing can look entirely different depending on how I frame it.

It is a powerful tool I seek to use for good.

I am more welcomed into communities as a photographer because they know I am there to document, to document and learn rather than manipulate.

As artists, we control the narrative.

We observe and absorb knowledge, then choose a medium to share our focus with the public.

They're writing photography.

They're a physical or digital canvas.

There's storytelling and sitting with people face to face.

Our soft skills are not exactly soft, but rather powerful expandable tools that connect with real people, real places and communities, ultimately shaping the way others see the world.

With that power of observation, which I know is in each and every one of my fellow graduates, you are natural born leaders and I am excited to see where that power takes us.

Thank you and go green.

Go white.

Thank you.

Sloane.

At this time, chairperson and directors from the college will introduce the candidates for baccalaureate degrees in the College of Arts and Letters.

As the graduates come forward, they will be in alphabetical order by department or degree program.

Graduates, please return to your seats.

After your name is called.

You receive your diploma and your photo is taken.

Melissa Ingless and Linda Kernohan will read the names of graduate as they receive their diplomas.

Associate Dean Deli Fernandez-Jones will introduce the chairpersons, who will then introduce their degree candidates.

Thank you, Dean Stubblefield.

Please welcome Professor Robert McCann, interim chair of the Department of Arts, Art History and Design.

Will the spectacular candidates for art, art history and design please come forward?

(Conferral of degrees reading graduate names) (Conferral of degrees reading graduate names) Thank you to our graduates from the English department.

And thank you to chair Justus Nieland.

We'd like to pleas welcome Professor Casey McArdle, director of the Experience Architecture program.

Will the amazing, the brilliant, the generous, the empathetic, the future change.

Agents of the world.

The candidates for th experience architecture program.

Come on down.

Let's do this.

(Conferral of degrees reading graduate names) Pleas welcome professor Salah Hassan, director of the Global Studies and the Arts and Humanities program.

Will the candidates for global Studies in the Arts and Humanities please come forward?

(Conferral of degrees reading graduate names) Please welcome Ellen Moll, assistant Dean for Undergraduate Studies, to welcome the humanities, pre-la and interdisciplinary humanities graduates to the stage.

Where the students from humanities, pre-law and interdisciplinary humanities.

Please step forward.

(Conferral of degrees reading graduate names) Please welcome professor Yen-Hwei Lin Chair of the Department of Linguistics, Languages and Culture.

Well, the candidates of the department.

Linguistic languages and cultures.

Please come forward.

(Conferral of degrees reading graduate names) (Conferral of degrees reading graduate names) Please welcome.

Professor Matthew McKeon, chai of the Department of Philosophy.

Will the candidates for philosophy please come forward?

(Conferral of degrees reading graduate names) (Conferral of degrees reading graduate names) Please welcome.

Professor Amy Deregoddess, chair of the Department of Religious Studies.

Will the candidates for B.A.

in Religious Studies please come forward?

(Conferral of degrees reading graduate names) Please welcome Professor Tony Grubbs, chair of the Department of Romance and Classical Studies.

Okay.

Good morning.

Students.

Excuse me.

Graduates, family, friends and faculty would be multilingual and multicultural student from the Department of Romance and Classical Studies.

Please come forward.

(Conferral of degrees reading graduate names) Please welcome professor Kirk Domer, interim chair of the Department of Theater.

Will the amazing Department of Theater candidates please step forward?

(Conferral of degrees reading graduate names) Please welcome professor Danielle Nicole Devoss, chair of the Department of Writing, rhetoric and Cultures will be incredible, amazing, astounding candidates for the degree of professional and public writing.

Please come forward.

(Conferral of degrees reading graduate names) (Conferral of degrees reading graduate names) Our last candidate up.

Jeanette.

Oh, please welcome Aminda Smith.

In this live.

From the center for gender and the Global Context.

International studies and programs.

(Conferral of degrees reading graduate names) Our last candidate is from English and Film Studies.

(Conferral of degrees reading graduate names) Okay.

Time to make this official.

Will the candidates please stand?

All candidates please stand.

On behalf of Michigan State Universit and President Kevin Guskiewicz, who has been delegated the authority of the state of Michigan vested in the Board of Trustees, I confer upon all of yo the degrees for which you have been recommended, with all the rights and distinctions to which they entitle you, according to custom.

You may now move your tassel from the right side of your caps to the left.

Congratulations, MSU alumni!

This act represents a significant achievement and marks the beginning of a lifetime of purposeful engagement.

This morning, we celebrate and recognize all of you who have completed an academic program in the College of Arts and Letters.

Please be seated.

I now would like to thank the College of Arts and Letters Commencement Committee and all the staff, including those here at the Breslin Center, who helped plan and coordinate this event.

Their work is much appreciated.

Michigan State University has a world class faculty in the College of Arts and Letters.

We are especially proud of our faculty's international reputation as artists and scholars, and of their deep commitment to teaching in the future.

Every one of you graduating here will pause for a moment and what will surely be a busy and productive life to reflect on those instructors and mentors who supported you who made you think differently?

Who introduced you to an idea that shifted your view, or even altered the course of your life?

I ask that representatives of the faculty rise so that we may express our gratitude for the contributions they and their colleagues have made to the colleg and to the individuals in this graduating class.

We also pay tribute to other individuals who have contributed their love, their understanding, their support, and their resources.

To help make this celebration possible, I refer to the friends and family members of the graduates, the parents and grandparents, partners and spouses, children, siblings, aunts, uncles and cousins.

Will they please rise and give us an opportunity to express our thanks and appreciation?

And now it's my pleasure to introduce our alumni speaker, Bill mechanic, a prominent film producer and executive, and the chairman and CEO of Pandemonium Films.

Bill graduate from Michigan State University in 1973 with a Bachelor of Arts in English, and attended the University of Southern California for graduate school, where he also taught film history.

He began his career at Paramount Pictures, serving as vice president of pay TV and post theatrical markets, as well as senior creative executive.

He later joined Wal Disney Studios, where he oversaw all international theatrical worldwide, home video, worldwide pay TV and network specials.

As president of those divisions.

During his time at Disney, he pioneered the concept of direct sale to mass merchants, an innovation that has since become an important part of the home entertainment industry.

After nine years at Disney, he joined Fo Filmed Entertainment as chairman and CE and rebuilt its film operations.

Under his leadership, 20t Century Fox arose from the least successful studio to number one worldwide at the box office.

Producing several commercially successful and critically acclaimed films, and you may have heard of a few of these, including Titanic, Braveheart, Independence Day, Mrs.

Doubtfire, Moulin Rouge!

And There's Somethin About Mary, just to name a few.

The Fox films released during this period were nominated for a total of 82 Academy Awards.

Bill left Fox in 200 and founded Pandemonium Films, where he continued to produce critically acclaimed work.

The company's productions include Caroline, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and Hacksaw Ridge, which earned six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, and won two Oscars for Best Fil Editing and Best Sound Mixing.

The film also received the Critics Choice Award for Best Action Movie.

In 2010, bill co-produced the 82nd Academy Awards ceremony.

Few filmmakers can lay claim to the level of success Bill mechanic has achieved.

He credits his liberal arts background with shaping his understanding of storytelling and character motivation, an intellectual foundation that began right here at Michigan State.

Throughout his career, he has remained deeply connected to Michigan State University.

He and his wife, Carol, who is also an MSU alum, have generously supported the university, including an established endowed scholarship in their name.

Now, let's take a loo at some of the blockbuster films Ben Bill has helped bring to the screen.

For one night only.

We'll go in for the full monty.

You got a bleeder.

Is that a hair gel?

I can.

No, no, no, you don't have to.

We don't.

You don't.

I just ran out.

What?

Was here.

Let m just go ahead and get that from.

Greg.

Hey!

Set the building on fire.

Oh, no.

The first day as a woman getting hot flashes.

Woo.

No.

Oh, you're an embarrassment to nature.

We've been waiting for you, Caroline.

You.

I am forgetful.

Welcome to Earth.

Theres a bomb on this bus.

Do they think I'm doing this for fun?

Are you aiming for these people?

Oh, well, maybe that mime.

Like the man.

I have made fire.

Want the truth, don't you?

Are you.

Are you not?

What difference you think you can make?

One single man in all this madness.

The first rule of Fight Club is you do not talk about Fight Club.

I love you always have.

They may take our lives, but they may never take our freedom.

Well, everybody else is taken.

Like I'm gonna be saving it.

That's going to be my way to start.

Private dos does not believe in violence.

Do not look to him to save you on the battle pit for I don't thin this is a question of religion.

I think this is cowardice.

I'm gonna get you home.

There's something you got to see.

Who did this?

The car.

Please, Lord, help me get one more.

Help me get one more.

I gonna hurt my.

We are so honored to have Bill with us today.

So honored to have hi as an Arts and Letters alumni.

So now let's give a warm, smart, spartan welcome to Bill mechanic.

Thank you, Dean Stubblefield.

I'm truly humbled to be standing here today.

I'm reminded of the of Winston Churchill's dire warning.

He said never try.

Try to climb a wall that's leaning away from you.

Never try to kiss a woman who's leaning away from you.

And most of all, never try to tell MSU Arts and Letters students anything.

When I was invited to speak, I was immediately transported back to long ago and far away.

I may have been raised in Detroit, but MSU was where I grew up.

Yeah I could even remember what made.

The third was part of Spring.

And I could remember myself with hair, long hair as I sat.

It was a different time.

I was probably, like many of you, born without wealth.

Glad for the opportunity here.

Looking forward with uncertainty, hunger, doubt and hope.

The truth is I squandered my first two years.

I walked through my classes screwed off more than I started.

Even took classe in bowling and square dancing.

Yeah, just a non serious person.

But little by little, I stepped out of my stupor, discovering who I was, not yet who I would or could be.

It was in my junior year that the proverbial light bulb went off.

I realized I was sinking in sand of my own making, that if I wanted to be a writer, I couldn't do so without having something to say, without understanding others.

I found what I needed in th liberal liberal arts curriculum.

English Lit was my major, but I took classes in psych, philosophy, and sociology.

I learned to think in a broader sense, to be more analytic.

And it was very exciting.

I learned Shakespeare, young Joseph Campbell, Wallace Stevens, Baudelaire, T.S.

Eliot, and other poets.

I augmented my rock, pop, an jazz knowledge with classical.

I discovered strong narrative through the pulp fiction of Hammett, Chandler and McCoy, and I read and collected Marvel Comics, every Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, and X-Men.

I went from being a very bad student to a pretty good one.

I went from a 42. averag to almost a four point average.

I went from wanting to write to taking those first steps.

Have any of you ever watched Michael Jordan's Hall of Fame speech?

In some ways, it's the most negative and otherwise the most revelatory moment of triumph.

He recounts his every roadblock, his every insult, whether real or imagined.

He speaks about competition, of not lettin a moment of failure define them.

Of using it as a path to find a path to success.

Of using bad times to serve as a foundation.

To build upon.

To spark determination.

So lesson number one of today.

Mistakes have real value.

You can almost always learn more from failure than than success.

Being afraid of making mistakes only leads to mediocrity.

You're about to enter a very difficult environment where being average just isn't good enough.

Dare to be great.

To stand out.

But the one thing to remember i you need to make new mistakes.

The old ones are already taken.

After graduation, I was all dressed up with nowhere to go.

In essence, I delayed my future by start by starting my MBA in English.

Let.

But that decision turned out to be bette than I could have ever imagined.

The road to nowhere led somewhere.

I took a journalism course and the first assignment, required me to get published.

I had no interest in new writing and probably no ability.

So I looked for another option.

I liked movies.

So I wrote a film revie and mailed it to the State News.

I was surprised when the film critic Jac UP's junior called me and said I was better than him, and I should take over.

He wanted to head out to L.A.

to make movies.

So he introduced me to the editor.

I became a very high profile, sometimes hated film critic, but my work was good enough to be syndicated to other universities, which brought me t the attention of Arthur Knight, author of socks in a cinema and a professor at USC.

From there, it was doubling down by selling my entire Marvel comic collection to pay fo my first semester of film school at USC before leaving for LA.

I married my long time girlfriend, Carol, who's sitting in the back.

And yes, 50 years later, we're still married.

A lot of their plots.

Now it's 50 years.

Plannin never really has worked for me.

Things happen.

And from my learning, when you don't expect them, like love, trying too hard often reeks of desperation.

And on one day, boom.

Like love, things find you.

So lesson number two.

Take advantage of any opportunity.

The best of the best professor I had at USC was hired as an on air hostess and a program guide writer for a start pay TV channel in L.A.

though he was an amazing lecturer and accommodation.

He needed help, so I was brought in to write the film review and produce the whole segments.

Within a couple months, I was made vice president of programing and within a year head of marketing as well.

And from there hired b Paramount as VP of Pay to Pay TV and then transferre to the feature film department, where the first film I was assigned to was Top Gun, written none other by Jack Epps.

Junior.

Then on to Disney, where I helped rebuild a largely forgotten studio, became presiden over five divisions, took video from a $30 million business to over $1 billion.

Started Disney's.

Started Disney's overseas opera theatrical division, and within a year made it the biggest distributor in the business, produced TV specials, and received an Emmy Award nomination.

Then I left Disney to fulfill my creative ambitions.

I served as president and CEO and chairman and CEO of Fox Film Entertainment, and charg of all operations of the studio.

At the time, it was the least successful studio, but by year three the biggest and most profitable made Titanic.

And when I left, we had seven of the top ten most successful films in history.

Nearly 100 Oscar nominations, including two Best Pictur winners, Titanic and Braveheart.

But that still wasn't enough for me.

I founded my own production company, Pandemonium Films, and produced the Oscar animated nominated animated Coraline, as well as Hacksaw Ridge, winner of two Oscars and nominated as Best Picture.

So for me, getting a job is a place to start.

Not the end game.

And the reason I accepted the invitation to speak today is not only my love and appreciation for MSU and the doors that open for me, but because you are the future and I want you to d a better job than my generation.

We need you to do better.

Most of the problems we all face today, this room could probably solve in one focus group chat.

So who here is going to take the lead?

No hands.

Come on, we got some four point students.

Let's go.

In all my years at the studio, I never hired an Ivy League.

Ivy League or I brought in midwesterner.

So not just MSU grads.

I learned earl to hire the values of a person, not the resumes or appearance.

I want.

At one point, four of the seven film studios were run by people I trained.

50% of my executives at Disney were women.

Not long after I left Fox, the highest ranked African-American creative executive in the industry we originally hired as an intern, and she was running Fox Animation.

So change comes when you use your success not just to make money, but to make things better.

And it doesn't come easy.

You have to be prepared to pay a price when you dare to do what you think is right.

So a couple quick stories before I go.

Three months after joining, Fox is out of the studio.

I committed to Braveheart.

My immediate boss, approved the deal and then three days later worried that a story about 13th century Scotland was too risky and wanted me to back out.

I said that was his call, but if he made it, he'd have to replace me.

My word either meant something or it meant nothing.

Similarly when I committed to Fight Club, the same guy, now CEO of News Corp, thought Rupert Murdoch would explode at him and tried to stop me.

I thought the film was anthemi and important in so many ways.

So I told him the only way to stop me was by firing me.

Sure enough, Rupert Murdoch knew who to blame.

In a meeting with all the operating heads of News Corp.

He yelled at me.

What kind of sick person would make a movie like this?

So how is Fight Club regarded?

Last week it was accorded a unique honor of being rereleased into theaters.

And is regarded as a classic.

Now.

So, like that of a coach or a manager.

My job, I found, was on where you're hired to be fired.

Understanding that made me stronger, less afraid.

I decided I would only get fired for what I believed in, not for performance.

So the final straw at Fox was X-Men, which was my boss, which my boss called my $665 million art film and showed me the door the day the week before it opened.

While my so-called art film spawned 14 X-Men movies, including spinoffs generating over $6 billion of profit.

Moments like that have a way of clarifying who you are.

And for me, that all traces back to where it began.

MSU was and is a special place for me where the dynamics of positive and negative coexist, and it allowed me to find my way.

And did I ever leave MSU behind?

I'd say take a look at the films.

You can see the Youn and Campbell's ideas at work and at the heart of many of the films, including Braveheart, Hacksaw Ridge or Titanic.

Even the animated Ice Age or Anastasia.

And think about X-Men.

That's my Marvel Comics coming to life.

And I'll leave you with this proof, Coraline.

If you haven't heard the story, it's a it's one about a family that moves from Michigan to Oregon.

It's stop motion animation, which is a form of puppetry.

And the characters ar about that tall, about a foot.

All their costumes have to be handmade.

Because it's all in.

They're all miniatures.

I walked into an approving session out in Oregon.

Mostly about the look of one of the characters, but spread out over 3 or 4 very large tables or costume and props for other characters.

My eye caught one little detail.

The father sweatshirt and a key.

And a key rack.

Both had U of M on it.

And I said, no way.

There's no U of M or UCLA in anything I do.

I was tol it would cost more than $30,000 to change that sweatshirt.

I said I'd pay for it.

And and here we go.

It was incredibly real, mom.

Only you weren't really you.

You were my other mother.

Buttons for eyes, Coraline.

You only dreamed you ate all that chicken.

Take your multivitamin spring thing to bear with while looking for candies and orange monkey slippers.

Oh, orange.

My monkey slippers are blue.

Can you get me some of that magic land you were talking about?

Because I have a terrible case of writer's rash on my, We're all facing difficult times, but I believe the worst of times can be the best of times.

For those who accept, the good just isn't good enough.

Thank you.

And congratulations.

Wow.

Thank you.

Bill.

And if anyone had questions about what you can do with a degree from the College of Arts and Letters, I think you just got yet another answer.

I mean, just amazing career.

Thanks.

Well, thank you Bill, for your inspiring words and your continued support and engagement with the College of Arts and Letters.

It's wonderful to have you here.

So we will conclude this ceremony by standing to sing the first stanza of the alma mater, MSU shadows.

(Singing and performance of MSU Alma Mater) We ask our guests to please remain in place until the platfor party and faculty have recessed.

Thank you.

And once again, congratulations.

MSU grads.

(MSU Fight Song performance)