As Elias mentioned, we get to mark two milestones today: The public debut of the university’s new supercomputer, “HiPerGator,” which occupies one half of the Data Center. And the launch of a new centralized computing facility for university operations, in the other half.

I’d like to recognize these milestones one at a time, starting with HiPerGator.

To help us appreciate the leap forward we make today, I want to take a step back … way back … to the university’s first foray into the brave new world of computing.

That was in 1956, when we purchased one of the early mainframes, an IBM 650. The computer could perform 100 multiplications per second, a speed considered so fast that a university press release described the 650 as … quote … “a mental giant of the Atomic Age.”

Fifty seven years later, HiPerGator operates at speeds of 150 trillion multiplications per second.

Built by Dell, it is the most powerful supercomputer in the state of Florida. Connected to UF’s 100-gigabit Internet pipeline, it is truly a scientific resource for the globe.

As a result, just as the university’s “mental giant” helped us explore cutting-edge science a half-century ago, so HiPerGator makes possible profound new research for our time.

We see this in the physics research to be conducted with HiPerGator.

As many of you will recall, physicists at the particle collider near Geneva announced last summer they had detected signs of a particle that could be the elusive Higgs Boson, a.k.a. “the God Particle.” UF had one of the largest teams of physicists working at the collider at CERN.
Evidence is not proof. To confirm the Higgs, research teams around the globe have to sort out the products of the high-energy collisions using huge numbers of calculations. HiPerGator is a hub for this key activity.

In other words, with the assistance of HiPerGator, we will seek to complete the last piece of the puzzle about the structure of our universe. This is an effort to solve a scientific puzzle not just of our time, but of all time.

Other UF researchers will use HiPerGator to pursue similarly foundational and far-reaching research, from filling in the branches of the evolutionary tree of life to identifying the genetic roots of disease. In fact, dozens of groups from a diversity of disciplines will tap the supercomputer’s powers – keeping it every bit as busy as its neighbor across the hall.

That brings me to the other half of the UF Data Center, the half devoted to university operations.

Just as HiPerGator represents a foundational and far-reaching step for research, so the other part of the building represents a foundational and far-reaching step for university operations.

This is true for two reasons.

First, the facility brings together from across campus all the computing power needed to run the university.

Maintaining student records … handling registration for classes … human resources … these and other activities now have a single, more-efficient and more-reliable home.

As HiPerGator leverages scientists’ abilities to make new discoveries, so this facility helps our professionals and faculty advance the university – from grant-writing to grading.

Second, the UF Data Center is secure, with carefully thought-out safeguards to ensure continuation of services under any conditions.

Chief Operating Officer Win Phillips will describe some of these measures in a moment. Suffice it to say, this center is designed to protect the university’s information heartbeat from threats, both natural and man-made.

As I wrap up, I want to note that the Data Center was completed under budget and on schedule. This is a tribute to Elias’s leadership and the work of many, many others in Information Technology – as well as the assistance and cooperation of an incredibly diverse collection of faculty and administrators.

This is a big deal for UF!

Hearkening to our missions as a public university, we give students the STEM skills in such great demand by employers. We provide a service to all those worldwide who want to tap the potential of “Big Data.” And we plant the seeds for the new technologies and spinoff companies that are making innovation and entrepreneurship a mainstay of our campus and community.

Just as was the case with that IBM 650 more than a half-century ago, these are goals that demand our attention in our time and for all time. Thank you!

As you might imagine, it can sometimes be a challenge to lead a university more diverse than most cities its size. I am fortunate to have at my side a woman who unites everyone through their affection for her. She is a founding member of the UF Women Steering Committee, my wife, Chris Machen.

I know you will have a chance to tour the butterfly rainforest in just a moment. So, in the spirit of your theme of “On the Wings of Innovation,” let me simply note that butterflies are an apt metaphor for the work of the university and for your important role as women leaders in that work.

Most of our students arrive on campus as teenagers. After four years of challenging classes, late-night discussions with friends, experimenting with different possible directions for their lives …and yes, different majors … they emerge in the springtime as adults. Perhaps not as perfect as butterflies, but nonetheless ready to fly.

Similarly, students and faculty have great ideas in their research and scholarship. With their hard work, some of those ideas spread their wings as startup companies – a small miracle we are seeing more and more often in Gainesville.

Unfortunately, many of these startups companies don’t make it very far or last very long. But, a precious few become the Monarchs and Swallowtails of our technological world.

As UF’s women leaders, I know you are aware that a majority of our undergraduates are women. I’m proud of our achievement in preparing these women for graduate school, the workplace, and life.

However, we have a significant challenge, and that is to increase the number of women choosing and completing scientific and engineering degrees.

Nationally, fewer than 30 percent of the degrees in engineering and computer sciences go to women, and the ratios for mathematics and the physical sciences are not much higher. Here at UF, 36 percent of “STEM” degrees – science, technology, engineering and math – go to women.

We also have far too few women among technology entrepreneurs.

One study, by the Kauffmann Foundation, found that just 3 percent of all technology startups are led by women. Here in Gainesville, we have some extremely talented women CEOs of technology companies, including AGTC, Axogen, Sinmat and Applied Food Technologies. But, more are needed.

I think everyone here would agree with me that there are women among our students on campus today who have what it takes to be presidents, CEOs, environmental champions, Nobel Prize winners and yes … technology titans.

In the short time these women are here, we owe them every possible advantage. We can only make good on that responsibility with the guidance of women in leadership. Women faculty mentors, women administrators, and women volunteers in university leadership … in other words, each of you.

As you devote your attention to issues of concern for women this weekend, I urge you to reflect on how you can help this university and its young women reach new heights on “wings of innovation.” Thank you.

Let me begin by asking for a show of hands. How many of you were here at the house four years ago for the welcome reception when you first arrived at UF? You did it! Congratulations! I think you owe yourselves a hearty round of applause!

I was pleased to welcome you to campus back in 2009, and I am thrilled to celebrate your graduation in 2013. In fact, of all the university milestones I get to mark each year … our most notable research achievements, our highest faculty awards, reaching our ambitious fundraising goals … this reception – and your achievement — rank as my personal favorite.

We have a lot of important moments in the life of the university. But none embody our mission as memorably as the success of the Opportunity Scholars.

Some of you may be aware that we’ve spent the past year marking the 150th anniversary of the Morrill Act. This is the law that created the land-grant universities, including the University of Florida. It was signed by President Abraham Lincoln at the height of the Civil War.

Before the Morrill Act, universities were open only to the wealthy and privileged. The law ended this elitism. It said they should welcome Americans from all walks of life.

At that time, of course, the law applied only to white men. But thanks to the heroic struggles of women and black Americans, the land-grant universities came around to embrace the full meaning of their founding charter and welcome the country’s diversity of people.

Time has proved the remarkable power of this mission. As a result of the Morrill Act, millions of Americans have had the opportunity to get a college education. They’ve gone on to careers as engineers, lawyers, teachers, doctors and more – achieving personal success and stability, growing America’s middle class, and helping to build our country.

Today, no students carry this legacy forward as powerfully as you, our Florida Opportunity Scholars.

You didn’t grow up among the wealthy. You weren’t privileged to be raised by parents who themselves were college graduates.

But given the opportunity to come to college, you proved your talent and your aptitude for success. And because you are our fourth class of graduates, we know that in the best tradition of the Morrill Act universities, you will continue to soar after you earn your diploma.

FOS alumni from previous classes have gone on to graduate and professional programs at Vanderbilt, Stanford, Harvard, Columbia and, of course, the University of Florida. Today, we have 70 students enrolled in our graduate programs and 40 more in professional programs.

How many of you are planning to stay at UF for graduate school? Congratulations! You made a great decision, and we’re pleased to have you.

If you’re finished with college for now, we also have FOS alumni in professional positions at GE Oil and Gas, Amazon Dot Com, the Centers for Disease Control, the Justice Department, Ernst & Young, and more. I’m confident each of you will meet with similar success in the workplace.

As you end your undergraduate years, I hope you will think of the University of Florida as a home base and source of support – just as you are a source of pride for us.

I also urge you to consider the students who will follow in your footsteps at UF and elsewhere. Just as you benefited from the opportunity created by the Florida Opportunity Scholars program, so you can help create that opportunity for others – by supporting FOS, or by finding your own way to help young women and men achieve their dreams of going to college.

President Lincoln and the other signers of the Morrill Act would have wanted nothing less. Thank you!

As president of the university – and as a father who has seen three children through college myself – I know that commencement is the culmination of a great deal of hard work. So, I want to begin today by congratulating all the students here who are set to earn their diplomas. Will everyone please join me in applauding the Class of 2013?

Thank you. Let me also recognize the families, friends, teachers and mentors who provided so much support to these students. You coached them through stressful times and cheered them on in good ones. And now you get to share in their success!

Universities are often ahead of their times. Indeed, one of our most important roles historically has been to lead this country to positive change, as we saw during the Civil Rights Era. In recent years, we have likewise strived to create an atmosphere of acceptance and equality for gay and lesbian students and employees.

We work at it every day. But I have always felt that no matter how good we are at UF, out in the world is a society that could not embrace their differences or treat them equally – indeed a society that did not have to do so!

But finally, with your graduating class of 2013, we see a remarkable change. The atmosphere of acceptance and equality launched on college campuses, in college towns, and in other progressive bastions is sweeping the country.

“Don’t ask, don’t tell” is already a memory. Voters in more and more states have approved gay marriage. President Obama made history in January when he talked about gay rights and made clear his support for gay marriage in his second inaugural address. Rarely in my nearly 70 years has so much changed so quickly!

I want the best for all of our graduates. The shift in public consciousness that we are seeing today gives me great hope that when you leave this campus this spring, you will enter an America more accepting and welcoming to you than at any moment in our history.

At the same time, I want to stress something President Obama said in his second inaugural speech. He spoke five very important words: “Our journey is not complete.”

Inequality and discrimination remain all too commonplace – for members of the LGBTQ community, and also for women, immigrants, minorities, and far too many others.

So, as you prepare to walk across the stage, I want to promise that you will be as loved and accepted at the University of Florida as alumni as you were as students. I want to wish you a successful career and a happy life.

And, as you make your way in the world, I urge you to work on behalf of those who will follow in your footsteps to complete this American journey to equality for all. Thank you!

I want to start us off today by asking you to look up at the ceiling. Go ahead, look. If you check the trusses on the sides, you’ll see the gargoyles. Are you with me? Look closely and you’ll notice there are four different versions, each holding a football, a lyre, a book and a gear.

Now, look really, really closely. You can tell the figures were made nearly 100 years ago … because none of them are checking their phones!

When the University Auditorium was built in 1927, these figures were meant to embody the life of the university – athletics, the arts, scholarship and science and engineering. In the early days, the entire student body could fit in this one space. We expanded as the population grew, but the auditorium remained the place for commencements, student dramatic productions and guest speakers.

In the 1950s, people came here to listen to Robert Frost, who wintered in Gainesville and gave annual poetry readings. Later, they filled the seats to see Art Buchwald, Gerald Ford, Betty Shabazz and Andy Warhol. They gathered for the strength and solace of memorial services after Pearl Harbor, the assassination of President Kennedy … and, as many people here will remember, to be reassured by the words of UF eminent historian Michael Gannon after 9-11.

Today’s symposium culminates our year-long celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Morrill Act that created our nation’s land-grant universities. The history of this auditorium captures the good that flowed from that law.

It captures how the Morrill Act expanded university education from the elite to the public. How the act broadened education to embrace liberal arts, agriculture and science and engineering. How it nurtured research that helped a young country grow and prosper. And, how public land-grant universities became a center of intellectual, cultural, artistic life in our country.

As we come together today, however, there is a deepening sense that the ground is shifting beneath these foundations.

State budget cuts have weakened public universities from Florida to Texas to California. Student debt has reached an all-time high and the public has had it with tuition increases. Competition from for-profit universities gets fiercer and fiercer, and virtual higher education is becoming a viable alternative. A growing chorus is questioning whether traditional college degrees are needed at all.

We must ask, have we reached the end of an era? Are we moving past the time when places like this auditorium are vital to universities, and when universities like the University of Florida are vital to our country?

That is the central theme of today’s symposium. And I am looking forward to the dialogue and discussion.

For me, personally, I come today with several tentative hypotheses: I am optimistic about our future. I think Americans will continue to support quality traditional public universities, though perhaps with less blind faith and more questions – a healthy skepticism that will strengthen us.

I believe online education will increase choices for students but not put an end to real classrooms and real campuses. If anything, the online world will prompt bricks-and-mortar universities such as UF to get better at what we do. To make classes more personal and meaningful and campuses even richer places to study and live.

I think the science and scholarship that is our founding charter will continue to be both an economic benefit and public good for our country – and that our government and industry will remain supportive in spite of the expense.

But, it’s not up to me. And, these hypotheses can be challenged. The future of land-grant universities is in the hands of the faculty, staff, political leaders, community members and students who are here today. You will decide the next step in our journey – and, in the best tradition of public universities, this decision will rest on informed, reasoned and honest discussion.

So, as we begin our symposium today, I hope you will remember our legacy, take stock of our challenges, and be open to the possibilities of the future. I urge you to hold nothing back and to put your best ideas on the table … for in the words of Robert Frost, who once read so many of his poems on this stage, “Freedom lies in being bold.” Thank you!

Some people would say I have big responsibilities overseeing 50,000 students, 12,500 employees and a $4.6 billion budget. But, there is nothing as rewarding for me as events such as this evening’s dinner. Tonight, I am reminded of the purpose of colleges: Providing the best opportunities for higher learning to the most deserving students.

The Scholastic Achievement Foundation of Palm Beach County has championed that ideal for thirty-five years. And, for that, I want to thank the Foundation leadership here, as well as the donors behind the scholarships announced tonight.

My favorite part of this event is hearing from the students about their plans for college and their future. I am pleased … actually, I’m thrilled … that many of you will attend the University of Florida. Gators of the Class of 2017, welcome! Once you get settled in Gainesville, I hope you’ll come to my office so we can meet in person.

Whether you go to UF or another university this fall, there is something I deeply appreciate about this moment in your lives. Up until now, your stories have largely been written by others. For many of you, it has been your parents who have set out your hopes and dreams. But your achievements, ambitions and world views have also been shaped by family members, teachers, coaches, religious leaders and friends.

I submit to you, the transition you make when you go to college is that, for the first time, you take control of your path. You get to pick your own major, choose your own career and eventually, create your own home. At a deeper level, you get to decide your political beliefs, determine your faith and learn through trial and error how to live your life. For the first time, in other words, you get to write your own stories.

Generally speaking, I don’t like to talk about myself. In fact, I’ll be honest. After nearly 10 years as UF’s president, I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve said anything personal in a speech. But because I remember vividly my own steps and missteps from the time I was your age, I decided to make an exception this evening. I am going to tell you something that happened to me when I, like you, was starting my own story.

I promise to be brief. I have one short anecdote and a couple of simple points. Nothing fancy, and there will be no AP test when I’m done.

You may not be aware; I was a dentist before I became a university president. In fact, I’m still qualified to practice. I think of myself as dentist first, university president, second.

My interest in dentistry began when I was in high school. I had an afterschool job with my uncle, who was an orthodontist. I liked working with him, and he liked me, and we mapped out my entire life together. That map put me on a path to go to dentistry school and become an orthodontist, just like him. Then, I would return to my home of Webster Groves, Missouri, where I would reach my final destination: Joining my uncle as his partner.

As time passed in his office, something dawned on me about my uncle. He was goodhearted, but he liked to be the captain, the leader. Our ship might one day bear both our names, but the writing in my heart would tell the painful truth. I would never work with him. Only for him.

In those days, you could enter dental school after two years in college. When that time came, I made a decision. Even though it meant giving up a guaranteed job in an established practice, I did not choose orthodontics. Instead, I went into pediatric dentistry.

I won’t go into everything that happened after that. But while I was pursuing pediatric dentistry, I had the chance to try my hand at teaching. With time, I entered university leadership as the dean of a dentistry college. I landed a position as provost at the University of Michigan, then president of the University of Utah, where I was before I came to Florida.

I might have had a happy life as an orthodontist in Webster Groves. But I stand before you as the president of the University of Florida because of my decision to write my own story. Not a friend’s story. Not my parents’ story. Not my uncle’s story. My story.

Judging from your plans for five years from now printed on tonight’s program, I know many of you are well along this road. However, I also got to read the applications most of you submitted for the scholarships whose winners were announced earlier. While I was struck by your accomplishments, I was moved by the hardships so many of you reckon with.

There are students here who have been homeless. There are immigrant students who entered school here in Palm Beach speaking almost no English. One student was bullied so ferociously she became seriously ill. Another had to get a job because her mother, the sole wage-earner in a family of four daughters, became sick and could no longer provide for her and her sisters. In fact, more than a few of the seniors here work part time to help single parents who can’t pay the bills.

Your hardships obviously trouble you. But they should not cripple you. Because your achievements and presence here among Palm Beach County’s top graduating seniors despite the odds suggests something important. It suggests you have powerful futures ahead of you.

Don’t let someone else write your story, and don’t let anything keep you from it. Be true to your heart, be strong, and write your own story.

I know your parents or guardians weren’t invited to this dinner this evening. Since I have given you the advice to disregard their plans for you, I’m as happy as you that they’re not around!

However, I think they would be glad to hear what I have to say next.

I have no doubt you are aware of the lackluster economy and scarcity of job opportunities for college graduates. No question, there is serious cause for concern. As the president of a university with 35,000 undergraduates, I worry all the time about how to give our students a leg up. With all that understood, there have always been opportunities for the world’s smartest and most ambitious young people – women and men such as yourselves. And as I see it, your opportunities are particularly rich now, in these remarkable times we live in.

That’s because interplay between the global economy and technological change are rapidly transforming some of the world’s youngest adults into some of its most influential.

Think of Mark Zuckerberg, who was a college sophomore when he created a new global paradigm for social interaction with Facebook. While Zuckerberg, now 28, may practically be ready for retirement, there are plenty of others eager to follow his lead. From Kevin Systrum of Instagram, to Pete Cashmore of Mashable, to Daniel Elk of Spotify, the Millennial generation is driving the ever-more-influential social media and much of technological change in general.

Young people are not only deciding how we talk, they’re also determining what we talk about. One of today’s most popular and controversial television series is HBO’s Girls. I am sure the fans of Girls in this room know, the creator, and the star, is a 26-year-old, Lena Dunham.

Speaking of cultural influences, perhaps you’ve heard of Kickstarter, the Internet-based fundraising platform that brings together donors with creative causes. Just four years after it was started, Kickstarter has raised more than $500 million for more than 35,000 projects. Last year Kickstarter was within reach of out-funding the National Endowment for the Arts. Not bad for a startup created by three men just barely over 30!

National politics may seem beyond the reach of the youngest adults. But President Obama’s reputation as a great orator surely has something to do with his longtime chief speechwriter. His name is Jon Favreau. He was 27 when he penned Obama’s first inaugural address.

As you cast off from your homes on your journey through college, don’t let your adversities get in your way, and don’t let anyone else write your story. Write your own, and know from Lena Dunham, Jon Favreau and others that we live in times when you can make your story great.

That brings me to my third and final point before the AP test. Kidding!

While you are about to chart your own course, there’s something even more meaningful about to happen in your lives. You are about to get your first chance to chart the course of others.

You will get the chance to shape the lives of the children that come to your lives and the homes you create for them. I urge you to reflect deeply on your own experiences at home, and strive to build your families as you believe families should be.

You will also get the chance to improve your community of Palm Beach County and your state of Florida. Many of you are already moving in this direction with your ambitions to become public school teachers, water engineers, local doctors and more.

Finally, with your talents and strengths, you can have outsized influence on our nation and our world. Students in this room want to design technology that enables people with disabilities to live normal lives. They want to battle Alzheimer’s disease through cutting-edge research. They want to create more helpful and humane robots. I hope you will do all those things. Because we live in times when you can bring positive change to all of humanity – very, very quickly.

As I wrap up, I want to return ever so briefly to that high school student working for his uncle in Webster Groves, Missouri a half century ago.

I could never have seen it then, but my decision about my direction in college led to an extraordinarily rich life. I found my passion in pediatric dentistry and then in higher education leadership. I met my wife and the love of my life, Chris. Today, we have three grown children and four beautiful grandchildren. As a university president, I have had the exquisite opportunity of helping thousands of young people launch their adulthoods.

I’ll be stepping down from the presidency after a year or two. My pathway is closing, just as yours’ are opening. I’m confident you will live your own extraordinarily rich lives if you keep in mind the couple of points I’ve shared this evening.

Write your own story. Find the strength, whatever your hardships, to tell the powerful story within you. Write the best stories you can for your families, your communities and your country. You can live the biographies everyone will read. Thank you.