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14 CONVOCATION
Soon the universitas was hiring individual faculty, compared to the previous
freelance arrangements, and the “University of Bologna” was born. A university with
society’s needs at its foundation.
And while universities have evolved into massive engines of knowledge, their
potential for social upliftment is stronger than it’s ever been. But that impact doesn’t
just happen on its own. And what is more, what does it look like?
Allow me to reflect on this question by sharing an example from American history.

In 1947, the civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was an 18-year-old college
student in a city called Atlanta.
Already intensely focused on critical issues related to equality and justice, he wrote
an essay in the campus newspaper titled, “The Purpose of Education.”
Dr. King argued that education solely focused on the pursuit of gaining intelligence is
grossly incomplete. Instead, the goal of true education is “Intelligence plus
character.” Dr. King concluded that, “complete education gives one not only power of
concentration, but worthy objectives upon which to concentrate.”
I see this “character” and “worthy objectives” in each of you. And by combining your
character with worthy objectives, the result is the social upliftment that so typifies
Ganpat University. Character and worthy objectives mean that we look beyond
ourselves. This is the true purpose of education. It can give us the knowledge, the
tools, and the motivation to make a difference.

And when you expand that opportunity, working to help as many students as
possible to succeed, you create something that can change entire communities,

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