I am delighted to be part of this joyous occasion marking the graduation of the class of 1998 from the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. My personal association with NYU goes back a long way. As a small child in the 1930s, I was an NYU faculty brat. My association with Dean Boufford does not go back so far, but I got to know her when she served in the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington.
Graduations are always good moments in life.
All those seemingly endless projects, reports, papers, exams and theses did finally get done. They were handed in, read and graded. And you are actually here getting a degree. They've forgotten how they fussed at you for working so hard. They've forgotten all those skeptical questions.