Speaking at the annual Valedictory ceremony, former UVA president Jim Ryan led with humor.
“I was hoping to graduate with all of you this year, albeit from the presidency, but as you may have heard, I was allowed – you might even say encouraged – to graduate a year early," he joked. "Nonetheless, given everything that we went through together I’d like to consider myself at least an honorary member of the class of 2026 if that’s okay with all of you."
And he offered a few words of advice – do the right thing, always. It was something Ryan said he had spent many hours considering.
“I have obsessive tendencies and am on sabbatical, so I have been down a lot of rabbit holes," he explained. "I re-watched the Spike Lee movie Do the Right Thing, read an inordinate number of theological and philosophical essays, revisited Robert Frost’s horse rider who has promises to keep and talked with my friend Claude. Along the way, I exhausted the patience of my family and friends -- one of whom recently suggested, ‘How about you do the right thing and stop talking.’"
But, in the end, he told students they would know what the right thing was to do.
“You know you’re doing the wrong thing, for example, if you think, ‘My mother can never know about this,' he said. "You know you’re doing the right thing by contrast if you think, ‘I hope to be able to tell my grandkids about this someday.'”
He noted they should not follow the lead of many in positions of leadership.
“When it comes to leaders, there is not a lot of competition in the ‘Do the right thing’ category. Whether in the public or private sector, too many leaders seem more concerned about themselves than about the welfare of those they should be serving.”
And he warned students that their choices in life would be cumulative.
“I trust you all aspire to be good people for your entire lives, but to paraphrase Forest Gump and Yoda, ‘Good is as good does.’ You don’t want to live feeling like a fraud with one set of aspirations and another reality.You run the risk that you eventually just give up on the idea of being a good person altogether, which would be bad for you and for the rest of us, especially when you are running the world.”
Ryan then thanked the class of 2026 for what its members had done for him.He was the only speaker of the day to mention the murder of three student athletes in 2022.
“Thank you for helping me grieve and showing me what it means to face tragedy with grace and compassion. Thank you for making me want to be a better person and a better leader. Thank for dazzling me with your talents and your kindness. Thank you for sharing your stories, advising me, running with me, having lunch with me and inviting me to your fraternity parties.”
He then asked the students to thank his former staff and his wife for their service to the university. They obliged with standing ovations and applauded him for more than a minute.
