Leadership Seminar 2025 Graduation Remarks

Winston S. Churchill Senior Fellow William R. Gruver

September 27, 2025  

To the families and other guests with us tonight, thank you for taking the time out of your
busy schedules to be with us. It’s my honor to present this year’s graduates of the ODC
Leadership Seminar. These 22 extraordinary young men and women are a diverse group as
measured at Bucknell and most institutions of higher learning. They call eight different
countries “home.” They represent 16 different academic majors. The Census Bureau
would place them in 4 different racial categories. We at ODC believe in the value of
diversity. More important than these traditional definitions of diversity, however, we
believe in viewpoint diversity. This is the one type of diversity that brings the most value to
any organization, but only if divergent views can be expressed openly and civilly with no fear
of retribution. This group has shown that needed mix of courage and tolerance on many
third rail topics that they don’t get the chance to discuss on campus. Were it not for ODC
they very well may have missed out on what for me was a vital part of my liberal arts
education!

Last year at this event I spoke of the contrast between the pessimism that I was sensing in
the current students and my own personal optimism.

The last 12 months, and particularly the events of earlier this month, haven’t given much
reason for more optimism on their part. As I was thinking about what to say tonight to this
year’s graduates, I asked myself what was the source of my optimism?

My optimism comes from history and personal experience.

I believe that having a hero is of great help in shaping one’s life. My hero is the man after
whom ODC graciously has named the fellowship that I hold – Winston Churchill.

Among the many lessons that the study of Churchill has taught me is that of personal resiliency.

Churchill suffered many personal setbacks in his incredible life. Perhaps, none was greater
than what he referred to as his “wilderness years” – that decade (beginning at the age of
55) when he was out of national political office. Most politicians sidelined at that age would
have gotten the message and moved on to another career. When hit with that defeat,
however, Churchill did what he later advised his younger schoolmates at Harrow to do:
“never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never-in nothing, great or small, large
or petty — never give in.” My hero thereby inspired me (during one of the darkest moments
of my life ) to begin signing my Bucknell emails using that same word (wilderness) that
Churchill used to describe what he viewed as a temporary setback. Vox clamantis in
deserto is Latin for “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”. I still sign my Bucknell emails today
using that same phrase, because that’s what the Open Discourse Coalition is doing for
Bucknell and its students. We’re a voice for viewpoint diversity shedding light in a
wilderness of intellectual darkness.

Tonight’s graduates have already shown their Churchillian resilience by taking this not for
credit seminar, and giving up their Saturdays and Tuesday nights to do so. You might ask
“why” are they doing this, and you’ll have an opportunity during dinner to ask the graduates
at your table their answer. My guess is that you’ll find them hungry for the type of brave
space that we aim for in the seminar – not a “safe space” inside an echo chamber as is
found on campus, but rather a place where students are free to speak their mind and learn
from others with markedly diPerent viewpoints.

This is now our fifth and largest graduating class. The only reason what started as a radical,
some would say outlandish, experiment has worked is that all of our work is guided by the
first reading assignment in the syllabus – George Washington’s Rules of Civility. Learning
via civil, reasoned discussion was at the heart of our country’s founding and needs to be
restored in our country today. There’s no better place to begin that restoration than
universities.

As we gather here tonight to honor this year’s graduates of the ODC Leadership Seminar,
our country faces enormous challenges in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination and the
results of the latest FIRE survey.

You’re all aware of the tragedy of the former, but for those of you who haven’t heard about
the latter, FIRE is an acronym for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a
respected, independent third party. Each year, it conducts a survey of the free speech
climate on approximately 250 American colleges and universities. The answer to one of the
questions that they ask puts the Kirk murder in perspective. “Is it acceptable to use
violence to stop a campus speech?” This year, 34% of college students answered in the
affirmative that they thought violence was justified to be used against a speaker whose
views differed from theirs. (For the record, ONLY 21% of Bucknell students thought that
violence was justified in such circumstances.) Regardless, if 1 in 3, or 1 in 5, this widely
held belief among the youth of America is frightening and shakes the foundations of a
democratic republic.

Since I began signing emails with “VOX Clamantis”, I’ve known that our mission at ODC
was something special. After that survey and Charlie’s murder, I now know that our
mission is crucial not only to Bucknell, but to our country writ large. Thank you for your
past and ongoing support. It is only through your generosity that we are able to continue our
mission because we receive no funding from Bucknell.

Each year I bid farewell to the graduating students with a poem that reflects what I see in
them. The author of this year’s poem is in dispute. Some say Edgar Guest, but others
believe that John Greenleaf Whittier wrote “Don’t Quit.” Regardless of the author, here’s
my parting advice to our graduates:

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
And the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest if you must, but don't you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns.
And many a failure turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out.
Don't give up though the pace seems slow,
You may succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than it seems
To a faint and faltering man.
Often the struggler has given up when he
Might have captured the victor's cup,
And he learned too late when the night slipped down,
How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out,
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are.
It may be near when it seems afar.
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit.
It's when things seem worst that
You musn't quit.

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR GRADUATES! THANK YOU ALL.