Dean Brandt-Rauf Urges Engineering Graduates To Build Better Communities

Paul Brandt-Rauf, dean of the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health, called upon engineering graduates at the University of Vermont on Sunday, May 17, to cultivate a passion for social justice and professional integrity.

“The challenge for the current generation of engineers is to accept your professional responsibilities and act wisely, tempering your technical prowess with ethics,” he said in his keynote address at the Sheraton Burlington Hotel and Conference Center, where the 205th commencement ceremony of the College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences took place.

“This is the new level of thinking that is needed to solve the problems created as a result of the level of thinking we have done thus far. Consider engineering as a profession and the engineer as an agent of social justice,” he added.

Clothed in a long gray robe and academic regalia, Brandt-Rauf headed the processional line. Irish pipers dressed in kilt skirts escorted him to the stage, along with the college’s dean, Domenico Grasso, and faculty members.

Brandt-Rauf joked of his academic achievements as he begun his address.

“One of the corollaries of having accumulated lots of degrees, and of being a faculty member for so many years, is that I have had the chance to hear dozens of commencement speakers,” he said.

Grasso said Brandt-Rauf’s diverse background made him a model speaker for the students.

“We are honored today to have Dr. Brandt-Rauf as our keynote speaker,” he said. “Dr. Brandt-Rauf’s research bridges population, biologic and environmental sciences and examines the relationship between exposure to certain environmental factors, genetics and cancer. He has published more than 200 articles in peer-reviewed publications, serves as editor in chief of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine since 1992, and is contributing editor of the International Journal of Occupational Medicine and Environmental Health since 1996.”

In his address to nearly 200 undergraduate and graduate students, Brandt-Rauf called upon students to develop the skill and knowledge necessary to take practical action for change within the engineering profession and to build better communities around the world.

“If engineers are to be prepared to solve the complex problems of today, they need a new level of thinking that embeds their linear dimensional understanding of evidence-based knowledge in a multidimensional framework that includes ethics-based values,” he said.

“We must all change our level of thinking,” he added, “but you, as professionals with your specialized skills and knowledge, should show the way, can show the way, must show the way. Living up to your professional responsibility is not just about knowing, but about caring, because in the end, people will not care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

Brandt Rauf concluded by asking graduates to take one more test before earning their degrees – a test of humanity and integrity.

“If in 40-50 years at the end of your professional career, you can look at yourself in the mirror and truthfully say that you’ve used your knowledge wisely to build a better world for all, then you will have earned your degree,” he said.

-- Tina Daniel