Watch: Ray La Raja Speaks on Open Inquiry and Civil Dialogue at Convocation

Ray La Raja, professor of political science and co-director of UMass Amherst Poll, gave this speech at New Student Convocation on Sept. 1, 2024. A complete transcript of his speech follows below.

Welcome to UMass! You are joining a unique community - an academic community - with a tradition extending more than two thousand years ago to Plato's Academy in ancient Greece. The idea of an academic community spread in the Middle Ages, with scholars walking around in priestly robes, which is why all of us on this stage look like Dumbledore.

It is a rich history with a special goal: to pursue knowledge about the world in all its fantastic variety…scientific, social, and humanistic.

The people on this stage represent different fields of inquiry but we share certain academic habits of mind and practice. We have a method to share with you in your first days at UMass. It's like a secret handshake to enter the Academy.

First, we celebrate curiosity: Being able to wonder - Why? How? When? It is the first step on an intellectual journey. Against conventional wisdom, Galileo wondered if the Earth orbited around the Sun, rather than the other way. We ask you to be curious too. You might wonder, can we produce more energy from renewable sources? Or…what does it mean to live a successful life? Ask away! The world is amazingly complex - it deserves wonder.

Second, we put a premium on open-mindedness. This means being willing to listen to others without dismissing their ideas. It means holding onto your values and being intellectually flexible. Above all, it means tolerating ambiguity in this complex world. There are seldom simple answers to complex problems.

The secret sauce to open-mindedness is humility. It is the capacity to say, "I could be wrong!" (I know…hard to believe, me wearing this pompous outfit, talking about humility.) Everyone on this stage has been wrong from time to time! This is how we learn from others and advance ideas.

Little story: I work at an organization called the UMass Poll. We do surveys of elections. I consider myself an expert. In 2016, journalists called me up… "is Hillary Clinton going to win?" Me: "Our numbers say yes, big time." Family members called me (both Democrats and Republicans) … "Is Trump going to win?" "No, Uncle Albert - not going to happen." Well…you know how the story ended. I learned a lesson not to be so cocky about my predictions and dig deeper into why our numbers were wrong and what was going on for people. I learned to say again, "I could be wrong." It was humbling. To this day, my uncle wonders how I got a PhD in political science.

The third part of the secret handshake is this: we devote ourselves to intellectual integrity. This means we use methods of persuasion that are grounded in evidence and logic. We are transparent - we should not fake results or plagiarize since we build knowledge on the backs of others.

And we do not believe that all views are equal. We have standards to evaluate whether claims are valid. You will learn these standards in your classes.

For example, why did Galileo know the Earth orbited the Sun? He pointed to sunspots as evidence. And how about the scholar and activist WEB Dubois? The UMass library is named after him. He pointed to historical documents he unearthed, showing against conventional wisdom, that the brief period of Reconstruction after the Civil War achieved remarkable democratic goals in the south until it was fatefully destroyed. His lessons resonate today.

Why am I talking to you about this secret handshake in the Academy?

A recent report from the Knight Foundation shows just 60% of students feel comfortable sharing their opinions in class. And two in three students nationwide report self-censoring during classroom discussions.

A survey of UMass students found that many are reluctant to speak up. Some fear being treated unfairly or shamed. This includes students from different racial and ethnic groups. It also includes people with unorthodox or conservative viewpoints. We need frank discussions about tough topics: race, gender, and political views. We are often afraid to leave our comfort zone. We need to try.

I am part of a recently launched group called UMass Faculty for Open inquiry and Civil Dialogue. Our group is concerned about diminished dialogue. To be a place of learning, we need you to raise your hand and engage in constructive disagreement with classmates.

My challenge to you: put on your Dumbledore hats and think like academics. Be curious, open-minded, and do it with the understanding that you could be mistaken-that you may learn from someone whose viewpoint is different from your own.

How would that look? You will know you are curious when your ears perk up in class, and you say, "wait, what did she say?" Can that be true? And then your hand shoots up with questions or a different perspective.

You know you are being open-minded when you listen attentively to views you don't agree with-when you forgive yourself and others who make mistakes.

In the early years of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln didn't talk about abolishing slavery because he thought he would lose support for the war. But his conversations with Frederick Douglass and others made him realize his moderate stance was wrong. Freeing the slaves was both a moral imperative and a strategic necessity to beat the confederacy. Lincoln was a model for being open-minded to other views.

The university - UMass! - is a place to challenge your views and learn from mistakes! When challenged don't take it personally. This is the way we do things!

And please! Don't leave class and start trolling people online! Social media can be the opposite of academic dialogue, often lacking civility, nuance, and evidence. You know what I mean.

At the same time, you can use curiosity and open-mindedness outside the classroom, in debates with other students, perhaps about the protests on many college campuses, including our own.

Exercise your free speech rights. Free speech has been critical to advancing social justice, as anyone knows who has engaged in civil rights movements around the world.

Historically, UMass students-like you-have been a big part of this.

So, I urge you to use your free speech, but do not use it in ways that silence other perspectives or undermines our academic commitment to open inquiry and civil dialogue. In these tense times of wars and polarized politics, focus on issues where you disagree, and not on attributes of identity groups.

How we engage in dialogue with each other matters beyond this campus. Our work should reflect a solidarity that resonates outwards. The way we handle our diversity and differences in community is a microcosm of what we aspire for American society.

To you the student entering this academy, I urge you see the complexity of this challenge and use times of tension as an opportunity to learn from those who disagree with you. Above all, be curious, be open-minded, and do it with intellectual integrity. These are habits that will bring a lifetime of success.

Thank you and have a great year!

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