ENSHRINING THE WORDS OF CALIFORNIA STATE SENATOR BILL MONNING IN OUR NATION'S HISTORY
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Thank you, Provost McCauley, Vice President Dayton-Johnson, Distinguished Guests, Faculty, and Graduates: thank you for the honor of addressing this year's graduating class.
Congratulations to MIIS Graduate Student Speaker Julena Wuer on your Master of Arts in Translation and Localization Management and your amazing journey, so far! We look forward to hearing your remarks!
To the graduates' families: thank you for your support of these graduates who today make you proud and who will continue to stand on your shoulders of love and support.
To the faculty and staff of MIIS, we thank each and all of you for your dedication to this graduating class, and for all who came before. Thank you!
I want to thank the City of Monterey and Mayor Tyller Williamson for your enduring support and partnership with MIIS through the years and for hosting us today in front of the Monterey City Hall and the historic Colton Hall. Thank you!
Thank you to the staff and volunteers who have helped organize and coordinate today's ceremony; to the student interpreters; and to Mike Gillen on the bagpipes. Thank you.
And, to the 2026 SPRING GRADUATES of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, CONGRATULATIONS!
As we join in celebration of the 2026 Spring graduates, we also carry the memories of those who did so much to build the Institute who have left us, but who have also have left their marks: President Emeritus Dr. Robert Gard and professors Jan Black, Tsuneo Akaha, Edgard Coley, Glynn Wood, and all those who gave so much to so many. We carry you in our hearts.
As a former professor of international negotiation and conflict resolution and as a director of the Graduate Program on Trade and Commercial Diplomacy founded by Geza Feketekuty, who joins us today, I can state that my seventeen years teaching at MIIS were among the most rewarding of my career.
I had prepared to deliver a bit of a eulogy for MIIS based on the planned closure of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies. We are thrilled today to be able to acknowledge the positive progress with Soka University and prospects for the continued operations, in some form, of the Monterey Institute of International Studies, Soka University, USA. Thanks to all of the MIIS and Soka University leaders who have worked hard to offer this encouraging public declaration of intention.
Graduates, today many of you are joined by your families of origin. Some of you have family who are unable to join you here today, but they are with you in spirit as they have supported your pursuit of this special education and training. Today you join another family, the family of MIIS graduates.
You now become part of a powerful force that has been recognized in Washington, D.C. and internationally as "the MIIS Mafia". While the term "mafia" may have a negative connotation--As used, it is intended to suggest an empowering connection among a family of graduates who bring recognized excellence in a number of professional skills.
As we talk about the MIIS family, we are really talking about the power of human connections. In my experience at MIIS, we saw these human connections at work in the Middle East.
For three years, Global Majority, a non-profit formed by MIIS students, organized training programs in Amman, Jordan, hosted by the United Nations Peace University that included Palestinian and Israeli students along with U.S. and international students.
Each year, when the students first convened, there was visible tension--expressions of animosity and mistrust between the Palestinian and Israeli students--most had never talked to "the other".
One of our program's leaders and instructors was a Palestinian student from Gaza who was also a student at MIIS--Ramiz Younis. Ramiz used his MIIS training and
the MIIS family of support to help bridge the divides of historic mistrust between Palestinians and Israelis. He helped create a space for the students to share visions of a Middle East at peace.
Global Majority's training programs were designed to impart some basic and practical skills in negotiation strategy and tactics. With MIIS students and graduates Cameron Hunter, Lejla Bratovic, Ramiz Younis, and Nick Tomb, we recreated a MIIS family environment in the heart of the Middle East, where mutual respect and open-exchange built bridges between cultures and those who had always seen "the other" as their enemies.
While I like to think that our training imparted some value, I came to realize that it was often the time that students spent together in Jordanian nightclubs, dancing and socializing, that built the lasting human connections. These experiences helped participants discover their shared humanity. In fact, out of one of those Global Majority conferences emerged a romance and a marriage between a Palestinian and an Israeli!
This Romeo and Juliet connection along with others have been called "MIIS-matches"--those relationships that take shape with couples who met at MIIS.
Similarly, MIIS family graduates will continue to intersect and network around the world. Graduates, you will bring a critically needed mindset to your future work.
We have seen the power of MIIS-educated interpreters and translators where according to Professor and former Dean Laura Burian, high powered international negotiations have relied on interpreters for all parties who shared a common bond--they were all trained at MIIS.
In the arena of nuclear non-proliferation, as certain world leaders have actually threatened the use of nuclear weapons, we have heard from the founder and director of the Center for Nonproliferation and Terrorism Studies, Bill Potter, of high stakes meetings of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference where as many as one half of the members of national delegations are members of the MIIS family--those trained by Bill Potter, Jean Du Preez, and the Center's entire team. These human connections that you have helped to build can prove critical to the affirmation of existing and future treaties.
Professor Potter and Professor Anna Vassilieva of the Russian Studies Program have served the MIIS family of students and graduates for decades. I think of them as the patriarch and matriarch of the faculty, staff, and students of MIIS who have worked for decades to build the international human connections that can lead to greater global understanding and the peaceful resolution of disputes. Thank you. Bill and Anna.
Professor Mahabat Baimyrzieva has helped to build the MIIS family through long distance learning and cutting-edge educational technology as she has trained students in the art and science of sustainable organizational development that is also reliant on human connections. Professor Maha has shown students and others how to build organizations that can serve and heal our interconnected world.
While our world is rich in natural resources, we are also living in a world that faces the ravages of climate change that threatens all life on land and sea. Professors Jeffrey Langholz and Jason Scorse have built a pioneering program in environmental and ocean policy, and management. They have relied on science and human connections to create pathways of possibility to save our planet. They look to you, MIIS graduates, to embrace the urgency of these threats to inspire and galvanize greater unity among nations and people and to demand that policy makers work together based on a fundamental respect for science, not its abandonment.
Professors Robert Rokowsky and Wei Liang have continued to lead training programs in international trade and diplomacy, developed by Professor Feketekuty, grounded in practical professional skills. Their MIIS graduates have earned the respect of policy makers and academics in the field of international trade around the globe.
And, among the MIIS family of graduates, we have seen leaders emerge internationally and in support of our local communities. Graduates Chris Devers and John Myers have helped to build the Rancho Cielo program in Salinas which is serving at-risk youth who have benefited from the work of MIIS student volunteers.
Graduates, with the diplomas you have earned today, you also receive a life membership in the MIIS family. You will always be a MIIS graduate and now carry the privilege and responsibility of being ambassadors of the MIIS legacy and the MIIS family--a family that we are pleased to learn will likely continue to grow.
As you embark upon today's troubled world, you will face the many challenges faced by the human family. But while many look at the world in desperation, you bring tools to a world that needs your skills now more than ever. The MIIS family, dedicated to critical global issues and making a difference, will grow with your contributions.
It won't be easy. We are living in a new world paradigm where leaders speak of training more lethal warriors and ignore the Rule of Law and international law with impunity.
And yet, in this time of such great need, we know that higher education is in a period of contraction. During this academic year alone, the U.S. government has dropped the number of international student visas by almost 100,000, representing a 36% decline in international student enrollments. Some have heralded the denial of visas to international students as an achievement, but they show their ignorance as they fail to recognize the value that international students bring to our nation and to the global commons.
At the same time, immigrant workers are being targeted by ICE with no respect for their due process or basic civil rights. We must remember the critical contributions that immigrant workers and their families make to our economy, our communities, and our humanity. Professor William Arrocha has contributed greatly to the field of immigration and migration studies and has served as an expert on the current crisis. Mil gracias, Professor Arrocha!
Internationally, we have witnessed the dismantling and dissolution of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which has resulted in the documented deaths of over 600,000 innocent civilians--the majority, women and children. These preventable deaths resulted from the drastic cut-off of nutritional support, medicines. and medical care. You and members of the MIIS family can be instrumental in reversing the tragic effects of these brutal decisions.
As active wars continue to rage, the death toll remains highest among innocents, among women and children and non-combatants. Those who initiate these wars are failures. We must develop leaders who are measured on their ability to negotiate, to build diplomatic relationships, and to invest in the welfare and survival of people--not in their destruction.
As you march with your diplomas today, you carry not only a lifelong professional credential--you also join the ranks of the MIIS family living around the world. You are now among the best trained on the planet to bring together experts in multiple disciplines to explore pathways to peace, global sustainability, cross-cultural communication, and public health.
Graduates of the Class of 2026, the time is now. The world needs you more than ever before.
My final word of advice to you as we speak of the MIIS family is how you will embark on your professional journey with your own families. As you pursue important and demanding jobs, at the end of the day, at the end of your career, the family with whom you live and create a life will be among your most important and valuable supporters. The family that supports you will not remember you for any piece of legislation, trade agreement, or international treaty that you might have helped to negotiate, or a high stakes meeting you helped to interpret . . .