With a mix of dad jokes, earnest advice, and jabs at the Trump administration, Governor JB Pritzker addressed Knox College graduates Sunday morning on the south lawn of Old Main.
He told graduates that, as a dad, he loves giving commencement speeches, because it’s an opportunity to do what dads love to do most — dispense advice to a completely captive audience.
“So I thought I would start there with some solid dad advice. It is, after all, the most valuable kind of advice that you'll get, advice that you can actually really use in life. Advice that takes the complexities of the modern world and boils them down to the most important things,” Pritzker said. “First piece of advice. You don't need to subscribe to every single streaming service. You don't. Frankly, if you have Netflix and Apple Plus and whatever HBO is calling itself now, you are mostly covered.”
Also, he told them, turn off the lights when you leave a room and make sure to put air in your tires.
“I know that when that little tire gauge comes on on your dashboard, you view it in the same way that Elon Musk views the United States Constitution — as a mere suggestion,” Pritzker said.
But Pritzker acknowledged that graduates are entering a world he calls “vastly crazier” than any time anyone can remember, so he probably needed to dig a bit deeper in his advice.
He shared that the most critical thing he’s learned in 60 years on earth and six as governor is to show up and to be generous with your time.
He said he wants graduates to have confidence, but also to have doubt.
“The truth is, nowadays, people have become far too certain of what they know and far too unwilling to admit to what they don't know,” he said.
Doubt makes us curious, keeps us humble, and prompts us to ask good questions, Pritzker said.
“Questions like, am I looking at all the facts or just the ones I want to see? Should I rely solely on nervous first impressions or should I give a second date a chance? Should I trust everything that my uncle posts on Facebook? Is it a good idea to accept a jumbo jet from a foreign country that would very much like to spy on us?”
While on campus, Pritzker posed next to the plaque on Old Main that commemorates the site where Abraham Lincoln debated Stephen Douglas in 1858.
The governor had a few invitations to deliver commencement addresses this year, but said he wanted to come to Knox College because of its abolitionist roots.
“Ignore the coastal institutions who love to brag about their pedigree and history. You will hold a diploma from a college that outshines them in a heritage that is exceedingly rare. A community built around the concept that our lives should be lived every day with courage,” he said.
Pritzker was awarded an honorary degree from Knox at the commencement ceremony. Also receiving honorary degress were Chicago artist Theaster Gates and alumna and benefactor Mary Kent Knight.
Journalism major Pareesae Imtiaz was selected by her peers to deliver the student address.
Imtiaz said she came to the U.S. from Pakistan with two suitcases — and a thousand questions.
“I left behind family, familiarity, and the comfort of being understood without an explanation. I arrived in Galesburg to cornfields, stretched for miles, and a silence that felt nothing like home,” Imtiaz said. “But I stayed. I stayed when I missed home so badly it ached. I stayed when I felt like an outsider in classrooms where nobody looked or sounded like me. I stayed because somewhere deep down I knew I wasn't just chasing a degree, I was fighting for a voice.”
Imtiaz said she and her fellow graduates are entering a world that’s complicated, politically and socially. There’s division, chaos, and noise.
But she said they can meet that with clarity, conviction, and care, and use their voices even when it’s uncomfortable.
“Let our education not only sharpen our minds but widen our hearts. Let us be the generation that refuses to accept destruction as a solution and chooses compassion, justice, and humanity over power, profit, and pride,” Imtiaz said.
Knox President C. Andrew McGadney reminded graduates of the obstacles they overcame and to always keep a spot in their hearts and minds for their alma mater.
“Graduates, many of us started our Knox journey together in 2021, and I will remember your class fondly as we navigated a new environment coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic,” President McGadney said. “You have left your mark on Knox, and all of us, in ways that few classes before you have done. You persevered, you challenged us and each other, you stepped into the unknown, sometimes with hesitation, and emerged on the other side, confident and strong.”
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