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Speaker: Paul Smith’s College grads must ‘speak for the trees’

Aaron Mair, the director of the Adirondack Council’s “Forever Adirondacks” campaign and a former president of the Sierra Club, delivers the commencement address at Paul Smith’s College on Sunday, May 21. (News photo — Aaron Marbone)

PAUL SMITHS — A class of 109 students graduated from Paul Smith’s College on Sunday, May 21, with hugs, tears, calls to action and pineapples abounding.

The spiny fruit was abundant on campus. A symbol of hospitality, the pineapples represented the many hospitality students and welcomed all families to campus for the special day. Family members of graduates were seen after the ceremony taking big bites out of the fruit in the sun.

With a packed house in the Saunders Sports Complex gymnasium, it was standing room only and the crowd was raucous with cheers for the grinning graduates.

PSC Student Government Association President Charlotte Kline pointed out that the class of 2023 are the last PSC class to graduate that was enrolled before the coronavirus pandemic. This upending of the norms of education brought hard times, she said, but also taught them a lot more personal skills than they expected.

Aaron Mair, the director of the Adirondack Council’s “Forever Adirondacks” campaign and a former president of the Sierra Club, delivered the commencement address.

Family members take photos of Paul Smith’s College graduates on Sunday, May 21 during their commencement ceremony. (News photo — Aaron Marbone)

He compared the graduates’ journey to those of trees. He said these students are a critical part of our species’ life cycle. They have sprouted through their years at college, and are becoming seeds again, preparing to grow in a new environment — the real world.

Mair had not planned to become an environmental activist until his own daughters faced respiratory illness from a garbage burning plant in Albany.

Mair felt the students before him represent hope for our species. He said damage to the climate is a “now” problem, not a 2030 or 2050 problem.

He said the nation is coming out of a time when leaders at the national level stalled climate work, and into a time when the country’s leaders are again investing in protecting and restoring the climate.

These new foresters, environmental scientists and green energy researchers will be recipients of that investment, he said, and they will be in charge of making sure the money goes toward saving the planet.

“They are making being foresters sexy again,” Mair declared.

Mair told the graduates to “speak for the trees,” like the Lorax in Dr. Seuss’ book. He said he felt “whole” seeing the group of young people ready to go out an impact the world.

“Good luck and Godspeed. The world awaits your promise,” Mair told the Paul Smith’s College Class of 2023.

The commencement capped off a busy year at the college, with presidential changes; a proposed acquisition by the educational nonprofit Fedcap still under review; staffing cuts through attrition; and a recent report that the college was forming a “closing plan” that causes a stir, which PSC interim President Dan Kelting called “erroneous.”

Toward the end of the ceremony, Kelting left students with a phrase that has become a mantra for him as of late — “Paul Smith’s forever.”

He said PSC students will continue to be around, working toward the future that Mair talked about.

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