Time has come again for a group of graduates to walk north back across the seal in the Dallas Hall rotunda.

Veritas libertas vos. Knowledge sets us free.

What measure of knowledge is a diploma? If the university is a well from which knowledge is drawn, does the diploma measure how much water was drawn or how much was drunk? The adage of leading a horse to water seems appropriate.

Many of those making that passage through Dallas Hall and into their own futures question the value of their trip to the well. Some have been heard saying they didn’t get a good value. The difficulty in drawing knowledge from the pool brings a need for blame when the bucket comes up short – full enough for a diploma, but somehow lacking.

“Advisers didn’t advise. Professors didn’t teach. This class and that class were complete wastes of time. They didn’t fill my bucket. I was led to the water but …”

Some horses don’t drink, or drink fully.

There seems to be some breakdown in the movement of knowledge. Some students have practiced spurious strategies, expecting the transmission of ideas with little or no effort on their part. Following large payments for books, fees and the ever-rising tuition, it is expected that the knowledge will be deposited as easy as taking money to the bank.

However, for the transmission there must be an empowered receiver. It is like a radio. The knowledge may be broadcast but if the receiver is not turned on, the signal drifts off into space.

Some, with the half-empty buckets, will claim the well is too deep or the rope is too short. They rarely consider their personal reach insufficient. Some come to drink from the pool. Some come to bathe in the knowledge unrestricted.

If the goal is a diploma, then producing a bucket, even empty, from the well is enough. If the goal is knowledge, the pail must be drawn full, again, again and again. Soon it is practiced enough to drink fully from any pool.

For those who came to drink, congratulations.