Robert Gates to speak at Winter Commencement

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates will speak to IU graduates at winter commencement about what they can accomplish through hard work and perseverance.

The University will also present Gates, who earned a master’s degree from IU, with an honorary doctoral degree during the ceremony.

“At commencement, oftentimes we get to bring back people who serve as an example of what people can achieve with an IU degree,” IU spokesman Larry MacIntyre said.

The University Faculty Council established a policy used to govern who receives the degrees, said Erika Dowell, president of the Bloomington Faculty Council.

According to the policy, “by awarding honorary degrees to women and men of such outstanding qualities, the University seeks to present to its several constituencies veritable models worthy of emulation and respect.”

IU President Michael McRobbie likes for students to hear from the receiver of the honorary degree, MacIntyre said.  He therefore invites the recipient of the degree to give the commencement address.

“The council tends to nominate distinguished individuals, which would make them appropriate commencement speakers,” Dowell said.

IU history professor David Ransel nominated Gates for the honorary degree.

“The conferral of an honorary doctoral degree on Robert Gates would bring great credit and positive attention to Indiana University and its highly ranked programs in the Russian and East European Institute and the Department of History,” Ransel said in his nomination letter.

Senior Miles Taylor worked in the Secretary of Defense office in the European/NATO section after his freshman year at IU.

He said he saw Gates in meetings and events every few weeks.

“It was very clear that Gates was a very deliberate man,” Taylor said. “He is a person who engages intimately with his job on both intelligent and emotional level.”

Gates has served in his current office since Dec. 18, 2006, and is the first Secretary of Defense to retain his position for two presidential administrations.

Gates, originally from Kansas, received a bachelor’s degree from the College of William and Mary, a master’s degree from IU and a doctorate from Georgetown University.

While at IU, Gates was recruited by the CIA, where he worked for 27 years. He was on the National Security Council for nine years and served presidents from both political parties, according to a biography on the U.S. Department of Defense Web site.

He served as Director of Central Intelligence from 1991 to 1993 and is the only career officer in the history of the CIA to rise from entry-level employee to director, according to the biography.

In 1996, he published his memoir “From the Shadows: The Ultimate Insider’s Story of Five Presidents and How They Won the Cold War.”

“I have known Robert Gates for decades,” said Lee Hamilton, an IU law school alumnus and former U.S. representative from Indiana. “He is highly competent, very professional, an excellent person to work with and quite willing to look at other views.”

Hamilton said he thinks Gates has performed in a highly professional and competent way in every job he has had and believes his time at IU has significantly helped him as an individual.

“I was immensely pleased when they chose him,” Hamilton said. “I am sure the University will welcome him in appropriate ways, and I hope the students do as well.”