Hooding ceremony features call to lead through uncertainty
Morehouse College President F. DuBois Bowman told Carolina’s 2026 doctoral graduates their education and training matter now more than ever.
Carolina celebrated its 2026 doctoral graduates May 9 at the Dean E. Smith Center, where keynote speaker F. DuBois Bowman, president of Morehouse College and a doctoral alumnus of UNC-Chapel Hill, called on graduates to lead with rigor, adaptability and moral purpose in an age of rapid technological change.
Bowman, an internationally recognized leader in biostatistics and public health, reflected on his own graduate training at Carolina and the ways the world has changed since his time on campus. The tools available to today’s graduates, he said, are more powerful than those available to any previous generation. That makes their training more essential.
“You have trained and now enter your next phase during a remarkable and uncertain moment in human history,” Bowman said. “While this may seem daunting, I submit to you that the uncertainty in the world today is why your education, your training, matters now more than ever.”
F. DuBois Bowman ’00 (PhD) delivered the keynote address at doctoral hooding. (Jon Gardiner/UNC-Chapel Hill)
Bowman focused much of his address on artificial intelligence, emphasizing that technological progress must be paired with scientific rigor and ethical judgment. He urged graduates to help ensure that AI and other emerging tools serve people equitably and responsibly.
“You must ensure that the change we experience, the change that you help to create, is ethically guided to work for the betterment of other people,” Bowman said.
That charge echoed remarks from Chancellor Lee H. Roberts, who congratulated the graduates for committing years of study to the patient work of scholarship. In a culture shaped by speed and shortcuts, Roberts said, doctoral education represents a countercultural commitment to truth and careful inquiry.
“What I can say for certain is that our world will need more of the disciplined and deliberate thinking that you all have been mastering over the past several years,” Roberts said. “We will need more people who can create islands of real insight from an endless sea of information.”
Beth Mayer-Davis, dean of The Graduate School, also acknowledged that graduates are entering a world marked by uncertainty, including shifting career paths and a difficult job market. But she reminded them that doctoral study has already prepared them to navigate unclear terrain.
“If there is one thing a doctoral education proves, it is that you know how to move through uncertainty,” Mayer-Davis said. “You know how to revise, rethink and begin again. You know how to follow evidence, how to make meaning from complexity and how to keep going when the destination is not yet fully visible.”
Bowman closed by encouraging graduates to embrace change, grow comfortable with uncertainty and pursue work grounded in purpose.
“Take with you not just your expertise marked by completion of this degree, take all of the lessons and experiences acquired along the way,” Bowman said. “The world awaits your leadership. I can’t wait to see what you do.”
Faculty Award for Excellence in Doctoral Mentoring
The ceremony also recognized Frank R. Baumgartner, Richard J. Richardson Distinguished Professor of Political Science, with the 2026 Faculty Award for Excellence in Doctoral Mentoring.
A nationally recognized scholar of the policy process whose recent work has focused on criminal justice, the death penalty and wrongful convictions, Baumgartner was praised by nominators for mentoring that extends beyond research advising. He helps students ask rigorous questions, develop their own scholarly identities and connect their work to real-world impact. His students have built strong publishing records, gained experience with big data research and secured tenure-track faculty positions.
One nomination described him as a mentor who prepares doctoral students “not just to be good social scientists, but to be good people whose work makes the world a better place.”
