Kegel apologizes for misstated, misconstrued graduation remark

Montana State University-Northern Chancellor Greg Kegel issued an apology in a campus-wide email Friday over a remark he made at Northern's graduation ceremony May 7, a remark he said was misstated and å misconstrued.

"I would like to offer an apology for the comment I made following our commencement speaker's address regarding advice to women to smile and laugh," he said in the email. "I am truly sorry to anyone that was hurt or felt slighted by the comment. In retrospect, I completely understand."

The remark was a paraphrase of a comment he heard the former CEO of Hewlett Packard Meg Whitman make during an economic summit he attended, in response to a question about what advice she would give to women who want to succeed in the business world.

Kegel said the problem was, he left out the preface to Whitman's remark, that she would give them the same advice she would give to men: be pleasant, smile and laugh.

Kegel said because he left that out, people are assuming he was addressing just the women in the graduating class when he meant it for all graduates.

He said the remark came after he talked about culture, diversity and caring, and caring - including smiling and being pleasant - was the main point he meant about everyone.

"Caring about yourself, caring about others, caring about people around you," he said.

He said in the email that was the point about what Whitman said. She said smiling and being pleasant is a decision everyone can do, and she had interviewed hundreds of people in her career and she would pick the one who smiles and is pleasant over anyone who is equally qualified but doesn't.

"I stand by her comment and I stand by my message to the 2022 graduates that you should care; about yourself, your colleagues, your community, about everything," he said in the email. "If you have a choice, be kind."

Kegel said this morning that in his 50 years at Northern he has worked with thousands of female students and holds them and treated them with complete respect.

He said he also has taken many steps in his leadership positions to recruit female students to all programs, including technical science and STEM programs, and to give them the best education they can receive.

He said in the email that as chancellor he wants it to be clear that the university has and always will champion the values of access, equity and inclusion.

"We are diverse and want to be diverse," he said. "We are not perfect, I'm not perfect, but we are committed to be better, to be on a path of continual improvement and with hopes of being 'All N,'" he said. "Congratulations to our graduates, I wish you all the best as you pursue your futures - on your own terms."