UMass Boston

Following a prestigious judicial career, the Honorable David Lowy (retired) now serves as the General Counsel for the University of Massachusetts. During the 2025 UMass Boston convocation ceremony, Lowy encouraged the incoming class to be open to hearing new ideas, because they will be the ones to reinvent civil debate.

With the ceremony taking place just a day after a shooting in Utah with intense political implications, months after the shooting of Minnesota legislators, and on the 24th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, Lowy’s impassioned speech highlighted the importance of finding common ground, of civility, and of listening to those outside of your own personal echo chamber.

“No good comes from shouting people down, or shouting down their ideas,” Lowy said. In the loss of civil discourse in American society, he also sees the decline of free speech, of a robust marketplace of ideas, and even of democratic governance itself.

Lowy’s convictions stem from decades of experience in the legal world, which has led to his current position as General Counsel. His father escaped the Holocaust at four years old, then worked his way through college and dental school in the paper mills of Fitchburg, striving to provide a good life for his three children. Lowy himself attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst for his undergraduate degree, graduating with a BA cum laude, Phi Beta Cappa, before receiving his Juris Doctor, graduating magna cum laude from Boston University School of Law.

After graduation, Lowy worked as an associate in the litigation department of Goodwin, Procter & Hoar, and spent a year as a law clerk for Judge Edward F. Harrington in the U.S. District Court. He was first appointed to the bench in 1997 as a district court judge, before being appointed to the Superior Court bench in 2001. Lowy served as an associate justice on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court beginning in 2016, before retiring in 2024. Lowy expressed his gratitude to everyone who helped him along the way, including his parents and coaches.

“My good fortune means little, however, if there isn’t also a path for those not born on third base,” Lowy said. “The University of Massachusetts Boston is an engine of social mobility. But for the University of Massachusetts Boston to be a pathway to the American dream, for us to thrive as a nation, and create equality of opportunity, we need democratic governance to work… and it is not working right now.”

Lowy called out the “politics of anger” that has fractured families and disillusioned people from participating in democracy. However, the University of Massachusetts itself was founded during times of strife and division, and Lowy is confident that UMass Boston students will find a way forward: “I know that each of you, utilizing the education you obtain here, and the interpersonal skills you rely on every day, can enhance civility in our community. And in at least some small measure, help heal the world.”

This healing, Lowy said, has open and honest discourse at its heart. Even when emotions are raw, the best way forward still requires opponents to find common ground with each other. “Challenge the ideas and policy positions with opposing views,” Lowy implored. “Challenge them significantly, but don’t challenge their humanity. Don’t challenge their very being. Challenge your opponent’s ideas, not their moral standing.”

Lowy conceded that this is easier said than done, but engaging with opposing opinions is essential to a pluralistic, diverse, open society. “It takes great strength to talk to people with whom you disagree, but it is necessary…. The marketplace of ideas is disquieting; it has always been so. If we only talk to people with whom we agree, we’ll learn little, and, even worse, assume that those who have different views are uncivil, insincere, not worthy of engaging in conversation, or even attempting to understand.”

UMass Boston students, Lowy said, hold the key to overcoming the widening gulfs in American society, forging difficult compromises and fostering free speech on campus. “We need you to stay in the room. We need you to encourage robust but respectful debate, and we need you to revive civility and reinvent the nature of engagement in the public square.”