Gates delivered the commencement address at Harvard University 32 years after leaving without graduating, on the same day the university awarded him an honorary degree. He opened his speech by calling himself 'a bad example as a role model for getting a Harvard degree,' drawing laughter from the crowd. He used the address to urge graduates to apply their educations to problems of global inequity, asking them to measure their lives not by wealth but by the impact they made on people who never had their advantages.