While at any point in the last four years, we have been a college of approximately 2100 on-campus students, you’ve actually crossed paths with, learned with and from, and made friends among nearly 4,000 Denisonians during your four years here, and your sense of comradeship will only grow as you become reacquainted with them at reunions and alumni activities in years to come.Ĭhange has come to the faculty during your time at Denison, too. As I point out to graduates every year, since you arrived on campus, Class of 2013, about sixteen hundred other men and women with whom you shared this campus in the fall of 2009-the sophomores, juniors, and seniors of your first year- have already graduated and a similar number have taken their places in the classes that follow behind you. It has not stood still during the last four years, either, and maybe just a few highlights of the changes around you will encourage you as about-to-be graduates to reflect upon the personal evolution you have experienced since you arrived here from high school. In the 182 years since its founding, Denison has evolved from a frontier academy into a leading undergraduate arts and sciences college with a national and even international reputation. Graduates, you’ve heard the fanfare before it was written for your induction onto the rolls of the college in 2009 by Dr. On this special day we have heard the fanfare for the Class of 2013 performed by an ensemble of the Denison Orchestra conducted by Professor Andy Carlson. There were no graduates, of course, in the first years of the college’s existence and the Civil War interrupted the progress toward a degree for many students a century and a half ago-thus the discrepancy between the college’s age and number of its Commencements. This is the 172nd Commencement of Denison University, but, members of the Class of 2013, you are graduating in the college’s 182nd year since its founding in the fall of 1831. Congratulations, and welcome to the Society of the Alumni! You have allowed Denison to become a part of you, and you have given the college and its community much in return. On behalf of all alumni who have served as Trustees through the years, I thank you, Class of 2013, for joining the Denison family. We do know this: Wherever life takes you, you will represent your Alma Mater admirably. Who knows? Perhaps a future Trustee or college president sits among you. You will occupy roles that none of us can even imagine right now. You will be professionals, parents, artists, activists, citizens, and friends. Today we look with anticipation into the future you and others of your generation will create. Graduates, today we mark the conclusion of your academic enterprise over the past four years, but we do much more than that. As is our custom with honorary degree recipients, he will bring the Commencement address, reflecting in a way he is uniquely positioned to do the academic mission of this great institution. Knobel has served long and well, completing 15 years as Denison’s 19th president, and today, a grateful college will express its appreciation and esteem by awarding him an honorary Doctor of Letters. Today’s ceremony is made particularly special by the fact that you will celebrate your graduation as President Dale Knobel presides over his last Denison Commencement. This is the mark of a Denisonian: The capacity and drive to achieve and a desire to make the world a better place. Equipped by your education to be autonomous thinkers, discerning moral agents, and active citizens of a democratic society, we trust that you will serve your communities, your nation, and your world with distinction. The Trustees, faculty, and staff congratulate you on your accomplishments, and we look forward, as we know you do, with great expectations for what you will accomplish in the years ahead. Class of 2013, this is the day you become alumni, joining the ranks of over 40,000 distinguished men and women who have gone before you as graduates of this institution of higher learning. Today is a special day in the life of our college. Members of the Class of 2013, parents, family members, Trustees, faculty, and honored guests, on behalf of the Board of Trustees of Denison University, I am delighted to welcome you to Denison’s 172nd Annual Commencement exercises concluding the 182nd year of the college.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |