Class of 2007 Graduates at the University of Maine
Contact: Joe Carr at (207) 581-3571
ORONO — With a total of approximately 11,000 family members andfriends looking on, the University of Maine’s Class of 2007 graduatedtoday in a pair of ceremonies inside UMaine’s Alfond Arena. Some1,958 people received UMaine degrees at the university’s 205thcommencement ceremony, with 298 of them earning graduate degrees, 33 atthe doctoral level.
UMaine President Robert Kennedy presided over the ceremonies, extendinga congratulatory handshake to every graduate as he or she was announcedto the audience and crossed the stage.
“Use (your education) to make the most of your life, to enrich thelives of those around you, and to return the gifts that have beenbestowed on you to the society that bestowed them,” Kennedy said in hischarge to the graduates at the end of each of the ceremonies.
Students receiving degrees from the College of Business, Public Policyand Health; the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; and the Divisionof Lifelong Learning participated in the 10 a.m. ceremony. Thosegraduating from the College of Education and Human Development; theCollege of Engineering; and the College of Natural Sciences, Forestryand Agriculture received their degrees in the afternoon, during theceremony that started at 2:30.
The class valedictorian is Erik Perkins of Albion, a physics andmathematics major who plans to enroll in a University of CaliforniaSanta Barbara Ph. D. program in theoretical physics. SalutatorianDavid Lapointe of Durham received a mechanical engineeringdegree. He has accepted a job with Goss International, and willjoin the workforce as an engineer.
Robert Edwards, Bowdoin College’s president from 1990-2001, deliveredthe morning commencement address. An Edgecomb resident and memberof UMaine’s Board of Visitors, Edwards spoke of Maine’s “particularlinguistic tradition,” noting that UMaine’s new graduates are part ofthat tradition that includes the likes of Henry David Thoreau and E. B.White.
“Language and thought, their quality and precision, are closely allied,and this clear, robust use of the English language has been at the coreof the peculiar contribution the people of New England have made toAmerican democracy,” Edwards said. About White, Edwards noted:”To read E.B. White is to scrape the most cherished barnacles fromone’s writing and sand down to the wood any glossy varnish of attemptedeloquence.”
He discussed the importance of language, and pointed out thedetrimental impact of “careless, inaccurate and cheap” language in thepublic arena.
“Think of the rudeness and put-downs on many broadcast emails and muchtalk radio and television that replace discussion with the amusementsof the dog-fight,” Edwards said.
He encouraged the graduates to take seriously the importance of clearlanguage, in professional situations and in raising children, to “traintheir ears to recognize beauty and honesty.”
“To speak clearly, rejoice in articulate, witty argument and delight inthe fresh, flexible use of English is good for the civility andvitality of our democracy,” Edwards said.
In her afternoon commencement address, best-selling novelist TessGerritsen, who lives in Camden, began by telling graduates, “I live ina world of ghosts.” A California native, Gerritsen described hermother, an immigrant from China who believed in a “supernatural world”and had an affection for horror films. Gerritsen, has said thatthis background inspires her writing — which often features dark,frightening villains. She used a series of “creepy facts”to outline her commencement address and to illustrate her centralthemes.
For example, Gerritsen described her research, which determined thatthere are numerous reports of people who appear to have been dead, butwere really alive. She told one story of a man who suddenly awokeon the autopsy table just before the pathologist was about to make hisfirst cut. This, she said, illustrates that “yes, sometimes you do geta second chance at life,” and she encouraged graduates to keep anopen mind about the way their careers and lives will play out.
“Life can change, in ways you can’t predict” she said, pointing outthat people change courses for various reasons. “I’m here to tell youthat it is not impossible to change”
Edwards also received an honorary doctor of humane letters degree atthe morning ceremony, as did Native American Studies scholar andWabanaki historian Nicholas Smith of Brunswick. In the afternoon,UMaine presented honorary doctorates to alumni Richard and MildredGiesberg of Los Angeles, Calif. Community leaders andhumanitarians, the Giesbergs are particularly well-known for their workin helping Ethiopian Jews emigrate to Israel.
Four UMaine faculty members were also honored. Zoology professorIrving Kornfield, winner of the 2007 Presidential Teaching Award; Prof.Elizabeth DePoy of the School of Social Work and Center for CommunityInclusion and Disability Studies, winner of the 2007 PresidentialResearch and Creative Achievement Award; and mechanical engineeringtechnology professor Herbert Crosby, winner of the 2007 PresidentialPublic Service Achievement Award, were all recognized during theceremonies.
Prof. Ivan Fernandez from UMaine’s Dept. of Plant, Soil andEnvironmental Sciences, named on Friday as the 2007 winner of theUMaine Alumni Association’s Distinguished Maine Professor Award,addressed the graduates during the ceremonies.
“I submit to you that we all need to make our decisions, both big andsmall, more thoughtfully,” said Fernandez, himself a UMainegraduate. “Be careful of the influence of our hectic pace on howwell we truly think about the choices we make every day. Yourgeneration will indeed make America the ‘superpower’ of the 21st,century, not by armaments, but by solving the problems of today andleading the world by example for a future that offers sustainableprosperity, environmental quality, clean energy and social justice.”
University of Maine System Board of Trustees member, and 1956 UMainegraduate, William Johnson of Saco brought greetings from the board tothe morning ceremony, and assisted in the conferral of degrees. System Chancellor Terrence MacTaggart assumed that role for theafternoon event. University of Maine Alumni Association officialswelcomed graduates to that group at both ceremonies. SuzanneHart, alumni association vice chair, brought that greeting in themorning while Alumni Association President and Executive Director ToddSaucier spoke in the afternoon.