Commencement Day in Dartmouth
The University of Massachusetts found itself in hot water last week for its controversial decision to present former White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card with an honorary degree from that prestigious institution, in what many protesting students and faculty felt was direct conflict with the university’s high moral and ethical standards. (Mr. Card, as you may recall, accompanied Alberto Gonzales during his now-infamous visit to John Ashcroft’s hospital room in an attempt to get him to re-authorize the domestic surveillance program which had recently been determined to be illegal by the justice department.)
The University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth should have no such problems during their commencement exercises today, however. The list of those being presented with honorary degrees this time includes a familiar name or two, and there’s little doubt of their worthiness for recognition. The featured commencement speaker’s name should ring a bell, too. As the university’s website notes,
U.S. Senator John F. Kerry will deliver the main address at UMass Dartmouth’s 107th Commencement Exercises to be held Sunday, May 27 at 10:30 a.m. in the Vietnam Veterans Peace Memorial Amphitheater.
Honorary degrees will be conferred upon:
- Teresa Heinz Kerry, chairman of the Heinz Family Philanthropies;
- Edmund Barry Gaither, Director and Curator of the Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists;
- Robert P. Lawrence, pastor of the First Congregational Church in Fall River; and
- Julie Moir Messervy, landscape designer and author.
“We are honored to have Senator Kerry as our commencement speaker this year,’’ Chancellor Jean F. MacCormack said. “For four decades he has served the Commonwealth and nation, and has been a stalwart advocate for our university and region. His perspective on the issues that our nation will face in the coming years will be highly valuable to our graduates as they go forth.”
“We are also pleased to be granting honorary degrees to Teresa Heinz, Rev. Robert Lawrence, Julie Moir Messervy, and Edmund Barry Gaither—four extraordinary individuals who have used their immense talents and generous spirits to enhance the social, cultural, and physical landscapes of communities near and far,’’ Chancellor MacCormack said.
The festivities begin at 10:30 am EST, and will be broadcast live over the web in several formats—see http://www.umassd.edu/commencement/webcast.cfm for details.
We’ll be keeping an eye on the events and live-blogging them in real time here on johnkerry.com, of course, and we expect to have updated reports from our JK bloggers on the ground in Massachusetts later in the day as well.
So turn on your media players, tune in to UMass Dartmouth, and enjoy the show!
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Got the livestream up, Rick, and ready to watch our favorite Senator and his lovely wife.
Oh, and the graduates.
Congratulations to the U Mass Dartmouth Grads!
Procession starting now.
Class of 2007. Wow. I remember so clearly how I felt at my college graduation ceremony a few years ago.
OK. “a few” is relative.
Wow, “Pomp and Circumstance”, I haven’t heard that in years. Talk about bringing back old memories of that day so long ago when I stood there flipping my tassel over to the other side, too…
My stream is a bit choppy, so I’m listening to the audio stream and watching the video.
OK, geeky, I know. It sounds great, though.
Congratulations to all of the class of 2007!
Looks like a nice day for the ceremony. I love watching these and seeing all the happy faces on the parents who realize that the days of paying tuition costs are nearly done or, hmmmm, nearly begun.
Either way, congratulations to all!
Ah, good deal, the webcast feeds are settling down a bit now. They were really bogging down there for a little while (no doubt because their servers are getting many thousands of simultaneous logins to watch the events from afar.) They’re still breaking up in intermittent chunks, though. One hopes that they will settle down and behave by the time the main action takes place.
It is a choppy feed right now. But, as you said, it should settle down.
These Grads are lucky to have secured such a great speaker for their commencement.
Lots of smiles on the graduates who’ve already come in and are seated. Judging by the number of empty seats we have a few more rounds of Pamp and Circumstance to listen to. I do like the drum section that they fit into it to provide some variety.
That they are, Tay.
And both the Senator and Teresa receiving honorary doctorates. Awesome.
IIRC, my commencement speaker was ...
Actually, I don’t recall.
Yes, very lucky indeed. I’ll bet none of these grads will forget who spoke at their commencement.
I like how they have the setup on the stage. It’s very simple with the US flag, the Flag of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and just some chairs behind. Very nice, very easy setup.
Hey, who’s the tall guy?
Ah, as the students are winding up their procession, the faculty & administrators enter the stadium—to a nice big round of applause. Good to see these Dartmouth grads really appreciate their instructors and university staff for helping them get to this momentous day.
The processional is finally done! Now for the national anthem.
Hmmm, I see a tall guy with lots of hair, who is he ? LOL
I am not getting this audio feed. Is there a link for that?
Ah, as the students are winding up their procession, the faculty & administrators enter the stadium—to a nice big round of applause. Good to see these Dartmouth grads really appreciate their instructors and university staff for helping them get to this momentous day.
taytay, what some of us are doing is listening to the audio feed being provided by the campus radio station while watching the unfortunately-choppy flash video in a separate browser window. It’s kind of the long way around the barn, but it serves the purpose at hand.
Hey, the chancellor just announced that the oldest grad in today’s group is 77 years old. Way to go, sir!
Remembering the Va Tech students with a moment of silence.
There’s a 77 year old grad? Awesome!
Wow! Whole speeches by folks with no detectable accents at all. How nice. (LOL!)
UMass Dartmouth is one in a chain of 5 Universities that make up the UMass chain. This college is located in Southeastern Mass, nearer to the Rhode Island border.
Looks like good weather for an outdoor commencement—70 degrees, 43% humidity, somewhat overcast so the sun doesn’t beat down mercilessly on all those robed & gowned people. Pretty cool, huh? (ahem)
Nice speeches. Chancellor McCormick is doing a good job of moving things along. The speeches have been short, crisp and fun so far. Good job.
Ah, there’s THK.
The camera was pretty much on the Senator during the processional. Of course, he’s a lot easier to pick out over the heads of the crowd.
Nice to see them receiving honorary doctorates together again.
OK, here’s the class president. Yay!
This is cool. Voices of the grads.
“I’m going to miss Bev the lunch lady” !
LOL
Honorary degrees about to be handed out. Yay!
UMass Dartmout has made a wondeful choice in their selection of people to get honorary degrees. They are all wonderful people.
These people ‘getting the hoods’ of doctors of humane letters and so forth are great.
Honorary degrees being awarded now
Dr of Humane Letters to Edmund Barry Gaither
Dr of Humane Letters to Robert P Lawrence
Dr of Fine Arts to Julie Moir Messervy
Congrats!
THK coming up for her doctor honorius causa degree now. Elegant as always, natch.
OK, the lovely and talented Mrs Heinz Kerry
Dr of Humane Letters awarded to Teresa Heinz Kerry
Ahem. Pittsburgh girl, you know.
Yay! Congrats Teresa!
Oh, wow. A special Chancellor’s Medal for JK, a rare honor indeed. Good deal!
JK’s being escorted to the center of the stage to receive the Chancellor’s medal and being loudly cheered!
Chancellors Medal to Sen John Kerry
“our own Senator and wishing our own President, Senator John Kerry”
Nice, chancellor. Sounds like there’s a lot of agreement from the folks at UMass!
“What happens at UMass Dartmouth stays at UMass Dartmouth.”
Thanking the University admin, faculty, grads.
The Red Sox are winning, and the Yankees are losing, and it doesn’t get any better than that.
JK looking good in a crimson robe with black trim and three black stripes on each arm (I can’t remember what the colors and stripes traditionally stand for, but I’ll look it up later and post it here.)
JK starting off his speech with a wry sense of humor, reminding the grads that “What happens at Dartmouth, stays at Dartmouth.” He’s getting applause after practically every line. And the sun even came out of the clouds to shine on him at that podium, too. What’s not to like?
JK says he is proud of the fact that he received 59 million votes in 2004, but humbled by the fact that it’s still 5 million fewer votes than Sanjaya got…
Hey, there’s those nice smiles.
Congrats to Sen and Mrs. Kerry. Both well-deserved.
Wow. I guess the entire class wants to have a beer with the Senator.
“In a Kerry Presidency ... “ this is pretty good stuff.
Senator, um, I’m not sure you should invite the entire graduating class to your beach house for the summer.
Who says this guy doesn’t know how to tell a joke? He’s cranking out the schtick rather well here. But now he’s transitioning into the serious part of the speech, easing the students gradually out of the good humor section into the more meaningful content. Saying really good things about the grads, the children of immigrants, where they’re from there in Massachusetts. This is a good speech, all right. I really hope we can get footage (or at least a podcast) of it on the site asap.
“In ten years, Mitt will have gone hunting for a third time.”
He’s really keeping things relatively light here even as he does work some significant points in among the laugh lines.
What we have is not guaranteed.
There are four great challenges:
1. Restore America’s moral authority in the world. Tell the truth to the American people.
This is Memorial Day. Too many parents have been to too many funerals.
2. There are 11 million kids without health insurance. We need to fix it.
3. The gap between the rich and the poor is getting wider. We have to get back to being a country that opens doors of opportunity.
4. Global climate change.
I’m really enjoying watching this, even in a kinda low-grade webcast feed. This is the real John Kerry, the one that many of us have come to know outside of the Senate halls and the candidates’ debates. Sure, the mid-day sunlight is flattering to him, he looks great in it; but he really looks great because he’s not being weighed down by the crushing load of a presidential campaign. He’s visibly more relaxed then he was last winter (though still very passionate about what he believes in.)
JK’s speaking now about the environmental causes that he focused on so well in TMOE, and he’s totally focused on it because he believes so strongly that this is what matters most right now. Well, that and getting us the hell out of Iraq, of course. One’s macro, one’s micro, but those are the two critical issues that he has chosen to put all his energies into. And he is so connected to the power of people coming together to do the Right Things, it’s just radiating outward from him at that podium.
This is really, really satisfying stuff to see and hear today. Thanks for the webcasts, UMass Dartmouth!
“Every individual can make a difference. And indifference is unacceptable.”
“Please remember you can make that difference.”
“We didn’t get where we are in America today by standing still.”
Thanks for the liveblogging guys. My connection kept on skipping so I missed a lot. I hope that the whole speech is available for viewing later.
Otter:
JK looking good in a crimson robe with black trim and three black stripes on each arm (I can’t remember what the colors and stripes traditionally stand for, but I’ll look it up later and post it here.)
Posted by Otter | May 27, 2007 11:42 AM
I’m 99% sure that JK was wearing a Boston University gown. This is a mistake (he got his law degree from Boston COLLEGE, not university); someone must have made a boo-boo and rented for him the wrong gown. But the hood looks correct: colors for Law.
I hope that the whole speech is available for viewing later.
Posted by fedup | May 27, 2007 12:10 PM
Video will be available “as soon as possible” at http://www.umassd.edu/commencement
Hey you guys, that was amazing, I almost felt like I was there. I didn’t get to watch it (or hear it) but just reading your blogging was great. I can’t wait to see the whole thing later, you guys did such a great job of conveying the atmosphere, sounds like it was fun. Thanks
Katie from Washington State
Katie,
You might appreciate the report from MBK about the commencement which was posted shortly after you commented.
Check it out here. MBK took lots of great pictures too.