Commencement
No. 160
May 15, 2005, at the Joyce Center
Monk's farewell
Speaking at his final commencement as president of Notre Dame,
Father Edward A. Malloy, CSC, gave graduates
three pieces of advice:
1. Cherish your friends.
2. Remain open to change and surprise.
3. Make room for God in your life's routine.
"I have nothing but gratitude and thankfulness to all of you,
this class and all the classes that preceded it," said Monk, who
stepped down June 30, 2005.
"Thanks for the memories, and God bless you all," he concluded
to a standing ovation.
Doctored
Home-run king Hank Aaron. The executive director of the United
Nations World Food Program. The actress who plays "Maria" on Sesame
Street. The head of Xerox. The president of USC. A brain
surgeon who performed the first successful separation of Siamese
twins joined at the head. And one of the worlds most prominent
cardinals.
They all received honorary doctorates at commencement.
Maria (Sonia Manzano), pictured right, got
the loudest ovation.
The 16 individuals who received Notre Dame honorary doctorates
included, as is the custom, the event's principal speaker, Vartan
Gregorian. Also receiving honorary degrees were two of the University's
leaders, who were leaving office June 30, Monk and Provost Nathan
Hatch (the new president of Wake Forest University).
Read the list of honorees and their biographical summaries at
www.nd.edu/~ndmag/su2005/docts.html.
Big question
Vartan Gregorian said that when he was president
of Brown University he used to welcome and bid farewell to students
with the same saying: "The number of those who undergo the fatigue
of judging for themselves is very small indeed."
At commencement, the scholar and historian, now president of
the philanthropic Carnegie Corporation, urged graduates to put
in the hard work -- utilizing both faith and reason -- to try
and understand not only why the world is as it is but "to what
end?"
"[K]eep focused on that big picture, on what role you want to
play in the great human drama. Remember that you are not mere
actualities. You were born as potentialities."
Gregorian became head of the Carnegie Corporation in 1997 after
eight years as president of Brown. Prior to that he served for
eight years as president of the New York Public Library, which
he is credited with pulling out of a financial crisis.
Classy numbers
About 95 percent of the 2,040 undergraduates who enrolled at
Notre Dame in the fall of 2001 received a diploma at commencement
-- one of the top five graduation rates in the nation.
All 50 states were represented in this year's class.
Some 80 percent of graduates participated in volunteer and service-learning
programs in the greater South Bend area, nationwide and around
the world.
About 10 percent of seniors are headed off to a year or more
of service work in programs such as the Peace Corps, Teach for
America, the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, Notre Dame's Alliance for
Catholic Education and Holy Cross Associates.
Gowned distinction
Among the bachelor's . . .
Melody Gonzalez, Santa Ana, California, helped
organize marches for immigrant rights in South Bend, co-founded
the new group MEChA de ND (Chicano Student Movement of Aztlan),
and was among the students who successfully lobbied the University
not to renew an athletics sponsorship agreement with local Taco
Bell restaurants. Their concern grew out of a national boycott
of Taco Bell involving wages paid to migrant farm workers by the
company's supplier of tomatoes. After graduation, the political
science major plans to work with the Student Farmworker Alliance
and Interfaith Action in Immokalee, Florida.
Fran Larkin, Granger, Indiana, founded
InternNation (www.internnation.com), a free on-line community
that allows Notre Dame students participating in internships to
connect with each other and share resources while away from home.
The marketing major is going to work for the retail and auction
website Overstock.com.
Identical twins Brendan and Kevan O'Neill,
Lima, Ohio, sons of a double Domer (James A. O'Neill, '78, '01MBA),
finished neck and neck as pre-med majors with both posting GPAs
above 3.9. After graduation they both plan to study at the Columbia
University School of Dental and Oral Surgery.
. . . and the Ph.D.s:
Darren Dochuk (history), in his dissertation,
traced the grassroots origins of the American religious right
as the political movement developed in the decades after World
War II in one of its most fertile settings: Orange County, California.
His study included a look at demographic trends seen in patterns
of migrations, especially from Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma.
Lorna Whyte (biological sciences) examined
the role of a secretory protein in the biology of mammary gland
development and tumor progression in breast cancer. Among other
findings, she showed that over-expression of the protein in breast
cancer cells dramatically increases the propensity of these cells
to metastasize to distant organs.
Don't 'tolerate' diversity
In his valedictory, Enrique Schaerer, the son
of immigrants, said people need to look beyond stereotypes and
see racial, religious, ethnic and gender differences as a source
of strength.
"Tolerance may not be enough. We tolerate pain. At its best,
diversity should be . . . transformative, something we celebrate
because it opens our minds and stimulates our community."
Schaerer, from Las Vegas, posted a perfect 4.0 grade-point average
as a political science and finance double major. He
plans to study international, contract, labor relations, civil
rights and immigration law at Yale Law School.
And the Laetare went to . . .
Dr. Joseph E. Murray, the 1990 Nobel laureate
who performed the first successful organ transplant 51 years ago.
Murray became interested in tissue and organ transplantation
while working as a surgeon at the U.S. Army's Valley Forge General
Hospital in Philadelphia from 1944 to 1947. The hospital had a
major plastic surgical center to treat WWII battle casualties.
On Dec. 23, 1954, at Boston's Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, he
successfully transplanted a donated kidney from one brother to
his genetically identical twin brother. The recipient survived
for several years.
In 1962, administering immunosuppressive drugs, he performed
the first successful kidney transplant using a kidney from a donor
unrelated to his patient. Eventually he also was able to transplant
a kidney from a cadaver successfully.
Notre Dame's Laetare Medal is the oldest and most prestigious
honor given to American Catholics.
(July 2005)
