Schools honor their own

From Staff Reports

Each of Emory’s schools held its own ceremony to honor its graduates from the academic year 2000–01. Following are brief reports of the individual events.

Emory College
This year’s Emory College graduation was a bittersweet one for Dean Steve Sanderson, who is leaving the University this summer.

To add to the emotion, Sanderson became college dean in 1997—the Class of 2001’s freshman year.
“We’re leaving Emory together to go on and do things we can’t quite imagine right now,” he said.

He will retain at least one Emory tie, as his son graduated from Emory College in 2000. “I will always stay faithful to this place,” he said. “Always be a proud alumnus.”

That is what he tells his son, Sanderson said, but the advice applied to all the graduates sitting before him.

Bradley Miller, who earned a bachelor’s in neuroscience and behavioral biology served as senior orator. “We are all bonded by our Emory University education. We need to use it to affect the way we live and approach life,” he said.

Graduate school
Dean Bobby Paul paid homage to the Graduate School of Arts and Science’s newly minted master’s and PhD holders in a ceremony held in the Glenn Church School Amphitheater. “The University is a place of unencumbered ideas and values,” Paul told the audience, but he reminded the graduates that “the process [of education] is continual.”

Joining Paul on the dais were Provost Rebecca Chopp, Associate Dean Gary Wihl and Virginia Shadron, director of special projects for the graduate school. A total of 164 received their doctorates, and another 104 earned master’s degrees.

Business
Dean Tom Robertson provided brief remarks at the Goizueta Business School's ceremony. He told the graduates and their families that in 1995, the school’s namesake, the late Roberto Goizueta, spoke briefly at the school’s diploma ceremony. Goizueta congratulated the graduates, Robertson said, thanked them for all they had done for the school and apologized for “the lifetime you will spend teaching people how to correctly pronounce the name of the business school you attended.”

Robertson also said the former Coca-Cola chairman told the graduates that “opportunity is accompanied by obligations,” and Robertson said he wanted to emphasize that the graduates should contribute not only to their own success but should work to enrich the lives of others.

Law
Approximately 240 members of the School of Law’s Class of 2001 gathered on the south lawn of Gambrell Hall for a ceremony presided over for the last time by Howard Hunter, dean of the school for the past 12 years. He is stepping down this summer to become interim provost.

Hunter said this was his 27th Emory commencement, but “every one has been a thrill.” He told the graduates he was struck by the similarity and relevance of the speakers’ remarks at the main ceremony on the triumph of truth, the rule of law and reconciliation.

“These are fitting themes for you,” Hunter said. “Your role is to seek justice, peace, harmony and reconciliation in all the work you do.”

John Mayoue ’79L, president of Emory Law Alumni Association, gave the graduates two pieces of advice: “Remain open-minded in your career choices and in areas of law practice [and] govern yourselves through the principles of professionalism.”

Medicine
At the School of Medicine’s diploma ceremony, speaker Anthony Fauci told graduates he could not imagine a more exciting time to be part of the medical profession, citing recent strides in the study of the human genome as just one of many “striking changes” in the field today.

Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, urged graduates to be lifelong students of their fields and to never forget the impact medicine can have on society. “Nothing crystallizes social issues more than health,” he said. “Be assured that in the broad sense [the medicine you practice] is linked directly and indirectly to the citizens of the world.”

Nursing
The new facilities of the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing hosted their first commencement ceremony, which was keynoted by Mary Lambert, an expert in community health and director of the Office of Military Liaison and Veterans Affairs.

“I am confident the preparation you graduates have received here will serve you well,” Lambert told the 52 master’s and 61 baccalaureate degree recipients. “The names Emory and Woodruff are recognized and highly respected.”

In her 15-minute address, Lambert challenged the graduates to recruit new nurses from among their friends and family; remain up-to-date in current events, community organizations and the world of research; learn from any mistakes they might make; and continue
to practice as models for compassion.

Public health
Mark Rosenberg, executive director of the Task Force for Child Survival and Develop-ment in Decatur, told the graduates of the Rollins School of Public Health that they had made a “wonderful choice” to go into their chosen field, “and yes,” he assured them, “it was the right choice.”

Speaking at the school’s graduation ceremony outside the Rollins Research Building, Rosenberg marveled at the leap in life expectancy Americans achieved during the 20th century, from roughly 45 in 1900 to 75 by century’s end. “Look around and imagine everyone over 45 gone from this picture,” he said. “The increases in life expectancy are largely due to the public health field, not to advances in medical care.”

Rosenberg also referenced Emory’s William Foege, Presidential Distinguished Professor of International Health, in defining the duties of public health professionals. Master’s of public health recipient Sidath Panangala spoke on behalf of the graduates.

Theology
Candler Dean Russell Richey relied on humor to well-wish the School of Theology graduates, whose ceremony was delayed almost an hour in starting following the School of Medicine ceremony in Glenn Auditorium.

“Because of the long wait, the faculty has allowed me to advance all graduates one degree,” Richey told the capacity crowd, which in turn greeted the remark with laughter.

The ceremony was Richey’s first since arriving last fall from Duke University to take over as Candler’s dean.

On a more serious level, he reminded students that it was their faith in their education, their families, their friends, themselves and God that had helped bring them to this point in their lives.

“Keep [the graduates] steadfast in the faith, evergrowing in the love and knowledge of [God],” said Richey during his prayer for the graduates.