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May 31, 2005
Sunny day greets newest Oxford grads

BY Christi gray

On the Oxford Quadrangle, Saturday, May 14, it couldn’t have been a more perfect spring morning for Oxford graduates to walk. Commencement began at 10 a.m. with the traditional bagpipe procession, as families watched the line of 251 graduates march onto the Quad.

“Look to the near past at your time at Oxford,” said Dana Greene, opening her final graduation ceremony as Oxford dean.

“I hope your experience here stands you in good stead as you move on to your next stage of education.”
Greene then introduced poet laureate of Georgia David Bottoms to give the commencement address. “Although he did not graduate from Emory, his commitment to humanistic values make him one of our own,” she said of the speaker.

“There’s still fascinating potential for discourse waiting to be realized,” Bottoms told graduates. “You must look at who you are, how you got there and where you are going with an open mind. You are citizens of the city of ideas but this comes with many responsibilities,” he said.

“Don’t forget where you came from and how you got here today,” he continued. To conclude he recited Sign for My Father, a poem he wrote to thank his own father for putting him through college.

After Bottoms’ address, awards were presented. Greene presented Bottoms with the Dean’s Medal, which honors a person who through their life and work foster the ideals of Oxford College. Then Joe Moon, dean for campus life, presented the Eady Sophomore Service Award to Alexandra Vinson for her “unadorned, even sacrificial,” service to campus life at Oxford. Dean of Academic Affairs Kent Linville presented an Emory Williams Award for Distinguished Teaching—the University’s most prestigious teaching award—to Steve Baker, associate professor of biology.

Following commencement, Oxford Weekend activites continued, which included lunch, special events and freebies. This year is the first year Oxford Weekend coincided with Commencement, which gave graduates, alumni and friends greater opportunity to participate in campus-wide events. Those events included: Sophomore Banquet, Continuee Reception, Alumni Lunch, Golden Robe Breakfast Reception and class reunion parties.

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