Class of 2004 largest ever Commencement returns to historic heart of New Brunswick campus Archived article from May 31, 2004 By Ashanti M. Alvarez

Pastel-blue skies and a warm breeze provided an auspicious beginning for a revived tradition: holding universitywide commencement on the lush and historic Voorhees Mall. Professor Paul Panayotatos, head marshall of this year's commencement, leads the processional carrrying the university gonfalon, a banner displaying Rutgers' coat of arms. Photo by Nick Romanenko It was the first time in 26 years that commencement, during which a record number of graduates received degrees, took place on the mall and not the Louis Brown Athletic Center, or the RAC, on the Livingston campus. The venerated location, where classes were first held 238 years ago, matched the May 20 commencement ceremony's tradition and pomp, with help from the Glee Club, Wind Ensemble and Queen's Guard. "Universities like Rutgers are ancient institutions, going back hundreds of years. The colorful costumes worn by those on this platform are themselves ancient in origin, and they symbolize the many different disciplines, institutions, degrees and traditions that are represented here," President Richard L. McCormick told graduates, their guests and faculty members. "But universities like Rutgers are also modern. The research and creativity of our faculty, the learning of our graduates, and the contributions of our alumni to their communities and to the world all speak to the urgencies and the opportunities of the 21st century." Leslie Fehrenbach, secretary of the boards of governors and trustees and the principal organizer of commencement, said the ceremony is planned by a committee of faculty, staff and students and takes more than a year. "It took hundreds of people to pull it off, and they did a fabulous job," said Fehrenbach, whose office is already preparing for next year's event. The university commencement is a time for the president to officially confer degrees upon 600 student representatives from all 29 degree-granting units at Rutgers. Most of the members of the Class of 2004 - the largest class ever, with 11,146 graduates - received their degrees at 23 convocations held throughout the week in Camden, New Brunswick/Piscataway and Newark. Each convocation featured a special guest speaker: public officials such as U.S. Sen. Joseph R. Biden (D-Del.), Virginia Long, former associate justice on the New Jersey Supreme Court, and Louisiana appellate judge Thomas E. Daley; business leaders, including Borgata Hotel CEO Robert L. Boughner, Panasonic Chairman and CEO Don Iwatani, and ESPN founder William F. Rasmussen; and members of the academic and arts communities - composer, singer, and choreographer Meredith Monk, renowned sculptor Alice Aycock, and Rachel Hadas, accomplished poet, critic, translator and professor of English at Rutgers-Newark. President McCormick was the featured speaker at the convocation for University College-New Brunswick. Robert Pinsky, former U.S. poet laureate and Rutgers alumnus, told graduates to make their degrees matter. Photo by Nick Romanenko Robert Pinsky - a former three-time U.S. poet laureate and Rutgers alumnus (RC '62) - delivered a keynote address at the university commencement on college graduation and social class. Although the new graduates should be proud of graduating from a respected university with a rich history, comparable to and even surpassing that of some Ivy League schools, Pinsky cautioned them against educational elitism. Pinsky quoted early 20th century scholar W.E.B. DuBois, New Jersey poet William Carlos Williams and his own father. Pinsky told the graduates how a college English instructor accused his father, an athlete, of plagiarism after he turned in an eloquent paper. Pinsky's father quit the course and did not finish college."My father, who died this year, could remember one thing about that composition he wrote. In it, he said something like this: 'A gentleman considers the well-being of other people more than his own,'" Pinsky said. "Let's not preen ourselves in having attended a 'good' school," Pinsky said. "Please let's be above overvaluing ranks, titles and yes, degrees." But some students were so impressed with the ceremony they couldn't help but swell with self-praise. "I thought it was amazing," said bachelor's degree recipient Ada Barlatt, who graduated from the College of Engineering. "It makes me proud to be a Rutgers graduate." Barlatt said she was happy to attend commencement because the engineering convocation took place at the RAC. "I wanted to graduate from Voorhees Mall, so from my perspective, this is great," the industrial and systems engineering student said. The commencement on Voorhees Mall evoked history for many of the graduates because the location dates back to the earliest days of Rutgers. The vast kelly-green lawn lined by mature American elms is filled with notable items, from the statue of Silent Willie at the north end to the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum at the southern end to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in the middle. Original stones from the Sign of the Red Lion, a tavern where the earliest classes were taught at the college, are incorporated into a bench near the center of the mall. Mason Gross, Rutgers' 16th president, is memorialized with a monument facing College Avenue near Milledoler Hall. Time was taken during the commencement to remember Gregory Hines, the legendary dancer, actor and singer who died in August 2003. Rutgers University had planned to award Hines an honorary degree during last year's commencement, but Hines canceled his appearance because of his liver cancer condition. His son, Zachary Hines, accepted an honorary doctorate of fine arts degree awarded posthumously. Honorary degrees also were bestowed upon Puerto Rico Gov. Sila M. Calderón; renowned biologist Lynn Margulis; chair of the Rutgers Board of Governors Gene O'Hara; National Basketball Association Commissioner David J. Stern; New York University dean and women's studies pioneer Catharine R. Stimpson; and businessman and advocate for neurological disease research Arthur D. Ullian. Graduates applaud speaker Mary Sue Sweeney Price during the joint convocation of the Newark College of Arts and Sciences and University College. Photo by Arthur Paxton Newark Museum Director Mary Sue Sweeney Price received an honorary doctorate of fine arts at the convocation for the Newark College of Arts and Sciences and University College-Newark, and she also delivered the keynote address. Sweeney Price, an advocate for the arts in Newark and New Jersey, praised Rutgers-Newark for being the most diverse campus in the nation. She reminded the estimated 990 graduates that their choices today would affect generations to come - as did the decisions of some of the great leaders of the 1960s. "I truly doubt that Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr. or John F. Kennedy knew exactly the outcome of their initial actions," Sweeney Price said. "What is important is that they followed their respective individual consciences and thus did not shy away from action." At a joint convocation for Camden College of Arts and Sciences, University College and Graduate School, George W. Mamo, a member of the College of Arts and Sciences' Class of 1976 and a 2004 inductee into Rutgers' Hall of Distinguished Alumni, told graduates to effect change, but not at the cost of valuable family time. "I often remind myself that absolutely no one, on his deathbed, regrets not having spent more time at the office," said Mamo, chief operating officer and executive vice president of the nonprofit International Fellowship of Jews and Christians. There were also some surprises. The Mason Gross Distinguished Service in the Arts Award went to Judith Brodsky and June Wayne. It was a special moment because neither woman knew she was receiving the award. Brodsky is a printmaker, political activist and national leader on behalf of women in the arts, and she founded the Rutgers Center for Innovative Print and Paper in 1986. Wayne, also a celebrated printmaker, is an Oscar-nominated documentarian who took on McCarthyism in the 1950s. She is credited with saving the art form of lithography from extinction by acquiring more than $1 million in funding for the Tamarind Lithography Workshop in Los Angeles. Despite the celebrated authors, scientists, politicians, artists and business people, the convocations and commencement mainly celebrated the accomplishments of new Rutgers graduates. For the graduates, the achievers Rutgers chose to honor served as role models - examples for the success stories of tomorrow. "It's really fantastic we did this. I loved the speaker [Pinsky] and the music was beautiful," said Yu-Ri Mun, who received her doctoral degree in environmental science. "How can I say something bad? It's my day. It's a new beginning."

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