CELEBR ATIONS
PHOTOS BY DAN SEARS ’ 74
Commencement: Out of the Shadows,
Toward a Future With Optimism
‘I do hope that
when you accept
your diplomas,
you will do
so determined
to live life boldly,
with largeness
of spirit and
generosity
of heart.’
Madeleine
Albright
Former Secretary of
State Madeleine
Albright asked the
Class of 2007 to ponder
the recent discovery that
the human genetic code
and that of a mouse are 95
percent the same.
“Perhaps each night,”
she said, “we should ask
ourselves what we have
done to prove there is a
difference.”
Albright told almost
5,500 UNC degree recipients in an audience of about 28,000 in Kenan Stadium on
May 13 that they would be distinguished
by “the use we make of the time and
opportunities we have.”
She was one of five
who received honorary
degrees from the University. The others were H.
Jack Geiger, a two-time
winner of the Nobel Peace
Prize and senior member
in the National Academy
of Science’s Institute of
Medicine;William Ivey
Long ’ 69, a Tony Award-winning Broadway costume designer; Richard
Wilson Riley, a former
U.S. secretary of education and South Carolina governor; and former UNC men’s
basketball Coach Dean Smith.
The University Registrar estimated
there would be 3,039 bachelor’s degrees,
The Class of 2007
turns the tassels on
a bright day in
Kenan.
At left, Madeleine
Albright, who gave
the Commencement
address. Opposite
page, another recipient of an honorary
degree and a long
ovation, Dean Smith.
