1,314 master’s, 397 doctoral and 731 professional degrees and certificates.
Albright also told the graduates:
“Today is a day of joy and for anticipating the future with optimism, yet in our
high spirits we cannot help but be conscious
of shadows. Closest to home is the knowledge that tragedy is inseparable from life.
This past March, you lost an irreplaceable
member of your class. We all feel the
absence of Jason Ray [the portrayer of the
Rameses mascot who died after being
struck by a vehicle in March]. More broadly,
around our country and around our world,
we mourn the loss of innocent lives to hurricanes, tsunamis, disease and — as the horror at Virginia Tech reminds us — the
demons that sometimes infect the human
mind.”
■ ■ ■
“Not every leader marches at the head
of a band, and yet leadership is also sometimes confused with certainty. All too
often, we follow people simply because
they have commanded us to follow; they
prompt us to put aside our doubts because
they are decisive and because they are so
sure they are right. We fall in line because
we admire their certainty and perhaps
envy it. But certainty is no guarantee of
wisdom — as Hitler and Osama bin Laden
prove.”
■ ■ ■
“We celebrate the
achievements of
Mahatma Gandhi,
Martin Luther King
and Nelson Mandela
because they believed
deeply but also
because they
embraced broadly —
they were compassionate extremists
whose certainty
caused them to seek
communion — even with their persecutors.
The triumph they sought to lead us toward
was a victory not of some but of all. This is
the kind of leadership we yearn for today.
Think how refreshing it would be if all the
people in the Middle East and Iraq committed themselves to a victory of all. And how
much better the world would be if we each
truly followed the teaching that is central to
every religion and system of ethics I know,
and that is to help those less fortunate than
ourselves.
“It is not my intention this morning to
place the weight of the world upon your
shoulders — for that will always be your
parents’ job. But 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.
“It is said that all work that
is worth doing is done in faith.
This morning, I hope you will
each embrace the faith that
every challenge surmounted by
your energy, every problem
solved by your wisdom, every
soul awakened by your passion,
and every barrier to justice
brought down by your determi-
nation will ennoble your own
lives, inspire others and explode
outward the boundaries of what
is achievable on this earth.”
■ ■ ■
“In future years, you will recall this ceremony and realize that today, May 13,
2007, was the day you first began to forget
everything you learned in college.
“But as the names of dead European
kings and the body parts of dissected frogs
begin to fade, the true value of your days
here at Chapel Hill will become more and
more apparent.
“For although you have learned a great
deal about the world around you, chances
are you have learned even more about
yourself.”
You can listen to Albright’s speech and
other audio from the Commencement ceremony at alumni.unc.edu/commencement.
Ornaments of Academia
Faculty marshal Trudier Harris leads the faculty procession toward Memorial Hall for the
hooding ceremony for graduate students on
Saturday of Commencement weekend. Each
graduate student is
called to the stage to
have the hood of the
Commencement
regalia conferred by
his or her adviser or
dissertation committee chair. William
Carter Jenkins ’ 78
(MPH, ’ 83 PhD),
right, gave the keynote address. Jenkins started his career in epidemiology at the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention and worked
in the National Center for HIV/STD/TD
Prevention. Carolina introduced the hooding
ceremony in 2003, joining a long tradition in
graduate education.
