Graduation

Commencement 2003

More Quotes and Photos from Commencement 2003

Graduates at Rochester’s 153rd Commencement ceremonies were urged, against the background of current events, to practice the Golden Rule, be vigilant about democracy, and get involved in their communities.

“Treat others with respect and compassion, as you yourself would like to be treated,” said Myles Brand ’67 (PhD), president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Brand, who was presented with the Hutchison Medal, the University’s highest award for alumni, addressed graduates during the main undergraduate ceremony on May 19.

Brand was one of three honorees at the ceremony for students receiving bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the College.

CAPPING GRADUATION: Newly declared graduates of the College celebrate the end of the ceremony.

Kenneth Olden, director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, received an honorary doctor of science degree. Writer John A. Williams received an honorary doctor of humane letters degree. Each spoke briefly.

In a ceremony-filled four days last May, separate exercises also were held for graduates receiving doctoral degrees from the University, and for students graduating from the Eastman School of Music, the Margaret Warner Graduate School of Education and Human Development, the School of Medicine and Dentistry, and the School of Nursing. The main ceremony for the William E. Simon Graduate School of Business Administration was held June 15.

SIGNAGE: In time-honored tradition, some students used their mortar boards as space to comment about personal, political, and professional concerns.

At the College ceremony, the only Commencement held outdoors on the Eastman Quadrangle, Rochester’s famously unreliable weather cooperated as the 6,000 people who attended enjoyed a nearly cloudless spring day.

Another several hundred from around the world used their computers to tune in to the College and the doctoral ceremonies, thanks to a Webcast of both events.

All in all, the University conferred a total of 2,468 bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees this year.

Read excerpts from guest speakers, and view more Commencement photos, here.