May
21, 2004
Mount
Holyoke’s Commencement Set for Weekend of May 21–23
The blue lion
is the symbol of the class of 2004. The class symbol
became a tradition in the early 1900s. According to
The First One Hundred Years 1872–1972 by Mary
Higley Mills ’21, the griffin, Pegasus, the sphinx,
and the lion became new MHC standards in 1909, along
with the colors green, red, yellow, and blue. The lion
was first designated a symbol by the class of 1905,
a fitting choice for a college that boasts Lyons athletic
teams. |
Kendade Hall existed
only as an idea, Blanchard Campus Center had yet to undergo
its transformation into its current bright and lively incarnation,
and the renovated and expanded Pratt Hall had not yet reopened
when the members of the class of 2004 arrived on campus in
the fall of 2000.
There was no
Rao’s
in the library. The Plan for Mount Holyoke 2003 was still three
years from the finish line, although members of the class of
2004 would see its successful conclusion, as well as the creation
and launch of its successor, The Plan
for Mount Holyoke 2010. They would also welcome Beverly Daniel Tatum as acting president
of the College during the sabbatical of President Joanne V.
Creighton; they would later say goodbye to Tatum as she left
to lead Spelman College, and hello to her successor, Lee Bowie.
The class of 2004 has been witness to significant and lasting changes at Mount
Holyoke, but seniors have been busy with their own achievements as well. Members
of the class have won Congress-Bundestag, DAAD, and Fulbright grants, as well
as Institute for International Public Policy and Center for the Study of the
Presidency fellowships, a Microsoft full scholarship, and two Datatel scholarships.
Their studies have taken them far from Mount Holyoke, to examine the possible
effects of global warming on lakes in Alaska and Norway, the role that commemorative
bonfires and posters played in the peace process in Northern Ireland, and the
cultural explanations behind corporate groups in Japan, to name just a few.
On Sunday, May
23, these 574 individual academic journeys will intersect at Mount
Holyoke’s 167th commencement, scheduled to begin at 10:30
am in Richard Glenn Gettell Amphitheater. In the event of rain, ceremonies
will be held in Kendall Field House.
In accordance
with tradition, a number of events will lead up to commencement.
On Thursday, the canoe sing rehearsal, senior barbecue at the president’s
house, and a final “lecture” by a panel of professors on MHC life
get the weekend’s events rolling. Friday begins bright and early
with commencement rehearsal, followed by a full schedule: a walking tour
of the campus; a reception at Talcott Greenhouse; a commencement concert;
a welcome reception for seniors, families, and guests; and the senior
slide show.
Saturday begins
and ends with two of the College’s most cherished and time-honored
commencement traditions: the alumnae parade and laurel chain ceremony in the
morning, and the canoe sing, an annual event that originated in 1911, in the
evening. Led by alumnae “loyalty classes” and accompanied by a marching
band, members of the class of 2004 will march to Mary Lyon’s grave carrying
a garland of laurel that they will place at the gravesite. They will join in
singing “Bread and Roses,” a song that became the anthem
of workers who went on strike at a textile mill in Lawrence, Massachusetts,
in 1912, demanding reasonable hours and pay. An old-fashioned community
picnic takes place at 11:30 am in a tent on Skinner Green, and President
Joanne V. Creighton will deliver her annual State of the College address
at 1:30 pm in Hooker Auditorium.
Speakers at Saturday evening’s Baccalaureate will be faculty members Michelle
Stephens, assistant professor of English, and Lois Brown, associate professor
of English; and senior Caitlin Parker Morray ’04 of Paradise Valley, Arizona.
Anna Patricia Bennett ’04 will read from Walt Whitman’s Leaves of
Grass, and the Baccalaureate Choir will perform Alanis Morrissette’s “You
Learn,” under the direction of Catharine Melhorn, Hammond-Douglass
Professor of Music.
Saturday closes
with fireworks over Lower Lake and the canoe sing, one of MHC’s
most casual and fun traditions. Twelve canoes, each decorated with
lanterns and seating three seniors chosen by lottery, will illuminate
the lake while changing formations. Seniors on the banks of the lake
will join those in canoes in singing previously rehearsed songs.
President
Joanne V. Creighton will preside over commencement, which begins
on Sunday at
10:30 am. Five hundred and seventy-four seniors—one of the largest classes
in the College’s history—are expected to receive bachelor
of arts degrees; among them are 46 Frances Perkins Scholars. Three
postbaccalaureate degrees and 18 certificates for international
students will also be awarded.
The Right Honourable
Kim Campbell |
The Right Honourable
Kim Campbell, who in 1993 became the first woman to serve
as prime minister of Canada, will be the commencement speaker.
Campbell, former chair of the Council of Women World Leaders,
will be joined by three other honorary degree recipients: Nadine
Strossen, president of the American Civil Liberties Union;
Dorothy I. Height, a leader in the liberation struggle of African
American women and the Civil Rights movement; and Nancy Skinner
Nordhoff ’54,
philanthropist and founder of the Hedgebrook writers colony
for women.
Before becoming prime minister, Campbell served
as minister of state for Indian affairs and northern
development, minister of justice and attorney general,
and minister of national defense and veterans affairs.
She was the first woman to hold the justice position,
and the first woman defense minister of a NATO
country. Campbell took part in major international
meetings, including the Commonwealth, NATO, the
G-7 Summit and the United Nations General Assembly.
In September 2000, she completed a four-year term
as consul general of Canada in Los Angeles, serving
the states of California, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, Hawaii, and
the territory of Guam. She is currently a lecturer
in public policy at the John F. Kennedy School
of Government at Harvard University.
Long a champion
of women’s rights, Campbell chaired the Council of Women
World Leaders from 1999 to 2003. Based at the Kennedy School
of Government at Harvard, the council is a network of current
and former women heads of state and heads of government. In
October 2003, Campbell was named president of the International
Women’s Forum, a global organization
of women of significant and diverse achievement. On January
1, 2004, she assumed the position of secretary general
of the Club of Madrid, an organization of former heads of
government and state who work to promote democratization
through peer relations with leaders of transitional democracies.
Campbell
was educated at the University of British Columbia (B.A., 1969,
L.L.B., 1983) and the London School of Economics (doctoral studies
in Soviet government, A.B.D., 1970–1973). She has held
fellowships at the Kennedy School and UCLA, is an Honorary
Fellow of the London School of Economics and was a regents’ lecturer
at the University of California, Irvine. Her best-selling
political memoir, Time and Chance, was published in 1996
by Doubleday Canada.
Dorothy
I. Height has for more than half a century advanced the liberation
struggle of black women. A national leader in the Civil Rights
movement, Height has worked for 70 years toward racial and gender
equality. She served for more than 30 years as the president of
the National Council of Negro Women and held leadership positions
at the YWCA, where she pushed for racial inclusiveness. Her work
has helped countless women in America and around the world participate
in democratic reform resulting in new opportunities for themselves,
their families, and their communities. She received the Citizens
Medal Award from President Ronald Reagan in 1989 and the Medal
of Freedom from President William Clinton in 1994, and on March
24 of this year was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in a ceremony
at the U.S. Capitol.
Nancy Skinner Nordhoff ’54 devoted herself to fundraising
and philanthropy in the Seattle, Washington, area for
25 years before founding Hedgebrook, a retreat for women
writers on Whidbey Island, Washington. Hedgebrook is open to
women writers around the world and, since 1988, has welcomed
more than 800 women, ranging in age from 17 to 82, from Barbados,
Canada, England, Mexico, the Philippines, South Africa,
Thailand, the United States, and Zimbabwe.
Nadine Strossen, professor of law at New York Law School,
has written, lectured, and practiced extensively in the areas
of constitutional law, civil liberties, and international
human rights. Since 1991, she has served as president of
the American Civil Liberties Union. She is the first woman
to head the nation’s
largest and oldest civil liberties organization. (Because
the ACLU presidency is an unpaid, volunteer post, Strossen continues
in her faculty position as well.) The National
Law Journal has twice
named Strossen one of “The 100 Most
Influential Lawyers in America.” In 1996, Working
Woman magazine listed her among the “350 Women
Who Changed the World 1976–1996.”
Chosen to speak for the graduating class is Stacey
Rose Pulmano ’04 of
Honolulu, Hawaii. Pulmano, a sociology major with a minor
in psychology, has followed her passions in the areas of music and theater.
She is a member of the Mount Holyoke College Symphony Orchestra and has also
performed with Five College ensembles such as Euridice and Collegium. Pulmano
is also a diver on the MHC swimming and diving team and was named to the 2003–2004
NEWMAC Academic All-Conference Team.
To better accommodate the graduating seniors and their families,
Gettell this year has been expanded by approximately 160 seats,
bringing its capacity to just a shade over 3,000.
The
counter is
1,992
|
