Dear Campus Community,
Saturday, under (partly) sunny skies and in a gymnasium that was full twice over, we celebrated our 117th Commencement — and the largest graduating class in the history of this institution. For the third consecutive year, we set a record: 1,752 degree completers, about 500 of whom crossed the stage in person across two ceremonies. And that’s not including our very first Graduate Hooding Ceremony on Friday afternoon! The first graduating class, in 1903, celebrated 17 people. Saturday we needed a morning and an afternoon to hold what this university has become. The Bangor Daily News covered yesterday’s ceremonies, and you can read their account here.
My thanks go to everyone who helped make Commencement such a remarkable success this year: from the Committee, to the outstanding work done by Facilities and IT, to all who participated, assisted, or cheered on this year’s remarkable group of graduates. You started this work in the days and weeks before yesterday, much of it unseen, and the result was ceremonies that our graduates and their families will carry for the rest of their lives. Thank you.
I also want to honor our keynote speaker and honorary degree recipient, Sandy Gauvin, whose decades of work through the Aroostook Aspirations Initiative have changed the trajectory of hundreds of young people in this county — and whose address reminded our graduates that the path forward is theirs to define. And I want to recognize David Watson, our second honorary degree recipient, whose journeys from this campus to lives of extraordinary service represent exactly what a UMPI education makes possible.
But the voices that will stay with me longest from yesterday belong to our two student speakers, Andrae Joel (AJ) Anthony and Valerie Elaine King.
AJ named what makes this institution unlike any other: “Some of us learned in lecture halls. Some in living rooms. Some between shift changes. Some after children fell asleep. Each of us through different pathways, but with the same perseverance.” And he closed with a line I suspect many of us will carry forward: “And when the world asks what became of the graduates of UMPI, let the answer be this: we kept climbing.” It is well worth reading Langston Hughes’ inspiring poem, “Mother to Son,” if you have the chance, as a follow-up to AJ’s remarkably powerful message.
Valerie, who returned to college after 30 years, summed it up with poignant clarity: “That’s not a gap, that’s a life.” And then: “If my journey has taught me anything, it is this: It is never too late. You are never too behind… The world does not belong to those who start early. It belongs to those who refuse to stop.” I saw both traditional age students and those who followed journeys closer to hers alike with tears of joy and appreciation by the end of her remarks.
I’ve been to each and every UMPI Commencement since 1997; each has been special. But I can truly say none has been as remarkable as Saturday’s regarding the excitement, poignancy, and hope that filled our gymnasium and flowed out thereafter into the grounds around Wieden Hall Saturday morning and afternoon. If anyone needs to know why we do what we do, just ask one of those 500 graduates from Saturday: we transform lives.
Thank you for the year you have given to this place, and to the people in our care. Most of all, thank you for making our graduates’ futures brighter.
With gratitude,
