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GREENSBORO – Graduation is not an end. It is a beginning, a launching pad for adult life. That was former North Carolina Gov. James B. Hunt Jr.’s message May 14 for The University of North Carolina at Greensboro’s Class of 2004 at the university’s 112th commencement.
“Today is your graduation,” Hunt, the featured speaker, told the soon-to-be graduates at the Greensboro Coliseum, “but it is also your ‘commencement.’ You are commencing the rest of your lives.”
Almost 2,000 students will commence the rest of their lives with a UNCG diploma. And while the day marks a milestone in their education, the former governor advised the black-clad crowd of graduates that it should not be the end of learning.
“Learning is not just for young people…” Hunt said. “Learn all of your life. Learn from you successes, your failures, your job, your friends. … I’m not just talking about acquiring information and skills.
“I urge you to learn how to live in a positive way without self-pity and excessive anxiety… Have a sense of curiosity about people, about things, about your world. Read, learn and discover new things.”
Hunt urged the attendees to continue to enrich their lives, to develop their potential and to use their energy to its fullest, to love “in a world that is unloved too often and unloving,” and to “be optimistic. Expect good things to happen in your life, if you do your part.”’
Rachel “Rae” Marcus, speaker for the Class of 2004, did her part by translating her commencement speech into sign language. Marcus, a double-major in English and Women’s and Gender Studies, signed her speech for her parents, both of whom are deaf.
Pointing out two interpreters who signed for the deaf and the hard-of-hearing in the audience, Marcus felt it was only appropriate for her to sign her speech.
“It doesn’t seem right to have someone else sign my speech for me when
I am capable of doing it myself.”
Earlier in the week, Marcus said a hearing-impaired audience has to
make a difficult decision at ceremonies such as graduation.
“There is always this disconnect with an event like that,” she said. “Because you either have to watch the speaker or you have to watch the interpreter. I want my parents to be able to see me doing this, and I thought signing would be the best way to do that.”
Marcus’ speech focused on the fact that the important thing about a university education “is the process, not the results. Commencement is a major event, but I think about all of the little events that brought us to this point.”
All of those seemingly insignificant events inform students’ lives, from studying French verbs and the migration patterns of sea turtles to searching for a parking space on campus.
“The true test of a university is not the kind of people they take in, but the kind of people that leave,” she said.
If any of the graduates had doubts about how well they will follow Hunt’s advice as they leave UNCG for the postgraduate world, the former governor and U.S. Senate candidate did not.
“I have faith and confidence that you will do it,” he said. “God created you for it. Your family loved you and raised you to do it. … I’m proud of you, and we’re counting on you. I wish you good luck and Godspeed.”
Hunt was governor of North Carolina for a historic four terms: from 1977 to 1985 and from 1993 to 2001. During his tenure in the capital, he was praised for raising educational standards and beginning the Smart Start program to prepare young children for school.
He received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree at the ceremony.
The University Bell was rung by Alice J. Irby ’54 and Kevin Jay Barham ’04. Ringing the bell at commencement is a UNCG tradition, a nod to the bell’s first use on Oct. 5, 1892, when it tolled the beginning of the first day of classes at the university.
** To listen to the speech, click here.
** To read or print a copy of Gov. Hunt's prepared remarks,
click
here.
By Sean Olson
Posted 5-14-04
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