Friday Focus: Commencement!

May 3, 2024 

— Owen Guthrie, vice chancellor of student affairs and enrollment management

 

com·mence·ment
/kəˈmensm(ə)nt/
noun
                 1. a beginning or start.
                 2. a ceremony in which degrees or diplomas are conferred on graduating students.

 

Commencement is one of my favorite days in our annual calendar. I love the gathering of our community and the celebration that fills the great cement hall of the Carlson Center. The whole academic year culminates in this wonderful afternoon. The Nanook Ice Hockey arena, normally floored in a sheet of ice, is filled with celebration and warmth. All the months and years of work by our students and their support teams, and all the work by our staff and faculty from the months gone by come together in this wonderful, uplifting exhalation of collective joy. It is great. I hope to see you there! (1 p.m. in the Carlson Center.)

It recently occurred to me that commencement refers to both a beginning and an end. I don’t know why I never thought of this before, but it struck me as being so appropriate for our special day of celebration. For our students, commencement IS both. It is the day when we celebrate the completion of their great journey with us and their moment of a new beginning. It is a great stepping off into the next chapter of their lives. This is appropriate, because the verb ‘graduate’ comes from the Latin, gradus - to step. There are so many steps that lead to the big steps across the stage at commencement, and the big step our students take into the next great chapter of their lives.

On Saturday, we will wear the silly medieval robes with solemnity and the even sillier medieval hats with gravity. Our procession will echo traditions passed down from a time when all textbooks were handwritten. It will be a grand celebration. It will be a celebration of endings and beginnings. The joy of Saturday will feed you and fuel you like few other moments in our year. 

We all carry our roles and responsibilities within our community, some heavier, some lighter, but we all carry our weight. Attending commencement helps to lighten the load. In my experience, each student’s steps, as they walk across the stage, add meaning and satisfaction to the months of collective winter work behind us and fuel the work of the busy summer to come. By the time you leave, you’re practically flying. If you haven’t attended commencement lately, and you find your energies flagging here at the end of our long year, I do suggest you attend. 

If you are stepping off this Saturday, I wish you a glorious summer. If you will be here on the Troth Yeddha’ campus in the coming summer months, I will see you around our many construction projects. I will see you at Arctic Java or the food trucks. I will see you walking around campus with the many students in our summer camps. I will see you at Music in the Garden, or on the running trails in the arboretum. Troth Yeddha’ is such a place of beauty joy and vibrancy.

I am continually humbled by the hard work and dedication of our faculty and staff. Thank you for providing the energy that brings us to our great day of celebration. Here’s to the joy of our work. Here’s to you and commencement, to endings and new beginnings, and our magical Alaskan summer!

Friday Focus is a column written by a different member of UAF's leadership team every week.