Graduation Day

On Saturday, May 17th I attended commencement exercises at the Claremont Colleges for my PhD. The ceremony took place on the lawn area just north of the Honould-Mudd library where I spent many an evening studying. I also remember Staci and Allie coming with me sometimes just to have a quite place to study (ie read random books or take a nap) away from the house.



It was a warm day; I think the temperature topped out around 100 degrees. If there hadn't been a tent and shade people would have passed out from the heat. As it was there was a bottle of water under every chair.



In my life and career I've attended dozens of graduations for myself, family members, and work as a faculty member and this was one of the longest and most boring ones I've ever attended. Staci's was the most interesting and BYU has figured out how to keep them short. The keynote speaker basically said that we should all go out and become a success like him, and he gave us many examples of his successes from his life (zzzzzzzzzz). Then we had to honor a bunch of people that weren't graduating. Please note however this is completely expected and in no way diminished the gravity of the event for me; I just feel bad for my family that has to sit through such a long meeting. I sort of thought that since I have completed the formal graduation process last fall, and even got my diploma in February, that commencement would sort of be anti-climatic but in reality I really enjoyed being there and my advisors seemed to be glad I was there as well. I was especially glad I had my own academic regalia (robes). If you rent them, then you just get plain black and a square mortor board. Only people who had their own wore the red and the octagon tam. I don't know why but it really meant a lot to have my own regalia, so thank-you again to all those who chipped in to help buy it.



Graduate students get hooded as well as receive a diploma, and dissertation advisors hood their doctoral students. My advisor Terry Ryan said as he was hooding me "Its about time!". He is a good friend and I'm glad my job will allow me to stay in touch with my advisors and colleagues.



After the ceremony there was a reception in a nearby building with light buffet and beverages where we could get out of the heat and have pictures taken. Afterwards we went out for lunch at La Paloma for a little mexican food. I really appreciated having family there, especially in the heat. A special shout-out for Leah for taking the pictures. The batteries in my video camera were dead, and all of the pictures taken with my still camera were blurry, so if Leah hadn't been there we wouldn't have had any pictures at all. The following were all taken by her. THANKS LEAH!!!


This is the big tent where we all sat


Randy and Jane before graduation (no hood)





Jack and Maureen Safely came; what a nice surprise.




Mom and Rachel






Two hours after commencement started we FINALLY get to stand up and get in line to get hooded


Waving at Leah from across the audience

First they mispronounce your name...

Then you get hooded. Terry Ryan is to my right

Then a little brotherly love....

Picture with the university president

The chairwomen of the board of trustees gave me my "Certificate of Participation" in commencement. (I'm not being too disrespectful; remember I've done this dozens of times at work; sometimes I was putting the hood on the graduate)


Then you walk the long way around back to your seat.

Jane gave me a big hug and a kiss as I'm walking back to my seat.

Leah was moved to tears...

Post-graduation reception

Lorne Olfman (the Dean) and Terry Ryan. Both were on my dissertation committee. Lorne is stepping down as Dean next month and Terry will be the new Dean.

Tom Horan was another member of my dissertation committee

Here Terry and I are discussing VERY IMPORTANT doctoral things that you wouldn't understand...

Kelly and Katie were real troopers through the entire event. They probably didn't understand much, but they did know it was a big deal and treated me like I was a celebrity; actually, they treated JANE like a celebrity and one of them cried when she wasn't seated (at first) next to her at lunch.

The school banner and me. When I started in 1996, the school was called "Claremont Graduate School" and the department was "Information Science". Then we became a university and the department became a school.