Commencement 2003: Damp weekend, bright spirits

From Friday, May 23, through Monday, May 26, Brown welcomed nearly 20,000 guests – relatives and friends of graduates, as well as returning alumni – to participate in the events of Commencement/Reunion Weekend. President Simmons conferred 2,123 degrees on May 26: 1,544 bachelor’s degrees (320 of them magna cum laude, and 420 with area honors), 317 master’s degrees, 143 doctorates; 83 medical degrees; 7 honorary degrees; and 29 Master of Arts ad eundem. Downloadable video of portions of the weekend’s ceremonies – the May 25 baccalaureate service and the May 26 academic procession, senior orations and the University ceremony on the College Green – is available online. Here are some highlights from presentations made by a number of guest speakers.

"When I went to the White House, I had studied ethics. I grew up in a Puritan-ethic household, and nobody was going to make me do the wrong thing … but everyone has the capacity for self-rationalization, and I ended up in prison."
–  Charles Colson '53, who was jailed for his involvement in the Watergate scandal and later founded Prison Fellowship Ministries, speaking in the forum, "Can the Ivy League Teach Ethics?"

“In our society, we tend to gravitate toward drama, and things like global warming are not dramatic.”
– Andrew Revkin ’78, environmental reporter for The New York Times, speaking in the forum “The Daily Planet: Why the Press Stumbles over the World’s Biggest Story – the State of the Planet”

“Dare to explore. Brown taught me that. …The real voyage of exploration … is having new eyes to see things.”
– James B. Garvin ’78, ’84 Ph.D., NASA lead scientist for Mars exploration, who spoke at the Graduate School Commencement convocation

“May I suggest that global interdependence, modern transportation, and trade have rendered obsolete the firm distinction between domestic and international health. As we have seen with some of the communicable diseases, such as AIDS, influenza and SARS, we ignore health issues in other parts of the world at our own peril.”
– Seth Berkley, ’78, ’81 M.D., founder and president of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, speaking at the Medical School Commencement Convocation

Robert Langer, professor of chemical and biomedical engineering at MIT, presented a Commencement forum on biomaterials and how they change our lives. A pioneer in the field, Langer described the future of drug delivery systems, including a “pharmacy on a chip” containing microscopic “wells” – each capped by a thin layer of gold – that contain one or more drugs. These chips can be implanted in the body. “If we selectively apply just one volt of electricity, the gold begins to dissolve” so that the drug can be released, he said. Even farther in the future, such chips may be able to detect the body’s own signals in order to determine when and how much of a drug to release, and perhaps may be able to send information about time and amount of dose to a patient’s or doctor’s computer.

“Our books have given us wings, but wings of lead. That is to say: It is up to us to take flight, to draw from the annals of history and give it wings of feathers. This is immortality.”
– Martha Lackritz ’03, senior orator

“As we leave Brown this afternoon and start the next phase of our lives, we have a responsibility to pay homage to those who came before us and keep the fires of progress and change burning for those who will come after.”
– Onyekachukwu Iloabachie ’03, senior orator<

“Rocks are windows into the past, telling the story of what once was.”
– Catherine Weitz ’98 Ph.D., NASA Mars Exploration Rover program scientist, speaking in the forum “Exploring the Surface of Mars with Twin Rovers”

“As a political exile, I look at my mother country from a long distance. To see these examples of oppression disturbs me and makes me anxious. But I am optimistic. This optimism has come about through my interactions with the people of America, with the people of every democratic nation who have offered their support and help, and especially with the people at Brown who have shown me so much passion and energy.… You are the people who have given me the ability to fight for the realization of democracy in China.”
– Xu Wenli, visiting senior fellow at the Watson Institute for International Studies, in his baccalaureate address

“The future state of medicine with the Internet will be patients connected to physicians, hospitals, pharmacies, labs and insurance companies worldwide.”
– Chirinjeev Kathuria ’88, M.D. ’93, speaking in the forum “Internet Technology and Medicine: From Education to Diagnosis”

“One of the ironies about war is that mostly men are the ones who engage in warfare but most of the people affected are women and children.... Women and children are overrepresented in casualties. …Who engages, who gets involved, and who pays for [war] is an interesting model to think about.”
– Cynthia Garcia Coll, professor of education, psychology, and pediatrics at Brown, speaking in the forum “How War and Terrorism Affect Women and Children, Here and Abroad”

“There were so few shows of black art that every exhibit became invested with all the hopes and wishes of the entire black community.”
– Lowrey Stokes Sims, director of the Studio Museum in Harlem and honorary degree recipient, who examined the continuing role of art museums in promoting the work of artists of color, artists who are often poorly represented within mainstream institutions.

“Imagination is the greatest human power, and it's the only one kids have more of than adults.… But we live in a toxic environment – in what my brother calls the entertainment consumer complex – and I worry about imagination being swamped.”
– Author/illustrator Ted Dewan '83 speaking in the forum "Entitled and Empowered: Today's Child"