LAFAYETTE TODAY
COMMENCEMENT 2006
Celebration & Passion
Deborah Bial, founder and president of the Posse Foundation, passionately promoted equity in higher education in her address
at the College’s 171st Commencement May 20.
“Colleges and universities are struggling still with issues of access, opportunity, and equity. On campus, these same institutions are struggling with trying to establish a truly diverse environment. . . .
We [know] that college has become a critical determinant in life chances. (You know that with a degree from this fine institution your opportunities for good jobs increase exponentially.) Yet when
we look at our most impressive institutions of higher education, we often see very homogeneous student bodies,” Bial said.
“There is a very serious social, economic, and racial crisis when we see the promise of access to higher education systematically assigned to only certain segments of our population. If our top colleges and universities do not aggressively take on this challenge, they will
be directly contributing to the ossification of our society, where we create a system that excludes groups who will one day—soon—represent the largest
part of this nation. Every person in this country, not just some, should have a right to an excellent education, and I’m proud to be speaking at an institution with a president and community that is already aware of this and engaged in trying to make it happen.”
Members of Lafayette’s first “posse” (see Lafayette Magazine, Fall 2005) received their diplomas at the ceremony.
President Dan Weiss awarded Bial the honorary degree of Doctor of Public Service. Other honorands were Gregory Farrington, president of Lehigh University; John Hope Franklin, James B. Duke Professor Emeritus of History at Duke University; and Mulgrew Miller, internationally acclaimed jazz pianist and resident of Easton.
The College awarded 563 degrees to
549 graduating seniors, 104 of whom qualified for honors in a major or interdisciplinary program. First in line to receive diplomas were Teresa Cridge (biology/government & law), Laura Hagopian (chemistry), and Joshua Porter (electrical and computer engineering),
who achieved the highest GPA in the class, a perfect 4.0. Pepper Prize winner Nangula Shejavali, of Windhoek, Namibia, delivered farewell remarks. Melissa Spitz, co-chair of the Class of 2006 Gift Committee, presented the class gift, which supports stipends that help enable current students to serve summer internships. An all-time high percentage of graduates contributed
to the gift this year.
Video Coverage and Commencement Scrapbook
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