E-mail this pageWinter Commencement Celebrates Student Achievements
World Renowned Environmentalist and Writer Receives Honorary Degree; Inspirational Senior Offers Words of Wisdom
As a December nor'easter grumbled toward Plattsburgh, the pomp and circumstance of commencement began with the wail of bagpipes and the snap of snare drums by the Elgin and District Pipes and Drums in full dress regalia.
The processional included the platform party with a world-famous environmentalist and a student with an unusual success story, in addition to college officials, dignitaries, and nearly 300 winter graduates wearing the traditional cap and gown.
View Winter 2007 Commencement Photo Gallery
Proud parents, siblings, spouses and friends leaned and craned trying to spot their graduate. Fists pumping the air and enthusiastic waves were punctuated by shouts of "Yes!" as digital cameras captured the moment and everyone settled in for the ceremony at hand.
SUNY Plattsburgh President John Ettling welcomed the crowd, noting that in addition to celebrating the achievements of the students gathered, that the event was an opportunity to "say thank you to those who helped make today possible," and asked the class to give a round of applause to their families and the faculty who served as guides on their college journey.
The commencement also featured Matthew Riddle, the first-ever graduate of the new combined BA/MST program.
Honors for Advocate of Nature
Before the graduates were called up on stage to personally receive their degrees, the college took the opportunity to present environmentalist and writer Bill McKibben with a SUNY honorary degree.
In reading the citation noting McKibben's accomplishments, Dr. James Dawson, SUNY Distinguished Professor and Member of the New York State Board of Regents proclaimed of the honoree, "You are considered one of America's most powerful role models for those who hope to live in greater harmony with the natural world. You have energized a new generation with you passionate calls for urgent and responsible action to protect humankind from destroying our planet's fragile environment."
McKibben authored the 1989 book The End of Nature, and just released his latest, Fight Global Warming Now: The Handbook for Action in Your Community. He has been at the forefront of the movement raising the alarm about the dangers of global warming and the impact that humankind is having on the natural world.
Dawson noted that McKibben's vision for responsible stewardship of our planet aligns with SUNY Plattsburgh's mission, especially in the faculty - student research projects through the Lake Champlain Research Institute and academic programs in environmental science and ecology. Indeed, Dawson noted, SUNY Plattsburgh celebrates its unique location and needs to protect it.
An Opportunity to Figure out a Better Path
McKibben, for his part, was gracious in accepting the award, and reassured the audience that his remarks would be "very brief."
Listen to Bill McKibben (.mp3 file)
"Not only is there the traditional pressure on someone speaking at commencement to get out of the way so that people can collect their hard earned degrees," he said, "But also because there is the ominous feeling over our shoulder that there is a blizzard on its way - you will always have the Blizzard of 'aught-seven to remember your commencement."
McKibben impressed upon the audience the fact that "the way you live will have to be very different from how your parents lived there lives until now."
He provided one sobering statistic: If the people of China, a country with a rapidly growing economy, comes to own automobiles at the same rate of other industrialized nations, the 800 million cars on the planet now will be joined by 1.1 billion in China alone. "There is not an atmosphere large enough to hold all of the carbon dioxide coming out of that many tailpipes," McKibben warned.
But learning to live in peaceful coexistence with the natural world can lead to unexpected positive outcomes, according to the naturalist who noted that despite an accelerated standard of living in the last 50 years, an annual survey that gauges personal happiness peaked in 1956 and has been declining every year since. So an "increase in affluence has been met with a decline in the amount of community and connection between people in society," McKibben said.
He closed by offering that college life itself may be an informative model of community living, "The four years of college life are an odd exception where we are allowed to live as most people have lived for most of human history in close physical and emotional proximity to each other; a real community that looks out for one another and takes care of each other."
And to rousing applause from the audience, McKibben, noting the shortcomings of his generation, offered, "The education you have received is an opportunity to figure out how to blaze a better path."
Parting Advice by Someone Who Beat the Odds
As is traditional at commencement, a graduating student was invited to address the class. Sheena Garrant was presented by Dr. Ettling as an inspiration and one who has overcome significant challenges to realize the dream of a college education.
Listen to Sheena Garrant's Commencement Speech (.mp3 file)
Having survived child abuse and even homelessness, Garrant home-schooled herself through her final years of high school, worked to receive scholarships and attend SUNY Plattsburgh and joined the college's honors program. It was through this program that she wrote an advanced honors thesis on African American identity. In 2007, she was selected to present another paper about similar themes at the New York State African Studies Conference.
Addressing her fellow graduates, Garrant noted, "I could have chosen any other school, applied and been accepted. SUNY Plattsburgh was the only school I applied to for undergraduate studies and given the extreme enthusiasm of the faculty and most students, I wouldn't change my experiences here at all."
While recalling the lighter moments of college life such as late night cramming sessions, dorm life, and hanging out with friends, Garrant looked ahead to the next challenge facing the graduating class and encouraged them to seek balance in their lives.
"Put an equal amount of energy into your life outside of your job and never stop putting in quality time for yourself," she said. "Here's to the Class of 2007 and to making the world a better place with our degrees from Anthropology to Women's Studies, even if that means simply methamorphosing our own lives and our own little spheres of influence."
Read more about how Sheena Garrant overcame life's challenges to attend SUNY Plattsburgh and graduate with honors. The complete transcript of her commencement speech is available here.
- Brendan Kinney
Contact Information
For more information about Winter Commencement at SUNY Plattsburgh, please contact:
Office of the President
159 Hawkins Hall
518-564-2010 (phone)
518-564-3932 (fax)
Email: president_office@plattsburgh.edu