Commencement Through the Years
by Joy Baum
Many of us hear one or two commencement addresses as graduates or listen to a handful as spectators. The speeches given at graduation put students’ recent achievements into the context of their futures.
Words traditionally reserved for momentous occasions may ring true and inspirational at any hour. WKU’s past commencement addresses not only show the “spirit of WKU,” they also reflect sentiments from their era, thus making history.
Dr. Henry Hardin Cherry was the founder and first president of Western Kentucky State Normal School, which is now Western Kentucky University. Cherry’s speech at commencement in 1906 was a very different one than might be heard today.
“I do not grant you this diploma because of its intrinsic value, for it is worth but little measured by dollars and cents. But what it represents to you in moral and intellectual culture is a priceless treasure that cannot be measured by a gold or silver standard.
The school makes no attempt to toy with formalities, ceremonies, or rules….It has and will continue to advise against the organization of football teams and recommends instead frequent nature excursions into the hills, woods, and on the rivers, that the soul may commune with God through nature.
The school does not recognize or permit the organization of any club, sect or party that would divide the students into separate grades of society.”
Cherry’s beliefs echoed those of populist Woodrow Wilson, then President of Princeton University. Wilson believed that “social clubs” would smother the intellectual and moral life of the undergraduates.
 John Richardson, Finley Grise, and Kelly Thompson in 1955 |
As the next 50 years went by and Western blossomed, the nation endured two world wars. In the 1950’s, tension in the United States ran high with the beginning of the Cold War.
In 1951, Courier-Journal Editor Barry Bingham told graduates to “avoid fear.”
“I do not say there is nothing to be frightened of. I only say that no nation can live by fear, just as no man can live by fear. I am one of the people who believe that we have to make ourselves strong for the next 10 years or more if we are going to persuade the Russians that war would not pay.
A third world war would destroy for generations our chance to set up a rule of justice and order. We can only accept it as the last desperate, unavoidable resort.”
A few years later, the country watched as another conflict rose, Vietnam. Months before the first American troops entered their tours of duty, Dean Finley C. Grise gave these words of advice to graduates on the “hill”
“..On the hills of the world, littleness, cheapness, selfishness, and triviality have no place in the lives of men and nations today or any other day. On the hilltops of today there is no place for the weak, ignorant, the dishonest, the half-hearted, or the fuzzy minded.
The times demand strong men and strong women. It is really a time for greatness, a very special kind of greatness; we must either be great or be defeated, lose all the gains we have made, lose the peace we are attempting to establish, and revert to another world war-possibly barbarism-and finally to human catastrophe.”
As the Vietnam conflict continued, the United States was dealing with domestic conflicts -the struggle for civil rights, including student rights. Even Western, which was far removed from the mainstream, was affected. In 1962, a small on-campus demonstration developed into a mob of 1,000 that temporarily blocked traffic at College Street bridge. The demonstrators demanded a holiday because the Western basketball team was playing Ohio State-the top ranked team in the nation. Six students were arrested on breach of peace charges. The holiday was not given.
Just as people began to look for answers to the rebellious youth of the era, one commencement speaker had the answer. In 1972, Donald M. Kendall, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of PepsiCo said at commencement, “When people .. ask me ‘What’s the matter with kids today?’ I usually say, ‘Don’t worry; they’ll be okay when they’re 40 and you’re 90.’ The answer doesn’t satisfy them, but at least it cools them.
In 1976, Allan W. Ostar, Executive Director of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, said, “If asked about the university and modern life, don’t ask to be excused. Tell others about the meaning of higher education-about its value, about its worth. Tell others that through it we continue or escape from suspicion and ignorance and prejudice. Tell others that education and educated people are a social wealth far beyond any measure.”
These words of encouragement could be used for WKU students, faculty and staff today, as Kentucky faces major budget cuts to public universities.
At WKU’s 150th commencement, President Gary Ransdell said, “As I looked back at commencement ceremonies throughout Western’s history, I was struck not by how much they had changed, but by how much they remained the same. This speaks to the rich tradition of the institution. Then, as now, commencement was the most significant event on campus.”
WKU will celebrate the 2008 commencement on Friday evening, May 9, and on Saturday, May 10. For a complete schedule of commencement activities, click here.
All photos courtesy of University Archives.
Home
People and Positions
Professional Activities
Archive
Editorial Staff