Tom Isern, NDSU

Winter commencement this morning was truly a winter commencement. I tossed winter duds and a grain scoop into the truck before departing for the FargoDome. The crowd, understandably, was modest, with snow swirling and temperatures dropping outside, but things inside were just fine. I thought the brass sounded particularly good on the processional and recessional. Before the ceremonies, I was fortunate enough to catch two of our fine History grads, Betsy Ferwerda and Abby Ihrke, in the assembly area and to snap this photo.

First, I would like to congratulate the following NDSU faculty:

Dwain Meyer Professor PLSC 1982 1970
E. John Miller Professor MUS 1991 1998
William Bleier Professor ZOO 1992 1975
Kendall Nygard Professor CSOR 1992 1977
Robert Littlefield Professor MCOM 1994 1979
Robert Pieri Professor ME 1996 1996
James Council Professor PSYC 1997 1985
Holly Bastow-Shoop Professor ADFHM 1998 1983
David Wells Professor IME 2000 2000
Paul Rokke Professor PSYC 2001 1985
Kevin Thompson Professor POLS 2001 1989
Dinesh Katti Professor CE 2002 1996
JoAnn Miller Professor MUS 2003 1989
John Hershberger Professor CHEM 2003 1989
Jack Rasmussen Professor PPTH 2003 1992
Gerrard Macintosh Professor BUSN 2004 1997
Kambiz Farahmand Professor IME 2005 2005
William Martin Professor EDUC 2006 1995
William Bowlin Professor AIS 2007 2007
Tim Peterson Professor BUSN 2008 2008
Mark Meister Associate Professor MCOM 2002 1997
Mohamed Mergoum Associate Professor PLSC 2002 2002
Jeanne Hageman Associate Professor LANG 2003 1997
Charles Stevens Associate Professor BUSN 2004 1998
Virginia Sublett Associate Professor Music 2004 2004
Seth Rasmussen Associate Professor CHEM 2005 1999
J.W. Schroeder Associate Professor ARSC 2006 1976
Bonnie Klamm Associate Professor ACCT 2006 2000
Francis Casey Associate Professor SOIL 2006 2000
Rooth Varland Associate Professor THTR 2006 2000
Brandy Randall Associate Professor CDFS 2007 2002
Margaret Anderson Associate Professor ACCT 2008 2008
Donna Dietz Assistant Professor ACCT 1979 2000
Mark Schmidt Assistant Professor EDUC 2000 1998
Penelope Gibbs Assistant Professor VETS 2002 2002
Kara L. Wolfe Assistant Professor ADFHM 2002 2002
Jane Schuh Assistant Professor VETS 2004 2004
Gwen Stickney Assistant Professor LANG 2004 2004
Peter Oduor Assistant Professor GEOG 2004 2004
Kathy Enger Assistant Professor EDUC 2007 2007
Sather Sather-Wagstaff Assistant Professor MATH 2007 2007
Anita Welch Assistant Professor EDUC 2008 2008
Katherine Noon Lecturer THTR 2007 2007
Shauna Pederson Staff PLSC 2001

These are the people listed by faculty marshal Tom Barnhart as confirmed participants in commencement exercises on Saturday. To this list may be added the University Distinguished Professors, who are included in the platform party, and all those individual faculty who will be hooding doctoral degree recipients. Dear friends and colleagues, if no one else thanks you, I do so here and now. I look forward to joining you in celebration on Saturday.

Now, what about the other hundreds of faculty, the vast majority of faculty, who will not be attending commencement on Saturday? Well, in any individual case, there may well be extenuating circumstances. There are understandable and justifiable reasons why some faculty do not show up. The vast majority of the vast majority, however, simply choose not to participate. Why do they do this? I can think of two reasons.

The first reason is operative for my own generation, which still carries some residual resistance mentality from the Silly Sixties. There are, undoubtedly, faculty who, when asked by the university to participate in commencement, and when expressly requested by the president to do so, take satisfaction in refusal. I have observed them opening the note from the president requesting their presence, seen them sniff or sneer in disdain, and watched them toss the invitation ostentatiously into the rubbish. They think they are stickin' it to the man. What they are doing is showing contempt for our students.

The second reason for failure to participate in commencement is simple self-indulgence. This is a characteristic of my own generation and of younger people, too. We just want to do what we want to do, and we don't want to do what we don't want to do, and so if no one makes us do the right thing, we don't, and we don't feel bad about it, either. I understand this frame of mind, because I have a Labrador retriever with the same attitude. Nevertheless, my retriever on occasion exhibits loyalty, and so I suspect if prompted repeatedly, we self-indulgent Baby Boomers and our junior compatriots might also be capable of better things.

When I mentioned our collective shortcoming in this matter to my department colleagues, some were offended. How dare I say that we owe it to our students and to our university to take part in its academic ceremonies? I dare say it because I know I am right. The other people are wrong, on this matter. They may be good people in other ways, most of them certainly are, but collectively, we are failing to meet our reasonable responsibilities in regard to commencement. Let's think about that.