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Photo by Todd Cheney UCLA Photo Dean Christopher Waterman (left) and architect and Studio Professor Thom Mayne followed student escorts in a procession at ceremonies for the School of the Arts and Architecture.

final senior moments

Graduates experience joyous farewell

BY ANNE BURKE
UCLA Today Staff

On a campus awash in blue and gold, UCLA bid adieu to thousands from the Class of 2004 at commencement activities marked by congratulatory hugs, family pride, uplifting messages and, in a few instances, wartime tension.

The campus hosted nearly 90,000 guests at nearly four dozen commencement ceremonies and activities, most of which took place June 17-19. All told, the university awarded about 10,000 bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees during this academic year, including 6,000 in spring.

At the UCLA College commencement June 18, film producer Frank Marshall delivered a speech that condemned the war in Iraq as a senseless “mess.” While some students applauded, others booed when Marshall, a 1968 College graduate whose box-office hits include “Seabiscuit,” “The Sixth Sense” and “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” told graduates “leaders can be replaced, policies can be changed.” Marshall spoke to about 2,500 graduates and 8,000 guests at Pauley Pavilion, festooned with blue and gold balloons.

History and ROTC graduate Matt Foster didn’t hear that message because he opted to attend a ceremony hosted by the history department at Dickson Quad. But when he learned of Marshall’s remarks, they struck a nerve for the magna cum laude graduate. Two of Foster’s close friends were killed in Iraq. He said it’s hard “seeing them lose their lives over there when there’s not really much support for what they’re doing.” A veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom with the U.S. Army’s Third Ranger Battalion, Foster was scheduled to be commissioned a second lieutenant at a ceremony in Kerckhoff Hall.

Photo by Todd Cheney UCLA Photo Chancellor Albert Carnesale presented the UCLA Medal to statesman and former Senator George J. Mitchell.

Over at Royce Hall where the School of Public Policy and Social Research held ceremonies June 18, those against the war interrupted a speech by George Mitchell, the former U.S. senator from Maine and now chairman of the board of Walt Disney Co. Students shouted “No war” after Mitchell, who brokered peace accords in Northern Ireland and Israel, reminded graduates and guests “that in the presence of evil, silence makes you an accomplice.”

The United States can restore its tarnished international reputation, Mitchell said, not by abandoning the use of military power overseas, but by using it judiciously “in service to our basic ideals.”

Mitchell was one of two recipients of the UCLA Medal, the university’s highest honor, presented by Chancellor Albert Carnesale. At the Graduate Division doctoral hooding June 17, businessman and philanthropist George Aratani received the medal. Aratani, who was among the 120,000 Japanese Americans sent to internment camps during World War II, founded two internationally renowned corporations, Mikasa and Kenwood.

Photo by Todd Cheney UCLA Photo Business executive George Aratani got the UCLA Medal.

The sounds and sights of celebration could be seen everywhere. At Wilson Plaza June 18, the Anderson School of Management gave graduates its traditional send-off — with a processional led by kilt-clad bagpipers. Commencement speaker Robert A. Eckert, chairman and CEO of Mattel Inc., reminded graduates that they will be responsible for helping rebuild public trust that’s been eroded in recent years by greed and scandals in the corporate world.

On June 19, graduates from the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science generated a joyful noise at Pauley Pavilion by pounding pans with spoons, shaking tinfoil plates and blowing ear-splitting air horns. Speaker Carly Fiorina, chairman and CEO of Hewlett Packard, told graduates they are launching careers at a time when science, innovation and engineering “can change lives and solve fundamental problems that have plagued humanity for centuries.” The best part, she said, is that those leading these changes “aren’t politicians or philanthropists or CEOs. They’re computer scientists and engineers. In other words, it’s you.”

Other speakers included David A. Kessler, former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and dean of the UC San Francisco medical school, for the David Geffen School of Medicine; Regent Sherry Lansing, chairman of the Motion Picture Group of Paramount Pictures, for the School of Theater, Film and Television; Ben Stein, actor and economist who worked in the Nixon and Ford administrations, for the School of Law; and Thom Mayne, noted architect and UCLA faculty member, for the School of the Arts and Architecture.

Photo by Anne Burke UCLA Today Ecstatic smiles and family jubilation were in evidence everywhere.

Photo by Anne Burke UCLA Today