CONVOCATION
acadia graduates celebrate successes
Proud moments, sentiments shared at Acadia graduation.
Outgoing Acadia University president got a standing ovation during Convocation Ceremonies on May 14.
One of the graduates who received diplomas stopped for a ‘selfie’ with the popular Ray Ivany. During three ceremonies about 800 students graduated last weekend.
“I feel like a member of the class of 2017,” he told the audience in a full Convocation Hall.
Being Acadia’s president, he termed “one of the greatest honours and privileges of my life.”
At a bittersweet time in his life, Ivany said he feels intensely proud of the class of 2017, inviting the graduates to join a long lineage of alumni.
The president called on the grads to make the world a better place. His term ends June 30.
Distinguished women’s rights lawyer, Maureen Mcteer, posed three thoughtful comments after receiving her honorary degree.
She said not all change has an equal impact in terms of medical science, so Mcteer called on future genetic engineers and others to decide what makes us human.
Looking at the evolving nature of work, Mcteer said she hopes people treat technology as a tool and humans are accorded a central role in a world where “the mantra is profit at all costs.”
Speaking directly to the grads, Mcteer asked them to use their “liberal arts education as a moral grounding in order to build a more human, more humane and more respectful community.”
An Acadia Divinity School graduate who worked in Toronto’s inner city, Rick Tobias, was also awarded an honorary degree May 14.
Dr. Conville Brown (’79) of Nassau; Sandra Irving (’74) of Saint John; and Dr. Robert Walker (’73) from Ottawa were also recognized for a lifetime commitment to academic, social, and scientific achievement.