900 lauded at UA commencement.
FAYETTEVILLE — As more than 900 University of Arkansas students filed into Barnhill Arena on the Fayetteville campus, temperatures hovered in the low 30s and a light rain fell Saturday, the first official day of winter.
The wet weather wasn’t enough to turn away nearly 9,000 friends and family members of the graduating class, however. Steve Voorhies, a spokesman for UA, said university staff opened additional seating areas in the arena, which typically go unused during fall commencement ceremonies, to accommodate the crowds.
The students at Saturday’s ceremony represented less than half the 1,930 people receiving graduate and undergraduate degrees, according to the university registrar’s office. Dave Dawson, associate vice provost for enrollment services and registrar, said in addition to the 1,425 students who were receiving undergraduate degrees, 400 were receiving master’s degrees, 83 earned doctorates, 17 were receiving juris doctorate law degrees, and five earned graduate law degrees.
Among the graduating students present at the ceremony was David Jones, a captain with the Jacksonville Fire Department.
Jones, 42, who drove to Fayetteville on Friday to receive his Bachelor of Science in Human Resource and Workforce Development, was one of a small number to complete a degree entirely online.
Jones, the training, safety and public information officer for the Jacksonville Fire Department, said that though having the freedom to study and complete his coursework on his own schedule was beneficial, it required discipline and sacrifice to make time for academics, a family and a typical 50-hour workweek.
“I’d come into work early, around 5 a.m., and use the first three hours to do coursework, and read at night,” Jones said. “It cut into my time with my family, too, but they’re going to benefit from it in the long run.”
Phil Gerke, adviser for the human resource and workforce development undergraduate program, said there are about 185 students enrolled in the online-only program, about a dozen of whom graduated Saturday.
“The program is geared for the working adult who has some college, but needs to finish a degree,” Gerke said. “The online classes make that very accessible.”
Online classes are more expensive than traditional courses taught in classroom settings. Gerke said an additional $25-per-hour technology fee is added to the standard, in-state $236.77-percredit-hour cost for classes in the College of Education and Health Professions.
Those in attendance Saturday heard messages from two notable figures, both of whom were awarded honorary degrees from the university.
The first was Frances James, a UA alumna who earned her doctorate in zoology at the university in 1970, already several years into a career in the fields of ecology and ornithology, the zoological study of birds.
After congratulating the graduates on their accomplishments, James confronted them with some sobering news about the state of education in the United States.
“The United States is falling behind in education,” James said. “Graduation rates are too low, and tuition is too high. Are these valid criticisms? If so, what are you going to do about it?
“The achievement gap between the rich and the poor in the United States is increasing at an alarming rate,” James said. “This is a complex social issue. But with your good education, you’re going to solve it.”
The event’s second honorary-degree recipient was Sister Helen Prejean, known for her efforts to end capital punishment worldwide. Her 1993 book Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States was adapted into a movie starring Susan Sarandon, who portrayed Prejean.
Prejean has previously visited the Fayetteville campus, participating in a panel discussion on peace with the Dalai Lama in May 2011.
Prejean encouraged those in attendance to achieve their goals using the power of personal story-telling.
“You’ve got a Cajun up here, so you’re going to have some stories,” Prejean began, after accepting the honorary degree. “I know you’re eagles, and you’re fixing to fly, but first I wanted to say: As an honor to me, see me as a prism, and look through me to see a situation we have in the United States of America. We’re the last Western, industrialized country in the world to kill our fellow citizens for their crimes.”
Prejean shared her experiences as an advocate for death-row inmates, as well as what she learned while visiting with convicted murderers and the families of murder victims.
Paraphrasing the early 19th-century German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Prejean said, “When we are committed to a cause that is right and just, and we are unswerving in our commitment to that cause, providence moves for us, and resources make their way to us.”