When they reflect on their final undergraduate year at Yale, members of the Class of 2002 will forever remember where they were and what they were doing when they learned of the terrorist attack on the United States on Sept. 11, less than a week after beginning their fall-term classes.
But along with that haunting memory, there will be uplifting recollections of how Americans responded to the tragedy, New York Governor George Pataki told the graduating seniors at the Class Day ceremony on May 26.
In his address on the Old Campus, Pataki urged the Class of 2002 never to allow those memories to fade, and exhorted them to revere the ideals of tolerance and freedom that made the United States a target for the terrorists.
New Yorkers and other Americans demonstrated their commitment to those ideals in the minutes, weeks and months following the attack, as they responded to the tragedy with "undiluted, unselfish love," recalled the Governor in his address to the 1,221 seniors, and their families and guests, who had assembled for the ceremony under overcast skies.
"We were rightly outraged but we did not respond in anger," said Pataki, a 1967 graduate of Yale. "We did not turn on one another, we turned to one another. We did not burn the flags of other nations; in a show of unity we displayed our own. We responded to hatred with love, to terror with courage, to evil with the goodness that comes from being a free people."
'United in Our Reverence'
Noting that individuals of all races, ethnic backgrounds and religious faiths were killed in the attack on the World Trade Center and that a similar mixture of people were involved in the rescue efforts that followed, Pataki told the Class of 2002 that the terrorists' destructive actions were an attack on ideals Americans cherish: diversity, equality and religious freedom. "For reasons I don't fully understand and probably never will, the terrorists are united in their hatred of those ideals,"he said. "We are united in our reverence for them, more today than perhaps ever before."
Yet, the Governor said, in the days following the attack, there were some American college campuses where the First Amendment right to free speech was violated and where there were instances of hatred and intolerance. He cited as examples one history professor who said he supported anyone who could blow up the Pentagon, another professor who expressed vehement anti-Israel sentiments and a third faculty member whose disruptive, anti-American protest at a vigil for victims of the Sept. 11 attacks forced students to cancel the event.
"Aside from the moral issue of a history professor celebrating the murder of innocent American civilians to a classroom of young people he is supposed to be educating, we need to ask ourselves: Why too often do the classrooms of certain colleges and universities harbor intellectuals whose minds are closed to those with other views ...?" he commented. "On too many campuses today, sociology has become an ideology, instead of a study of ideology."
At the California university where students organized a vigil, the students were "exercising their right to free speech more fairly and honorably" than the professor who "denied them that quiet vigil," Pataki asserted.
"Professors who seek to silence displays of patriotism today express in different form the same type of intolerance as those who tried to silence antiwar protestors decades ago," the Governor continued. "Academia should be a place for the free and unfettered discussion of ideals and concepts, including those considered politically incorrect or far removed from the mainstream of conventional wisdom."
Noting that it was at Yale where open discussion allowed his own ideas and beliefs to be challenged, Pataki urged members of the Class of 2002 always to defend the right to free speech.
'Engage in Intellectually Honest Debate'
"America is unique and great because our freedom has attracted a diversity of people and ideas and because all Americans are able to express those ideas and opinions freely," he commented. "Don't seek, as you go through your lives, to silence those voices. Better raise your own voice for the ideals and values in which you believe. Have enough confidence in your own views to support the First Amendment rights of those with whom you don't agree. Your years at Yale have equipped you to engage in intellectually honest debate, to understand that knowledge comes in many shapes and forms and to be willing to struggle toward the truth.
"If you forget everything else I said today, long remember the lessons of Sept. 11," he continued. "Remember where intolerance and hatred lead. Remember to keep your minds, your imaginations and your hearts open to learning, to wonder and to love."
On a Lighter Note
Pataki began his sobering message with some lighthearted humor. He referred to a Yale Daily News column that complained about students' choice of the governor as a Class Day speaker and quipped, "[J]ust relax. When I was preparing my remarks for today I thought back to my Class Day speaker and I thought, and I thought, and I thought. I had no idea what my Class Day speaker had said. And then I sought out my classmates here, and I talked to them and asked them. They had no idea what the words of the Class Day speaker were. And then I realized none of us had a clue who the Class Day speaker was."
'We'd Do It All Over Again ...'
Class Day formally began with the traditional procession of seniors onto the Old Campus, as well as the customary display of homemade and creative headgear, which transformed the seniors clad in black gowns into a sea of bright colors. An Uncle Sam hat, twisted clothes hangers, leafy garlands, lamp shades and a sauce pan were among the head coverings students chose for the occasion, as were a giant ESPN microphone, a towering beehive wig, and hats with all manner of stuffed animals, including bulldogs (the Yale mascot), an octopus and dinosaurs.
Ravi Paidipaty, secretary of the Class of 2002, welcomed his classmates to the ceremony, which -- in addition to the Class Day address and the awarding of top prizes to graduating seniors -- traditionally includes some lighthearted fun.
Paidipaty addressed the parents in the audience by jokingly assuring them that their children never had anything but school work as a top priority, never stayed up all night, never skipped classes, never got naked for inappropriate reasons and only drank in moderation. Not long afterwards, he playfully retracted those pious assertions.
He told his classmates that while all of them had some regrets about their undergraduate years -- such as a missed opportunity to have asked someone out or the failure to have done so sooner rather than later -- he knew he could speak for all of them with the declaration: "We would do it all over again in a second." Paidipaty then sincerely assured the parents that all of the money spent on their child's Yale education was well worth it. "We are graduating from the finest academic institution in the world -- that's definitely something special," he said.
The class secretary concluded his remarks with an aside to his parents that roused his classmates to loud laughter: "To my own mom and dad: I never drank or got naked."
Awards and Prizes
Seventeen members of the Class of 2002 were honored with prizes for scholastic or athletic achievements, personal characteristics or commitment to community service. A particularly touching moment for the graduating seniors was when Amanda Walton was presented a Special Athletic Department Award for a superb athlete who has "shown spirit and courage in transcending unforeseen challenges." Given for the first time this year, the award honors Walton for her determination as she continues her two-year-long recovery from a tragic car crash that occurred when she was accidentally caught up in a police chase. Walton began her undergraduate years at Yale as a member of the Class of 2002. The seniors gave their former classmate a long standing ovation and cheered as Walton, with the assistance of friends, rose from her wheelchair at the podium and held up her trophy.
One senior was honored with two prizes at the ceremony. Jennifer Nou of Calhoun College was presented with the Arthur Twining Hadley Prize for the graduating senior majoring in the social sciences who ranks the highest in scholarship and was a co-winner of the Roosevelt L. Thompson Prize, which honors students who have devoted their time at Yale to community service. The names of all of the students who received prizes, as well their citations, appear elsewhere in this newspaper.
In addition, six members of the Yale faculty were honored with awards for outstanding teaching at the ceremony.
A Gift, a Stone and Ivy Vines
Michael Horn and Katie Troutman announced at the ceremony that members of the Class of 2002 had made a collective gift of $10,434 to the University in the second-most successful fundraising drive for a graduating class. They thanked Calhoun College seniors for raising the most money and Ezra Stiles College seniors for having the highest participation rate in the drive, an impressive 98%.
Following another annual custom, Class Day co-chairs Joshua Stein and Manish Vora planted an ivy in honor of their class near Durfee Hall, where they also dedicated a stone engraved with the numerals of the Class of 2002. This tradition began in 1852, when the first ivy vine was placed near the wall of what is now Dwight Memorial Chapel. As his classmates made their symbolic journey to the site where the Class of 2002 will be memorialized, Peter Holman Jamison read the Ivy Ode he composed for the occasion. The ode typically describes a symbolic connection between the growth of the ivy vine and the flourishing of the graduating class, and is read in both English and in a foreign language. Nana Akua Agyeiwaa Asafu-Agyei read the ode in the West African language of Twi. Holman's ode was chosen from a group of original poems in English written by seniors, and reads, in part:
Enough. These college years are full to bursting
With sunburnt joy, or wisdom-making tears
That, like the spring rains, water the heart thirsting,
Its seeds of flickering vision to blossom in years
To come that we cannot foresee. We love
Each winter day, we love the minutes of sleep
That softly divide our lives, we love the face
We cannot see, invisible above,
However we imagine it to keep
Us open to the future with its grace.
But most we love these faces, calm and bright,
Weathered in the seasons of a life
Turned outward. Through our thickening lens of light
We see the truth: enduring dark and strife
Beyond these walls. The perfect, restful poise
Of a friend's hand grasped in your own, the voice
Slow-ringing through the blood-red leaves that drop
Each year, the spreading ivy plant, the noise
Of swelling crowds, these all construct the choice
Of their ongoing afterlife, and stop.
A History -- of Trivia
Another Class Day tradition, the recounting of the senior class' four-years at Yale, took the form of "The Yale University Class of 2002 Trivia Challenge," acted out by Lyric Benson, Aaron Crowell, Joshua McNeil, David Neway, John Phillips and Jill Ruchala. As one student served as the master of ceremonies in this tongue-in-cheek telling of important events of their undergraduate years, the others served as student contestants, answering questions about such national, local and campus events as the Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky scandal, a decision by University officials to not sell cigarettes on campus, the increasing popularity of Professor John Gaddis' course on the Cold War and the loss of a liquor license at a popular pizza restaurant and hang-out. The audience became revved up at the question "Which residential was the best?" with members of the senior class enthusiastically shouting out the names of their own colleges.
'Bright College Years'
Observing a Yale tradition dating back to the 1860s, the seniors then drew out clay pipes. The pipes are a symbol of appreciation for their four years at Yale. The custom is for students to fill the pipes with tobacco, take a few puffs and then trample on their pipes as a sign that the pleasures of college life have ended.
Afterwards, the seniors took part in the final Class Day tradition, the singing of the alma mater "Bright College Years." Many wrapped their arms around each other and began swaying to the music until the last line of the song -- "For God for Country and for Yale!" -- at which the soon-to-be-graduates raised their arms high in the air to wave white handkerchiefs.
The image of fluttering white was soon replaced with flashes of color as a large beach ball rose into the air above the heads of students, drifted back down and began bobbing from row to row.
Still eager to share in their celebratory time with all of their classmates, many of the students lingered by their seats until a classmate's friendly voice came over the microphone: "It's over. You can go now." With those final words, the graduating seniors began filing out to join smiling, camera-toting parents and friends, and move on to other activities marking the final chapter of their undergraduate years.
-- By Susan Gonzalez
C O M M E N C E M E N T
2 0 0 2
Yale Celebrates 301st Graduation
Baccalaureate Address
Honorary Degrees
Senior Class Day
Teaching Prizes
Scholastic Prizes
David Everett Chantler Prize
Roosevelt L. Thompson Prize
Elliott and Mallory Athletic Awards
Robert E. Lewis Award for Intramural Sports
Wilbur Cross Medals
Other Undergraduate Awards and Honors
Graduate Student Awards and Honors
Commencement Photos
T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S
Yale Celebrates 301st Graduation
Biodiversity expert named new director of Peabody
Renowned architect Maya Lin elected to Yale Corporation
Two faculty members named to Sterling professorships
Drama School/Yale Rep to receive 2002 Governor's Arts Award
Two pioneering researchers are elected to the NAS
Peptide promotes nerve growth in damaged spinal cords
Exhibit shows how publisher 'cooks up' his books
Yale to join Elm City in celebration of world's arts & ideas
Nursing school marks retirement of its former dean
Center honors former director Dr. Donald Cohen
Divinity dean Rebecca Chopp steps down
Schools of Medicine, Nursing host class reunions
Library's Franklin Papers and Fortunoff Archive win NEH grants
Undergraduates named Dean's Research Fellows
City's downtown will heat up with 'hot sounds' this summer
Yale professor granted award to study TSC
Bulldogs aim to out-row Crimsons in 150th regatta
Artist who portrays black life in the rural South to discuss his work . . .
Campus Notes
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