Clarkson Integrator

Issue date: 1/16/06 Section: News

Senior Class President Kevin Lobdell speaks at the December Graduation held in the Alumni Gym.

As the last term of 2005 drew to a close, most Clarkson students accepted the inevitable week of studying and finals. However, for almost two hundred Clarkson students who now proudly hold the title of alumni, it was a week kicked off with celebration. To be exact, one hundred and ninety-nine students were honored at the December Graduation ceremonies held in the Clarkson Alumni Gymnasium on Sunday, December eleventh.

The invocation and blessing for the event was delivered by Clarkson's own Abul N. Khondker, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Later, both Clarkson President Anthony G. Collins and Senior Class President Kevin A. Lobdell addressed the graduates and their guests. The faculty speaker for the event was Susan E. Conry, who is chair of the Faculty Senate. The graduates were also addressed and honored by Timothy J. LaLonde '78, President of the Alumni Association.

Overall, the air of the ceremonies was one of mixed emotions. All the speakers reminded the graduates of the high levels of educational excellence that each of them had achieved in their years spent at Clarkson. At the same time, the speakers addressed the fact that the world today is changing and adapting at an ever quickening rate. New challenges face the leaders of tomorrow and still more, unimaginable challenges are lurking on the horizon. But, as alumni of the past have done, these Clarkson University graduates will "Defy Convention," as Tony Collins put it, "by having a disproportionate effect on the world." With those words and many other congratulations, the fourteen doctoral graduates, fifty master's graduates, and one hundred and thirty-five bachelor's graduates ended their semester and their Clarkson term, leaving the Clarkson campus and beginning the next chapter of their lives.

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