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Will the graduates to the degree of Bachelor of Arts please rise?
The President will make his concluding remarks
to the graduates of the Class of 1998.
>>DUKE: Your four years at Grinnell have represented a personal transition:
your passage from youth and uncertainty to adulthood.
For the College, and for the larger world,
transitions both large and small have changed the face of the world,
even as you as yourselves have changed.
You helped the College celebrate its 150th anniversary.
You have joined with faculty and administrators
in the important endeavor to build a shared vision
of the College's core values and visions of the future.
You have witnessed a transformation in the College's campus
in the resoration of Goodnow Hall
and the renovations and addition of the science and fine arts facilities.
You have collaborated on the search for a new College President.
These are just a few of the many transitions in the timeline
of your Grinnell experience.
I want now to consider transitions
by mentioning one of the most dramatic transitions of your life:
your birth, most likely, in 1975 or 1976.
These years, like many others, were fraught with transitions.
Jimmy Carter bested Gerald Ford in a Presidential election,
the United States celebrated its bicentennial,
John Travolta launched his career
with the television show "Welcome Back, Kotter",
Atari developed the first play-at-home video games,
and mood rings and VCRs were new that year.
Today, another Democrat, Bill Clinton, is in the White House,
the United States is preparing to celebrate the new millenium,
John Travolta is a box office star,
Sega is all the rage in video games,
mood rings are back in style after taking a modest break,
most homes have a VCR, and if you fast-forward to the year 2006,
analysts say the new digital standard will replace VCR technology.
In many ways, since your birth and today, your graduation day,
exemplify the saying, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
And I mean this in the best of connotations.
Grinnell has changed much throughout its history,
even in just the past four years.
But it remains exemplary,
and it remains true to its mission of providing a superb liberal arts education.
The world has changed vastly throughout your lifetime,
and it will continue to do so at a very fast speed,
but the themes, concerns, and the behavior of society remains the same.
Your Grinnell education has enhanced your ability to learn about
and understand the world's transitions.
Your education here will allow you to add your perspective,
background, and opinions to life's continuing evolution.
Today is your graduation day.
You have changed much throughout your lifetime,
you will certainly continue to grow and learn each day.
But don't think of your graduation as a beginning or an ending,
but as a part of a continuous transition,
part of the passage that allows you to bring to the world
your accomplishments, your ideas, your hopes for the future.
This transition connects you to unfolding growth,
progression, and change along the way.
Good luck, and I wish you well.
Could we all stand for the benediction, please.