Volume 2/Number 1

1999

Commencement Spring 1999

Speaking to a Commencement crowd of more than 25,000, FBI Director Louis J. Freeh reflected on the character and integrity of young Americans, from those soldiers who fought at D-Day 55 years ago to those UD graduates sitting on the field of Delaware Stadium May 29. Freeh urged the graduates beginning their new careers to keep in mind qualities of citizenship, patriotism, character and honesty--basic core values "which have guided you well to this day and which will keep our country strong and free in the years to come." Alumni delegates from the classes of 1930s through 1998 opened the ceremony, representing the more than 100,000 living alumni of the University. Several members of the Class of 1949, marching with the group, celebrated 50 years as alumni.

Also, during the ceremony, five seniors were recognized by Delaware Gov. Thomas R. Carper for achieving the highest cumulative grade index in full-time study: Farah Haq of Syracuse, N.Y.; Mark Christopher Messina (shown above with Gov. Carper) of Wilmington, Del.; Walt Roshon of Smyrna, Del.; Tamala Marie Stigile of Wilmington, Del.; and Elizabeth Kristine Turner of Birdsboro, Pa. Mindy Weller, president of the senior class, presented President David P. Roselle with the largest senior class gift in the University's history--more than $173,000--as the result of an unprecedented fund-raising campaign.

"Believe in yourself" was the advice Charles Lewis gave the members of the Class of 1998 at Winter Commencement held Jan. 9 in the Bob Carpenter Sports/Convocation Center on the Newark campus.

Lewis, a 1975 UD graduate, is the founder and executive director of the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization in Washington, D.C., that concentrates on ethics and public service issues.

"I say 'believe in yourself' because you must be strong and have a clear sense of direction about where you want to be--or at least where you don't want to be--or you'll be swept away in the currents," Lewis said. He urged the graduates to "help break the cycle of cynicism and distrust in this country and hold our public officials more accountable to the truth about those crucial issues that affect our daily lives. Only then can we possibly contemplate a government truly of the people, by the people and for the people."

Also at the ceremony, Edmund N. Carpenter II of Greenville, Del., was awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree. Carpenter, a former president of the Delaware Bar Association and the American Judicature Society, was cited as "a treasured friend of the First State [who has] made the pursuit and attainment of justice your life's work and have, thereby, enriched countless lives in the state of Delaware, the region and the nation." Carpenter is retired from the Wilmington firm of Richards, Layton & Finger.