UpDate - Vol. 13, No. 34, Page 8
June 9, 1994
More than 22,500 fill Delaware Stadium to honor members of Class of 1994

     Without a mention of nuclear-powered submarines or international
espionage, best-selling author Tom Clancy captured the attention of
the crowd of more than 22,500 that filled Delaware Stadium for
Commencement May 28.
     Clancy, the author of The Hunt for Red October, Without Remorse
and other novels, had a somber message for the Class of 1994, telling
the University's newest graduates that the real world is a trap.
     "After the gentle responsibilities you've experienced for the
last 16 years, when you've generally had somebody else to fall back on
and always a not too difficult way out, you will soon enter a
profession of one sort or another and find now that people will depend
upon you to be there and perform your obligations without fail,"
Clancy said.
      "You will acquire a spouse who will both share your burden and
add yet more responsibilities to your life. Eventually you will find
yourself a parent and discover the most crushing responsibility of
all-your own childhood will finally end with the beginning of another.
     "If you fail in those responsibilities, most especially the
last," he said, "you will have failed the most crucial test of your
life. That knowledge is what the trap is made of."
     Clancy tempered the bleak picture by pointing out there could be
good times ahead with friends and enjoyable work and that "there is
nothing so fulfilling as to hold your newborn child for the first
time."
     But, he told the graduates, as their lives change from a focus on
learning to a focus on doing, "the grades you will get in the real
world will be far harsher than anything you've complained about here."
     There is a way out of the trap, he said, and everyone has a
defense against it. "Each of you has a dream...within each of you is
something you want to accomplish  for yourself. The ultimate defense
against growing old is your dream.
      "I'm now going to give you your last lesson in metaphysics,"
Clancy said. "Nothing is as real as a dream. The world can change
around you, but the dream will not. Your life may change, but your
dream doesn't have to. Responsibilities need not erase it. Duties need
not obscure it. Your spouse and children need not get in its way.
Because the dream is within you. No one can take your dream away."
     Calling the dream "the path between the person you are today and
the person you hope to become," he said that dreams can only die if
they are killed by the dreamer.
     Success is not money, Clancy said, but is determined by the dream
and the ideals within it. "As [ideals] are the substance of dreams so
is their achievement the definition of success. It is within the power
of each of you to fulfill that dream. It will not be easy. It will
require sacrifices of one sort or another, but whatever you can dream
you can also do. Your education has given you the ability to choose a
dream worthy of what you are and the means to accomplish it."
     By holding on to the dream, he said, "you may grow old but you'll
never be old. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the ultimate
success.... In getting this far, you have all fulfilled your parents'
dreams. Now it's time to start working on your own. Make a
difference."
     Commencement began with a procession of alumni delegates
representing classes from the 1920s through 1993, all led by two
members of the Class of 1994: Jennifer Johnson and Joseph Thompson,
recipients of the Warner and Taylor awards, respectively, as
outstanding senior woman and man. Also part of the procession were
members of the Class of 1944, celebrating their 50th graduation
anniversary.
     University President David P. Roselle welcomed graduates and
their guests to the ceremony, noting that the graduating class
represented a greater diversity than any other in the University's
history. The graduates represented 43 states and 16 countries around
the world and ranged in age from 20 to 72, with 10 members of the
class 65 or older.
     "All of you bring your own set of identifying characteristics and
experiences to our celebration today," he said. "All of you set forth
today on a path even more remarkable than the one that brought you
here. All of you will meet challenges; we hope you will face them with
the tools that you have acquired at the University of Delaware, and we
hope that you will make better lives, not only for yourselves but for
the people of the world."
     Scott Rosenberg, president of the senior class, presented Roselle
with the senior class gift, a check for $5,989.94, which is to be used
for park benches, sculpture and the beginnings of the Class of 1994
scholarship fund.
     Delaware Gov. Thomas R. Carper gave special recognition to two
graduates who achieved a 4.0 cumulative grade index, upon completion
of seven consecutive semesters at the University: Jennifer Johnson and
Quyen Hoang.
     Johnson, who also led the alumni procession, graduated with a
degree in English with a minor in women's studies. Elected to Phi Beta
Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi honoraries, she will attend the University of
Tulsa this fall and major in English, with a concentration in women's
literature.
     Hoang received her bachelor's degree in computer and information
sciences. A science and engineering scholar for 1992, she also
received the 1994 AAUW award. Currently working in software
development for American Management Systems Inc. in Virginia, Hoang
plans to attend graduate school in the future.
     Before the presentation of degrees, graduates who had belonged to
University a cappella singing groups led the crowd in singing the alma
mater.
                                                         -John Brennan