18 University News Fall 2008
“
create, excel,
You are proof
that Adelphi’s campaign themes—
teach, inspire “I like the description of a successful per-
”
son as one having a combination of compe-
tence, courage, compassion, and conviction,”
–have meaning.
said Adelphi University President Robert A.
Scott as he addressed nearly 2,600 gradu-
ates and thousands of their friends and rela-
tives who gathered in the Nassau Veteran’s
Memorial Coliseum for Adelphi’s 112th
Commencement on May 19, 2008.
— President Robert A. Scott Dr. Scott, who delivered this year’s
in his commencement address Commencement address, commented on
the universal values of work, beauty, and
charity, relating to philosopher Immanuel
Kant’s universal values about what one can
2008
know, hope for, and do.
COMMENCEMENT “I suggest that ‘art’ is what we hope for: we
hope for ways to create beauty; to express
ideas; to reveal the truth of a memory, an ob-
servation, an insight—whether in Western
or in Eastern thought,” says Dr. Scott.
Throughout his address, Dr. Scott referred
to the honorary degree recipients and spe-
cific 2008 graduates who exemplified the
themes of his talk and the Adelphi spirit.
“One of you talked with me about Adelphi
encouraging your ‘inner voice’ to grow and
mature in ability and accomplishment—to
be proud but not satisfied, always striving
but never complacent,” he says, referring
to a 2008 graduate. “You are proof that
Adelphi’s campaign themes—create, excel,
teach, inspire—have meaning.”
Business executive Lon Gorman, chair-
man of the board of NYFIX, Inc. was
awarded an honorary degree, along with
philanthropist Adele C. Smithers, presi-
dent of the Christopher D. Smithers
Foundation, and renowned choreog-
rapher Paul Taylor, founder and cho-
reographer of the Paul Taylor Dance
Company. Lorraine A. Hannon ’90,
deputy chief of the Nassau County
Police Department, received the Ruth
Stratton Harley Distinguished Alumni
Achievement Award.
A separate doctoral hooding ceremony
held on May 18, 2008 honored 29 doctor-
al candidates from the Gordon F. Derner
Institute of Advanced Psychological
Studies, the Ruth S. Ammon School of
Education, and the School of Social Work.
A video of the Commencement ceremony,
as well as transcripts of the speeches, and
profiles of 2008 graduates, are online at
www.adelphi.edu/commencement08.
By Ana Barbu ’10