More than 1,700 graduate in UND's spring ceremonies
May 12—GRAND FORKS — More than 1,700 UND students received their diplomas in a series of Saturday graduation ceremonies.
More than 1,100 undergraduates and 600 graduates were eligible to participate in spring commencement, according to a university press release.
Graduates were honored in four separate ceremonies at the Alerus Center, with graduate students participating in a 9 a.m. ceremony and undergraduates at 2 p.m.
Law and medical school students were honored in separate ceremonies at the Chester Fritz Auditorium.
Speaking prior to the undergraduate ceremony, Mikaela Jones, an accountancy and finance major who said she was joining Phil Thompson and Associates in East Grand Forks, was "a little nervous, but excited."
She said she'd miss the UND community, her friends and memories she'd made as a college student.
"You know, all that cheesy stuff," she said.
Jaiden Jaeger, receiving a bachelor's degree in aviation management, called the event "an emotional high."
The university conferred four honorary degrees during its morning graduate ceremony, including to oil executive Bob Mau, U.S. Department of the Interior official Denise Flanagan, and business consultant Lynn Luckow.
UND also retroactively conferred a bachelor's degree upon Hilyard James Duty, an Illinois native who attended UND from 1894 to 1900. Duty was recognized as UND's first student of color after research by UND staff members Stacey Borboa-Peterson and Shelby King.
"As we present Hillyard's diploma, it serves as a symbol of our commitment to honoring the past while shaping a more honorable future," UND President Andy Armacost said.
Journalist and UND alumnus Chuck Klosterman, another honorary degree recipient, delivered the commencement address.
A 1994 graduate, Klosterman was the second commencement speaker in two ceremonies who had skipped their own graduation: he balked at the $80 price tag attached to a cap and gown and spent the afternoon watching basketball instead.
"I had convinced myself not to care about something important, because I didn't want to believe it mattered as much as it did," he told graduates.
He related an anecdote from Ozzy Osbourne, who had once said the few years he spent with guitarist Randy Rhodes before the latter's death felt as long and profound as the decades afterward.
"Three decades from now, that's how the time you spent at UND will feel to you," Klosterman said. "The people you met and the relationships you forged, the ideas you encountered for the first time, the failures you've faced and the problems you solved — it will feel like its own separate lifetime.
"The downside to this realization is that it technically makes this commencement ceremony a metaphorical funeral for yourself," he added. "But the upside is that, unlike actual funerals, you can go to the bar afterwards."
Klosterman told graduates to find inspiration in themselves and then their work.
He also told them that regardless of what they did with their lives, most people would not remember it, adding most people couldn't name the dozen individuals who had walked on the moon.
"You will remember, and you will care. The size of your reality is the size of your memory," he said. "So try to remember things. Try to remember everything. Because even if you're the only one who does, it will be worth it."
Two UND professors, Naima Kaabouch and Chih Ming Tan, received the Chester Fritz Distinguished Professorship at the morning commencement at the Alerus Center.
Kaabouch teaches electrical engineering courses at the College of Engineering and Mines and directs the Artificial Intelligence Research Institute. Tan is an economics professor in the College of Arts and Sciences.
