Commencement 2007

Commencement Weekend 2007 was a wonderful parade of events for IPE students. It started with the IPE reception on Friday, where Honors in IPE and the Susan Strange Awards were presented (see below for details) and all our graduates learned the significance of the thesis cords they wore proudly on Sunday. The academic convocation on Saturday featured our Daniil Davydoff as student speaker and retiring professor history Suzanne Barnett as faculty speaker. Many IPE students were recognized at the ceremony including Adrienne Parrish and Mieko Matsumoto (Kathy Phibbs award from the History department), Spencer Thanhouser and Johanna Wallner (university writing awards) and Daniil Davydoff (Slater Research Award). IPE students were also elected to the honor societies of Phi Kappa Phi (Casey Dillon, ) and Phi Beta Kappa (Daniil and Katherine Ketter).

Here are some photos that I took on Commencement Day. If you have photos to add to the blog (just a few of the best ones, please!), email them to ipe@ups.edu

President Thomas introduced Professor Dillman, who read the honorary degree proclamation for our commencement speaker, Elizabeth Cousens.Elizabeth Cousens (UPS Class of 1987) gave what was perhaps the most serious and meaningful commencement address ever. Professor Veseth nominated her to be our commencement speaker, which might explain the IPE cords that you can see in the photo.Lea, Devin and Chrissy adjust their thesis cords.Diana and Maggie are happy graduates. Maggie ran a half-marathon before commencement!Daniil, Mike and Daniil's mother.The requested caption for this photo is "Blood Brothers." It is probably best that I don't explain!Joel Higa and Kathleen Tokuda. Dean John Finney, who has been in charge of commencement for three decades, was given a special, surprise diploma by President Thomas. He is retiring, and so "graduates" with the class of 2007 exactly 40 years after his real graduation from Puget Sound.The future looks bright for our graduates. We are very proud of you. Congratulations!