VCU honors newest graduates

By Tom Gresham

Richmond Mayor L. Douglas Wilder, the former governor of Virginia, urged the fall graduating class at Virginia Commonwealth University on Saturday to ignore cynics and be passionately optimistic about what they can accomplish for themselves and for their community.

“There’s always going to be someone who’s going to tell you the world is troublesome,” said Wilder, the only African-American ever elected governor in the United States. “There’s always going to be someone who’s going to tell you that you can’t do this or you can’t do that. I’ve been hearing that my whole life, but I’ve also heard that voice inside me saying, ‘Why not?’”

Speaking to a standing-room only crowd at the Alltel Pavilion at the Stuart C. Siegel Center, Wilder said graduates are duty-bound to themselves, their families and their communities. Wilder, who is a distinguished professor at the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs at VCU, emphasized the importance of being active members of a community and “informed about what is happening in our world.”   

“Each of us has a chance to be critical thinkers,” Wilder said. “Each of us has a responsibility to pay attention to the direction our leaders would have us go … We have an obligation to be actively engaged in civic life.”

The graduating class of 2,275 represented 107 counties and cities from across Virginia, 35 of the 50 states and Washington, D.C., and 34 countries from around the world. VCU President Eugene Trani, Ph.D., told the graduates that they benefited from VCU’s continuing emergence as “an institution that is defining the university of the 21st century.”

“You have obtained your real-world education at an institution whose student body reflects the diversity of the world we live in,” Trani said. “An institution that is dynamic -- that is growing and changing – while at the same time, coming together in ways it never has before.”

Trani applauded the graduates for the role they had played in helping VCU develop into a leading urban university. He said VCU’s growth should make members of the graduating class feel both proud and inspired.

“It is my hope that in some way your being witness to – and part of – the transformation of your university has demonstrated what is possible for each and every one of you – what can be accomplished through determination, hard work and vision,” Trani said.

Students received professional, graduate and undergraduate degrees at the commencement exercises.

In addition, Trani presented a Presidential Medallion to Richard Carlyon, a professor emeritus of the School of the Arts. Carlyon taught at the Richmond Professional Institute and at VCU for more than 40 years. The Presidential Medallion is awarded to individuals for extraordinary achievement in learning and commitment to the mission of VCU.