Winter 2002

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COMMENCEMENT 2001

HAPPY ANCESTORS: speaker Kelsey Grammer ’01H SET ASIDE FOR COVERAGE OF September 11 on campus in our fall issue was our recap of the highest holiday of the academic year: Spring Commencement. Held under threatening skies and amid chilly temperatures last May 27, Commencement 2001 saw some 4,000 under-graduates from 34 states and 21 countries, receive degrees in nearly 100 majors at McGuirk Alumni Stadium. About 18,000 family members and friends attended. Graduates were addressed by Emmy Award-winning actor KELSEY GRAMMER, star of the NBC sitcom Frasier, and JEFF TAYLOR, the Monster.com CEO who returned to UMass to complete the bachelor’s degree he came within 30 credits of finishing 23 years ago. (Taylor will be profiled in an upcoming issue of UMass.) Karen Borsetti, a finance major from Beverly, was the student speaker. Grammer expressed great appreciation for his honorary degree, noting that he attended Juilliard, but “two years into it, they kicked me out, or disinvited me, as I prefer to call it. . . .With this, the noble bones of my ancestors can rest in peace.” Taylor’s talk had the flavor of an old-time revival with a high-tech twist: Equipped with a remote mic, the dot.com phenom stepped down from the podium and walked among his fellow graduates, inviting shouted responses such as “We rock!” “Hallelujah!” and “To the Batmobile!” Outgoing chancellor DAVID SCOTT noted that this commencement ceremony marked the eighth and last over which he would preside at UMass, saying, “It has been an honor to serve you and to serve the university.” Scott sang part of his remarks to the graduates: “We are the boat; we are the sea. I sail in you, you sail in me,” and added, “Come back home to the wonderful port of UMass and let us know about the wonderful voyages in your life.” OTHER COMMENCEMENT WEEKEND CEREMONIES: • College of Engineering: over 150 graduates recognized in the Campus Center Auditorium • School of Nursing: 124 nurse’s pins and 32 master’s and doctoral hoods conferred in the Fine Arts Center Auditorium • Stockbridge School of Agriculture: 115 associate degrees conferred in Bowker Auditorium • Graduate School: nearly 1,300 master’s and doctoral degrees conferred, approximately 550 recipients and 4,000 family members and friends attending ceremonies in Mullins Center HONORARY DEGREE RECIPIENTS IN ADDITION TO GRAMMER: • ALI AL-SHAMLAN, director general of the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences • MARIAN HEARD ’76, president and CEO of United Way of Massachusetts Bay • STEPHEN R. LEVY ’62, general partner of Levy Venture Partners • TERRENCE MURRAY, chairman and CEO of FleetBoston Financial Corp. • FLORENCE SCKORSKE WALD, former dean of the Yale University School of Nursing and founder of the first hospice in the U.S. • HARRIS WOFFORD, a former head of the Corporation for National Service who helped to launch the Peace Corps in the 1960s

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Truth, reconciliation, action

TRUTH: larger image

COMMENCEMENT 2001: a catchup

IN A HEARTBEAT: a faculty response to September 11

LOSSES, RESPONSES: ten alumni lost; six alums' response

RECONSTRUCTIVE SURGERY: Coolidge Bridge project underway

RECONSTRUCTIVE: larger image

HIGHLIGHTS: rich fish - sounds grotty, but pogy oil’s good for you

Fish: larger image

Damp distinctions: water polo fourth in U.S., shower research scores Ig Nobel

Damp distinctions: larger image

Usefulness U: the Translation Center

Plus: Acid rain update, UMass bragging rights, and the soles of insects