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Thursday, May 23, 1S35
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Copyright 1 985 The Daily Tar Heel
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GradTOttncDim flsiy foir Class off
By Cathy Cowan
Managing Editor
With everything on their caps from bulls
eyes to "Thanks Mom!," the class of 1985
poured out of the south side of Kenan
Stadium. As the band played "Pomp and
Circumstance" they sat facing the Commence
ment Committee, all together for the last time.
A great cheer rose from the audience of the
families and friends as each craned to spot
his or her special graduate among a sea of
about 3200 Carolina blue robes. The I96th
Annual Commencement had begun.
Christopher C. Fordham III, presiding over
the ceremony, began by introducing several
members of the platform party, including
Chairman of the Board of Trustees George
R. Ragsdale. Since graduation was held on
the same day as Mother's Day, he also
acknowledged the mothers of the graduating
class. The Chancellor said he felt that UNC
had provided the graduates with a "good basic
education (and) an excellent start in life."
The entire assemblage then sang the
national anthem and the invocation was given
by Sally Pistole, vice-president of the senior
class. Scott Weirman, senior class president,
gave the presidential address saying the
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Tar HeeJonathan Serenius
graduates have benefited from Carolina's
renowned faculty, top-notch facilities, and
campus organizations. He also said Carolina
had benefited from the class of 5 which,
among other accomplishments, has raised
over $194,000 in its Class Spirit Campaign.
Doris Betts, chair of the Faculty Council,
introduced commencement speaker Charles
Kuralt. "Those who have watched TV grow
from infancy to adultery," Betts said, "could
easily feel that there has been no good news
since the New Testament if it weren't for
Charles Kuralt."
Kuralt is best known for his CBS Evening
News series "On the Road," reporting on
ordinary people across America. He attended
UNC from 1951-55 as a history major and
edited. The Daily Tar Heel. He was paid $55
a week at his first job with The Charlotte
Observer. In '56 he became a news writer for
CBS where he has substituted for Walter
Cronkite, has been the anchorman for the
station's Morning news show, and now
anchors CBS News Sunday Morning. Kuralt
was also the host for CBS Radio's Dateline
America and is the author of To the Top of
the World.
Kuralt said his speech would be full of
advice. "Thirty years is a blink of an eye in
the long story of the human race, but it is
a long time in the life of our nation," he said.
When Kuralt graduated "we were just
beginning to think about the deep racial
injustices (and) had not yet begun to think
about laws unfair to women (or about) the
environment," he said.
Today these ideas are "familiar to every
third grader in North Carolina," Kuralt said.
"We have come a long distance in thirty years,
and we have come by many different ways,
but the main way was by learning to care
about one another." Kuralt's main advice to
the graduating class was: "Care about one
another."
Kuralt said that in the world "much evil
masquerades as good." He mentioned "pol
iticians of undoubted popularity" who have
"increased our military power immeasurably,"
but have "reduced our moral influence until
it is also no longer measureable."
Kuralt also spoke of businessmen who treat
"great enterprises patiently constructed over
the decades as a load of porkbellies" and
"preachers on the television preaching hate."
He described the United States as "long on
force and short on principles."
Kuralt said we must fight this with the
Constitution and the English language. "We
did nothing to deserve them, but they are ours
to use," he said. With them we can "say that
they are wrong, these smiling men in high
offices, (who) help themselves and their friends
without ever reaching out to help a struggling
people overseas." Kuralt said we should also
use the Constitution and the English language
to "say that we will not permit the corporate
raider to become the standard bearer of our
commerce (and) that we will not be frightened
by any Bible-thumper . . . into forgetting the
one thing Jesus undeniably said: Love one
another. "
Kuralt challenged the class of to, in the
words of Norman Corwin, "do a little civil
thinking every day." He said it was on the
UNC campus that he first became aware of
"an association of men and women, who,
while they may not even know one another,
might still be called a conspiracy of good
people." These are the people who are "willing
to be heard when they have to be heard."
Kuralt said that although North Carolina has
sent "scoundrels" to represent itself in
Washington, always in Chapel Hill this
"saving minority has returned us to reason,
compassion, and decency."
Kuralt mentioned UNC's "great faculty,"
especially Frank Porter Graham who declared
UNC an "outpost of light and liberty among
all the frontiers of mankind." He also
mentioned several of his own classmates
including Al Lowenstein and Terry Sanford,
and said that each graduating class added a
"handful of new members to the conspiracy
of good people."
"This university knows that ignorance will
have its innings, but will always lose in the
ninth." Kuralt said the class of 5 had learned
at UNC that "there are purposes and
undertakings ahead that are decent and
compassionate, and unsullied by arrogance,
or hostility toward other people, or delusions
of superiority, or motives of greed."
"My warmest wish for you is that you be
sensitive enough to feel supreme tenderness
towards others, and that you be strong enough
to show it," Kuralt said. He concluded his
address by saying: "That is a commandment,
by the way, and not from me."
President William Friday ended the Com
mencement exercises by advising the gradu
ates to "heed what Charles says (and) among
those for whom you care, include the
university." Friday said that "when you do
this, there will be no reason to fear the future.
This university will remain strong, and be the
fortress which (Kuralt) spoke of."
Other commencement ceremonies included
a reception by Chancellor Fordham for all
graduates and their families on the lawn of
South Building, luncheons for the Johnston
and Morehead Scholars and special cerem
onies by thirteen individual schools and
departments. An entire weekend of activities
for seniors, alumni and visitors began on May
6 with the Friday Frolic, an all-class "get
reacquainted" social and supper on Fetzer
Field.
The weekend also included "Saturday
Morning in Chapel Hill" (which featured a
special presentation on the late Sen. Sam
Erwin hosted by Charles Kuralt and a contest
between the 1984-85 UNC College Bowl team,
which won the National Championship and
members of the class of 1960), the annual
alumni luncheon at the Carolina Inn (at which
Distinguished Service medals were presented),
and several class reunions as far back as the
class of 35.
Class of '85 processes Into Kenan Stadium si Commencement Ceremony
Rhodes Scholar gFadiuiigites
By Catherine Cowan
Managing Editor
Robyn Hadley is a Public Policy
Analysis major from Graham who
said she came to Carolina for many
reasons.
"Here there is not only the oppor
tunity to excel in academics, but in
my case also to try my hand in college
athletics," she said. "As I got closer
to high school graduation, it became
more important for me to choose a
college close to home. I also could
not see myself going to a small
college, so Carolina was the choice,"
Robyn said.
Hadley, who was selected for a
Rhodes scholarship next year, says
See SCHOLAR page 5
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