the last word

THE LAST WORD

Mark Taylor ’78

OUR MOST ENDURING TRADITION

Forty-four years ago, it was my turn, together with the rest of the Monmouth College class of 1978. We wore caps and gowns, pipers led the way, the trustees and faculty processed in full academic regalia and we were directed to our seats in front of Wallace Hall by faculty marshals with maces. We listened to speeches, heard the Latin words granting our degrees and walked across the stage to receive our diplomas from the hand of the president. It is a tradition and has changed only very modestly through the years.

I suppose that is one of the hallmarks of all important traditions and the importance of this one is hard to overstate. It’s called “Commencement” for a reason. It may feel like an ending or a culmination but it has been since the Middle Ages and is today a ceremony marking a beginning.

At Commencement, we mark the beginning of our lives as people who have earned degrees from Monmouth College. I think most of us alumni would agree that the four (give or take) years we spent earning those degrees had a lot to do with who we have become and what our lives have been since that beginning. We are very different people than we otherwise would have been because of those years.

At a fundamental level, that is the reason Monmouth College exists. Our mission statement describes it as “a transformative educational experience.” I don’t think I knew it at the time of my Commencement back in 1978, but I know now that it certainly was a transformative experience for me, and I believe for most Monmouth alumni.

Of course, Commencement is also a time of celebration and joy—fireworks, pageantry, proud families and friends watch us walk across the stage. Mixed in there might be some reflection and maybe even a little sadness as it sinks in that this really is an end as well as a beginning. We won’t be here with our friends next semester, here in this place which has become home. But then the anticipation of the new horizons bubbles up—maybe graduate school, hopefully jobs, creating new families, new places to become home.

And there should be time to show some gratitude. Those faculty lining the walk at the end of the ceremony worked long and hard to provide that transformative experience. And most of us had lots of help and support—maybe financial and almost certainly emotional—from family and friends along the way. This is their day, too. I have been honored to be a trustee of the College for the past 20some years and have been a member of the Board’s Academic Affairs Committee the entire time. We regularly receive reports from the deans, the chair of the Faculty Senate, other faculty members and staff. We discuss the needs of the faculty to continue the institution’s mission and changes that have been proposed in the academic program of the College. It’s fascinating work. But every year my single favorite responsibility of the committee is when the dean sends us the list of seniors who have satisfactorily completed their degree requirements and we vote to present the

I read each of names to the full board with a recommendation to approve the granting of their degrees. those names I read each of those names and imagine the hard work done, the challenges overcome, the and imagine the people they have become and the lives they will lead. I confess to a moment of pride both in them hard work done, and in the College that has served them. Since our the challenges spring board meetings have not recently been on the weekend of Commencement I haven’t been overcome, the people to as many of these ceremonies over the past years as I would have liked. But this year I was in they have become Monmouth for the Commencement of the Class of and the lives 2022 and lucky to participate in the ceremony as a trustee. they will lead. There have been a few changes in the weekend’s proceedings since my Commencement. I’m certain we didn’t have a champagne toast the night before and I don’t remember fireworks. But the essentials of the tradition remain. The pipers piped, the faculty and students processed, and the faculty marshals kept everything flowing smoothly. The Latin was spoken granting the degrees and each student’s name was read aloud as they walked across the stage to receive a handshake and diploma from the president. I saw universal happy smiles, a fair number of happy tears and lots of hugs of gratitude as the graduates walked through the double row of faculty, now as alumni rather than students. I’m glad the important things haven’t changed. Mark Taylor ’78 is an attorney for Citigroup Energy Inc. A resident of Houston, he has been a member of the Monmouth College Board of Trustees since 2001.