While the university has made the difficult decision to postpone Spring 2020 commencement ceremonies, the staff and faculty of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences extends congratulations and well wishes to our graduates!
Transcript:
Hello graduating seniors! The CLASS Advising Office would like to wish you congratulations!!!
Dr. Steve Cobb: Hey graduating seniors, congratulations! This is a major step in your life and we are so impressed with your accomplishments. Now we want you to go out and make us proud. Go mean green!
Kathryn Cullivan: Hey everybody. Think back someday about the pandemic of 2020 and all the great things you learned. And I don't mean necessarily history and philosophy, but you learned perseverance, and stick-to-it-ivness, and you learned to be organized, and all of those things are going to make you successful one day. So congratulations on your accomplishments!
Dr. Tamara Brown: Congratulations seniors, this is a very special accomplishment and we're here to celebrate you. So all of you who are graduating, congratulations, and special congratulations to those of you who are graduating with honors. I'm really looking forward to celebrating you in person later this year during our commencement exercises. What an amazing semester this has been. Your class will go down in history as the class that persisted through COVID-19 pandemic and succeeded. You didn't let that stop you and we couldn't be prouder of your success. So from all of us in the Dean's office, congrats! See you at commencement.
Dr. Jean Schaake: Congratulations seniors! We are so proud of you and we want you to be proud of your accomplishments. You are a graduate of College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences and you have degrees that we think of as forever degrees. They will enable you to have a very successful and long career life. And so think back on the memories and the great things you've done and learned at UNT, go forth and have a wonderful and successful life.
Dr. Andrea Miller, Dean of Mayborn School of Journalism: Congratulations Mayborn students. On behalf of the faculty and staff at the Mayborn School of Journalism, we want to say congratulations to you and help you celebrate this magical time in your lives. We are proud of you. We want you to know that we are thinking of you every step of the way as you celebrate this time and that we hope to see you again in the future so that we can celebrate together. Until then, congratulations!
Dr. Tamara Brown, Executive Dean: Hi I'm Tamara Brown the Executive Dean of CLASS & I want to add my congratulations to Dean Miller. We are so excited for you to have finished up your degree in the Mayborn School Of Journalism and although we won't be having commencement right now, we will be having commencement later in the year and I hope you'll participate. I look forward to shaking your hand as you walk across that stage. But for now, I am celebrating with you. I've got my party banner up ahead and wearing my party hat to say Congratulations!
Dr. Marijn Kaplan: Hello everybody my name is Marijn Kaplan. I am the coordinator of the Humanities division which includes the departments of English, History, Philosophy and Religion, Spanish and World Languages, Literatures and Cultures which I also chair. I am not wearing my regalia today unlike one of my colleagues there next to me in the window. But my cat is as you can see, and he and I together with all the chairs of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences want to congratulate all of you. I have put up all of the degrees in the Humanities behind me so if you're earning one of these degrees today or this week, this is for you. We are very proud of you that you achieved your goal that you're getting your degree despite the strange semester we've all been having. And we are sorry we can't be there for you to shake your hand in person, but we wish you the very very best and good luck to all of you. Congratulations, we are very happy to have had you in our departments. Best of luck and I'll pass it on.
Dr. Brian Richardson: Hello 2020 graduates. My name is Brian Richardson and I'm the chair of the Communications Studies Department, and also division coordinator for Communication Studies, Media Arts, Dance & Theater, Technical Communication, and Mayborn School of Journalism. Since mid-March we've been retreating, we've been pulling back, we've been settling into our homes and sort of closing in to protect ourselves. And that's completely understandable. But we're going to find a cure for this threat. The time to end the retreat is near. The time for you to charge ahead is near. So I want to encourage you to go boldly, confidently, and assured that communities and organizations need the skills and knowledge that you have gained at this university now more than ever. Organizations have restructured, agencies need to coordinate better, we have newly merging communication technologies. These are all trends that you are set to contribute to with your gifts and talents. I encourage you not to see things the way they are at the present as a bunch of closed doors but rather opportunities for you to shine. Congratulations and Godspeed.
Dr. David Molina: And I am David Molina and I represent the Social Sciences divisions and all you have to do is add all the other ones and if you're weren't in those, we're in Social Sciences. And I'm also the chair of the Economics department. And all I want to tell you is that every generation has those binding moments where everyone remembers where they were. That could be the moon landing or 9/11. You're unforgettable moment will be Spring Break 2020. You had life before the Spring Break and life after the Spring Break. And you know you're going to be hearing a lot about the new normal, and you guys, the graduates from the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, will be at the forefront of shaping what that new normal will be. Those of you in the humanities will be able to describe the essence of how we as humans will deal with it. Those of you in communication and performance will touch our thoughts and souls, and those of you in the social sciences, which I represent, will understand our motivations, both as individuals and as a group, appreciate our political will and be able to estimate the true cost of our decisions. You will understand the impact of our geophysical and social space. In his biography, Benjamin Franklin indicated he was pleased with his life and if he had the opportunity to do it over, all he would do is correct some errata, basically typos. I hope that the learning and experience you had while at the UNT chapter of your life, allows you to grow to achieve a life where you feel the need to correct only the errata. Termino diciéndoles muchas felicidades con el deseo que el capítulo de UNT sea uno de los más preciados del libro de tu vida. I finished by saying, congratulations, and hoping that the UNT chapter is one of the most precious of the book that will be your life.
All Chairs say congratulations and cheers.
Dean's Office says Go Mean Green!