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Kinda cool watching commencement at DKR.  We are graduating a record 10,000 degrees (undergrad and grad).  The most students of color, ever.  The most first in their families to graduate college, ever.  Students from the one of the best medical schools, law schools, business schools, engineering schools, geoscience schools, nursing schools, social work schools, architecture schools, music schools, natural/computer sciences schools, and many others.  

We just won the NCAA National Championship in Women's Tennis and the Big XII Championship in Baseball.  We are in the top mix for women's golf at the national championship.  We are heading to the Track & Field championships, Rowing, Men's Golf, and Softball as a Top 5 team.  Men were National Runners-Up in tennis. 

Our alumni and faculty were critical in the Covid-19 battle in terms of mapping, testing, and vaccination developments.  We are about to become the first university with a next generation chip manufacturing facility on its campus grounds.  The involvement of UT with space exploration is going to be officially codified later this year with spaceX.  

It's a good day to be a Longhorn.  When people ask you what happened here today, tell them...Texas Remembers.  

Hook em. Congratulations to all new graduates.... now get a job!

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LONG post follows, but it was well worth it... my writeup of the 2020 graduation, as my son was a participant.  Read at your risk/leisure.  Pictures below.

It's been a long, long weekend but one of the best ever.  I was there - both days.  Friday, phd jr. walked the stage as a Cockrell ME graduate. <tears>  I'll have something more specific on this later.  For now, I was really impressed with how they did it, in the (relatively) new EE building atrium, and how they kept the line moving while giving each grad their 10 seconds of limelight.  Picture or two below of this event.  It was very well done, efficiently without long, droning speeches.  Way to go, Engineering!

The Saturday University-wide event though was one for the books.  (I believe) first ever graduation from the stadium(?)  At least in modern times.  It was so worth it I wanted to detail it here.

Of course for years and years the ceremony has been held in front of the Tower, picturesque and nice... a few band numbers, cheerleaders, speeches, all good.  And for quite a few years the PhD candidates got their degrees called by name, while the Masters and Bachelors grads were acknowledged by school.  That's what I was used to.

Holy cow, what a difference a year makes!

After the unfortunate hiatus from last year, the 2021 graduation was definitely a first of its kind.  All the resources of tech and the stadium environment made this the most unique graduation I've ever been a part of, or seen.  I'm not a fan of typical graduations - they're usually long and frankly boring, even if it's worth it for each family to see their kid. You probably agree to an extent.  PhD junior himself hemmed/hawed as to whether he would go, but he was so happy to finish the rigorous ME program he wanted to milk it, so he decided to attend.  Honestly, I wouldn't have minded if it had been rained out, or so I would assume.  He had already had the moment I was looking for at the ME graduation.  I would have expected a nice but sort of boring ceremony, like in a typical year.

 But this year was different.  It was, in a word, awesome.  And more than worth it.

Each grad got six tickets (after they got RSVP's from them and calculated how many would attend, and thus adjusted ticket allotment.  Pretty good planning). Arriving at the University, the fam (wife, daughter, and jr.) moseyed in first to the Alumni Center, where we sort of just mingled and jr. had a pic taken possibly for the alum magazine (we'll see).  Then after about 20 minutes we crossed the street for the stadium.  I asked jr. if he wanted to sit up with us, and he thought about it but finally decided to see where the grads would go (at this point he had no instructions, but they were well-organized once he got into the stadium).  So we separated for the night as he disappeared into the concourse below the stands.  Our tickets were like most, in the West Side upper deck, and so up we went.

The first of many stunning moments was When I walked out of the tunnel into Sec. 108; the entirety of the field was covered in a white flooring... the effect was... well.. stunning.  It looked like it had snowed in DKR!  I had never seen anything like it.  Wow! On that huge floor perfectly-spaced chairs would accommodate the graduate students; in the middle was the large sound deck, fronted by a large burnt orange carpet with the white longhorn on it, kind of temporary 50 yard line logo, and great for pictures, which many used.

We got there about 6:50 for the 8 p.m. graduation (not intentionally that early, but the time went quickly).  We settled in the first row which made for great views and the ability to use the wall for phones, programs, etc.  The stadium was pretty bare at that point, but over the next hour it would fill up nicely, and I could start to see the seating pattern.  The undergrads ringed the lower half of the first deck all around the stadium, by school obviously, while the "audience" ringed the upper half o the lower decks and the entire upper decks.  Eventually I'd sa that the stadium was about 60% full.  That's pretty good!  It seemed well-attended without being cramped.  As we walked in, a very good band was doing covers of hits of all kind - Motown, country, 80's, you name it.  They were going at it with enthusiasm and I enjoyed them (about 10 people in the band, including four lead singers).  It was a great idea to use them to get the crowd settled and warmed up.  Both the "flying drone" and manned floor cameras were catching scenes of grads and the audience dancing, raising arms, acting the fool, and just having run.  All very nice. One Asian grad was doing some kind of boogie and when the camera got on him, he went nuts and the crowd ate it up and gave him a nice roading cheer.  Yeah, it was gonna be a fun night.

Speaking of which, time for a weather report:

On the heels of the Little Tropical Thing that whipped up all day Saturday, the rain was of course uninterrupted the entire day.  It looked as if it were going to be a washout.  But then after 4 p.m. it stopped - if not miraculously, certainly auspiciously, and stayed that way until - seriously? - about 11 p.m., just after things wrapped up.  No way!  Anyway, we were cautious (radar was still uncertain) as we packed our ponchos at home before leaving.  My best guess is that they'd speed through it once the rain started again.  No way we're getting through the next 5-6 hours dry, or so I thought!

But it seemed that God was intent on honoring his favorite university, and wanted people to get out again for the largest gathering on campus since the Kansas-UT game on Nov. 23, 2019.  Whether it was God, or the reliable Austin Forcefield, I don't know, but it was the next stunning development to me.  It lent an air of legitimacy and even "must-do" ness to the entire thing.  And because it had rained all day,  it was cool and very comfortable in the stadium, with just a slight breeze -  It was a beautiful night to graduate.

As the stadium continued filling, we began to see below us the layout of all the grads by school.  Across from us the Communications grads too up a big part o the sideline on the East Side; towards the NE turn it was the massive assembly of Natural Science grads with their yellow collars; continuing around to the NW turn were the equally expansive block of white-collared Liberal Arts grads.  Then next to them were the big bloc of drab-colored Business majors, then a section with Nursing and Education, and finally down towards the scoreboard end of the West Side, my son's orange-collared Engineering grads (the other smaller scools of course interspersed along the way within this ring).  Before it got too crowded, we located my son and after a quick text, he looked up and saw us with the tumbs up.  Nice!  When the stadium finally filled, the NS and LA grads were somewhat spaced out, while the Business, Communications, Education, Nursing, and Engineering grads were packed tightly in much smaller, but perfectly symmetrical, rectangles.  Something about that contrast impressed me, not sure what it was.  Anyway, my son soon disappeared within the now-fully packed Engineering section, so he was hard to spot, FWIW.

Eventually, and almost right on time, just after 8 p.m. the procession of dignitaries started, coming down the center aisle of the vast white flooring, and things were off and running.  And you know, for almost two hours I was there and never once looked at my watch or even got a faint tinge of boredom, it was that fun.  I enjoyed myself so much (and I'm not exaggerating here - I felt like I was at a concert. I'm not sure I was at a happier night in DKR since about 2009 (taking a shot here, lol).  This was, not only my son's graduation, but UT's first real attempt to mass back together, and the night and the crowd were more than ready for it.  It was just a superb time.  Just two hours of uninterrupted happiness.  And this crusty old schmuck managed a tear or two.  Afterwards, my son, who is no emotional font, told me that he had never felt more proud of "my university" and to represent it (now) as an alum.  More dusty in here.

From this point rather than continue in a blow-by-blow description of the night, I'll briefly highlight what struck me personally, followed by a few pictures.  Suffice it to say the ceremony held no real surprises as it was.  But  President Hartzell as M of C did a great job, made a few poignant remarks, and displayed a practical yet humorous ability to not only grasp, but master the event.  I really had never heard much from him, and I was impressed.  My son has said he really likes Hartzell, and now I know why.  Likewise, the keynote by Disney chair Bog Iger, the ceremonial conferring of Degree Certification - and then one more thing (I'll get to that), were all great.  So here are some of my favorite moments in rough chronological order:

President Hartzell's opening remarks - I was struck by how down to earth he was - his style was even, conversational, and efficient.  At an event where pomposity is almost expected, he breezed along with the simplicity and directness of a guidance counselor.  He set a great tone and "only" spoke for about 10 minutes.  And none of it was patronizing.  When he mentioned  was a Business grad of (forget the exact year, I think 1998), it made me feel a little long in the tooth.  He was about 5 years old when I started at UT.  Yeah, I'm getting old.  Nevertheless, good opening.

Student Government President Anagha Kikkeri - I'm thinking to myself "well, if there's gonna be an "oops" moment, here it'll be."  But she gave a wonderful, no maybe more, tremendous speech.  She spoke from the heart about being an Indian woman and facing roadblocks, including racism, interestingly from both sides (her Indian friends would chastise her for being "too white") and how her family helped her to this moment.  Despite all of this, her tone wasn't depressing or even cathartic, it was just pure simple happiness at being a grad, growing up at UT, and being more ready for the world. I daresay there was even a bit of humility in it. The message was by far her personal happiness at being a UT grad, and her optimism as she goes out into the world. I was impressed with her.  My son later told me he knows her.

Bob Iger - Disney chair keynote was decently done.  Again, kind of humble, and personal.  He was frank as well... he lives in a world now of huge deals, massive movements of culture and money, and uncountable swaths of humanity.  And he engineers all of it, and has for 15 years.  But he talked about his early failings and when it all comes down to it, to enjoy life as you go along, and not to get caught up in the rat race.  His major theme was - be bold.  Take risks and enjoy the ride.  Again, a solid speech.  He's a CEO type, not an evangelist, so he delivered it with a steady tone, but I still found myself listening.

The secret(?) - Bob Iger's sons - he might have gotten the loudest cheer when he said one thing - that his son Max was in attendance and graduating!.  Blew me away!  Long Island born/bred guy moving to California in the 70's.  Yet somehow his kid found UT and loved it.  Then he said his younger son is entering UT this coming year.  Okay, you can imagine the huge advantage UT will likely can get/maybe has gotten from this.  Wow!!  Maybe you knew this, but I didn't.

Conference of Degrees - If this was the standard, I wasn't familiar with it.  But each college's dean came up, gave maybe a 2-3 minute blurb of remarks about their school and its grads, then every one ended with the address to the President certifying the graduates (same exact language).  I actually enjoyed how the Deans chose to say what they did about their schools, much like a presidential convention where individual states give their merits, (I.e. "the State of Texas, home of Longhorns and the world's best smoked meats... etc. etc.).  Favorites:  Interim Dean of Business Lillian Mills - she was very emotional and heartfelt, holding back tears, got a HUGE roar from her grads, who seemed to obviously love her - when was the last time you heard a Dean say her students were "most importantly, just fun to hang out with," and Nursing, which understandably at this time got a loud round of applause from the stadium.  Engineering Dean Wood was ho-hum, but she's a typical engineer, not an orator, amirite?  'Nuff said.  But it was so cool seeing all the Engineering grads cheer.  And with this first graduation in the stadium, or at least the much-more-tech stadium of the early 21st Century, as each school's dean came up, the ad ribbon around the stadium turned that school's traditional color and the school name was mentioned while the scoreboard flashed information about the school.  Now that was cool! 

ROTC Moment - This actually came as the first set of degrees conferred, but the Army Captain doing the intro mentioned about 35 new officers from each branch.  One of the 35 by far got the largest roar from the crowd, and one of the largest of the night.  This was when the last one mentioned, after the usual Army, Air Force, Marine, and Navy newly-minted officers, was commissioned into the new Space Force.  I'm not sure why, but the crowd erupted, maybe at yet another UT first.  For me, the cooler part is... I know the kid, he was one of my son's housemates this year!  GREAT polite and incredibly smart kid; he helped my son with some coursework this year, and is a 5th year senior who's going to attend UCSD for his master's, and will certainly go far.  He's from Las Vegas and comes from almost 100 years of military guys in his family).  For him UT was a stop, as he has no family here, but he's loved his time on the 40 Acres.  BTW, another one of my son's graduating Engineering friends is destined for the NASA astronaut program.

Medical School First!  I was thrilled to be in attendance to witness the first ever grads of the Dell Medical School, all four of them!  Even coolerl is that all of them were people of color!  They seated these grads on the huge white floor, in a separate row, the first from the stage.  They got a huge round of applause and were obviously overjoyed and having a ball, waving back to us.  Great moment.

Kevin Eltife - Okay, this one threw me.  Kevin Eltife was summoned to make remarks.  The UT System Chacellor is a far cry from the previous skyscraper-like, imposing Mcraven.  This guy is short, and could pass for Dustin Hoffman.  He kind of stomped up and almost scowled, and I thought, "uh-oh, the first boring speech of the night, well at least it's the last." Uh-uh.  Eltife looked straight ahead, and in an oratory out of Henry V's speech at Agincourt, thundered, and i mean absolutely boomed  this:  "Covid - You're NOT taking this one!"  Or words to that effect.  Then, without dropping a decibel, he went on about a 50 second rant about how tremendous UT is, how great these grads are, how terrific the families are, how great it is to be together again, and together we will fucking change the world.  Then - HOOK'EM!"  All through it, he undercut it with sincere, emotional intensiveness how much UT means to him personally and how much he loves this place.

The place went freaking nuts.  It was the best academic speech moment I think I've ever experienced.  My god did he kick ass. 

BOOM!
The ceremony officially ended (as usual?) with the Eyes of Texas.  Apparently there was some "controversy" in that some grads planned to, and apparently did, stage a walkout.  However I didn't even notice or know about it until the news later that night.  Certainly nothing of consequence at the graduation.  From the looks of the news footage, maybe a dozen or so students walked out.  FWIW.

Finally, the fireworks started.  They were launched from behind the South Side complex (currently under constuction and for their brief five minutes or so they were spectacular.  Then President Hartzell declared the proceedings ended.

And then, just like that, it was all over.

Epilogue
Although many of the elements of this graduation were nothing new (including the fireworks), the ramped-up production of this event in DKR has now set a standard that no other venue (I believe) can duplicate.  I would expect all graduations now to be done in the stadium.  There is much more room, the technical and broadcast resources of the stadium make the ceremony ten times more powerful, and there is plenty of room, and yet the enclosed space still brings some family intimacy to it.  And people ate it up - they wanted to be out and "officially" social again, and the stadium was the perfect solution.  You could certainly feel the major mental exhale of the UT community as they gathered for the first time in over a year to this magnitude.  This was by far the most spectacular grad event I've ever seen, and so I hope they continue this new tradition.

Although in and of itself it would have been fun, having my son (and youngest) get his Engineering degree made it of course all the more an absolute blast.  I'm going to detail this more in another post, but I can't fully document how his four years at UT were among the best and most transformative of any student I've seen there (and I taught well over 6,000).  I'll explain why another time.  For now, it was obvious that my son, who was no shoo-in to even get into the school, ground it out and did solidly, above the degree average.  Although he's glad to get out of the constant brain-pounding to "adult" life, he clearly loves his school and it will be a deep part of him, like so many of you native Texans (while I'm not, he is, so you're welcome for the gift!).  I'll tell you about his current and future later; for now I just want to bask in the memories of how good this school was for him the past 4 years, and how it catapulted him into a confident, bold adult.  I do believe he'll some day donate a wad of money to the school - or more, depending on his financial success - but UT put him off to a tremendous start.

I began a relationship with this school almost 40 years ago, as a somewhat confused and aimless grad student.  After leaving UT in the early 2000's, I sort of experienced a hiatus and rarely came to campus except for the occasional sporting event.  Years and even a decade flew by and going into campus was almost like going to Denver or something, it seemed that remote.  My life was out in Western Travis County, where my kids were raised.  It seemed as if there was a large gulf between me and UT, which was only 17 miles away.  This all changed with phd jr.  He wanted to go to UT from being a child, but it looked for awhile like he had no shot.  But lo and behold, in 2017 we took a visit, one of my first non-sporting trips to UT in over a decade.  I had since reconnected with the school and it brought back a flood of my own memories, 3-4 of the best years of my life.  Sure things had changed, new stuff had been built, old stuff plowed away, but at its heart it was the same old 40, which many years ago shaped me the way it had now just shaped my son.  As for him, the way he pulled his bootstraps up and grit his teeth to get in after a real tragedy in his life was beyond inspiring.  But he did, he squeaked in, and he prospered, and today he has his degree as a young man.

And there is no speech nor firework more spectacular than that.

Congratulations to all of the 2021 UT graduates, and every graduate - past, present, and future.

Now, some pictures:

Friday, May 21 Engineering Ceremony

grad1.png.cbb2c3c85f78f4b67e97f8cb6cc67368.png    Grad2.jpg.d31500c2c8d15bafd3412685469c0aae.jpg

                               Waiting to get his turn.                                                                                              There y'go!  You done gradiated!

 

Grad3.jpg.6468149596224a16102f2f6b5f3b380a.jpg

                                 Smiling broadly (trust me!) Engineering grad!

Saturday, May 22 University Graduation

Grad4.png.71e9175b147368fd27c3309505e57d21.png     Grad5.png.1f708d210099f3d168d6042baf7d72ec.png

Smiling (trust me!) grad in Alumni Center pre-ceremony                                     DKR, about 50 minutes before the start

Grad6.png.b45692eae6e52479560b5fee426ca3c2.png      Grad7.png.f66579e6fddfec5e34c696ace83a9921.png 

We found phd jr., front row seat, about 50 mins. before             There's the Engineering bloc about 20 minutes before, on the Tron

Grad8.png.52af74474bed98b2614839222b2bacd4.png       Grad9.png.8a6d9d652d4f5bde035f6bdb93d36da3.png

They ran the TX flag down and over the grad students!  LOL!                                      Keynoter, Disney Chair (and Longhorn dad!) Bob Iger

Grad10.png.d0a40930346f6b2cf12986dcbb1bf135.png      Grad11.png.74aac02ed69771feedf6d39f544a6155.png
   

     The Engineering mob at the moment of conferral!                          Coming down the ramps at DKR, the well-known Tower Salute


Grad11.jpg.93d76eb39d242884a9a545f27f80e170.jpg     Grad13.jpg.d3be5e8b4493cab01684258c524f967e.jpg

                 U-wide Commencement program cover                              Start of ceremony (note procession up middle aisle):
                                                                                                                   Communication bloc - most of upper middle (bottom rows of East Side)
                                                                                                                   Engineering bloc - lower right edge
                                                                                                                   Education and Nursing blocs - lower middle
                                                                                                                   Business bloc (portion) - lower left edge

Screenshot_20210524-223459_Gallery.thumb.jpg.92cad775d87ace30f495d0fd34c3aadd.jpg

Petroleum Engineering grad, masters in finance to follow in a year....

Fireworks were impressive...from the nosebleed seats we could also see the fireworks display from the tower.  The whole ceremony was very well done

20210522_212945.jpg

Edited by Dennis Taylor

That longhorn built into the SEZ looks pretty cool lit up in the dark in the last picture. 

On 5/22/2021 at 8:50 PM, Lobo said:

... We are graduating a record 10,000 degrees ...

Dafuq?  The commencement ceremony being held on the surface of the sun?

No creeper pics of hot co-eds...negged.

9 hours ago, Dennis Taylor said:

Screenshot_20210524-223459_Gallery.thumb.jpg.92cad775d87ace30f495d0fd34c3aadd.jpg

Petroleum Engineering grad, masters in finance to follow in a year....

Fireworks were impressive...from the nosebleed seats we could also see the fireworks display from the tower.  The whole ceremony was very well done

20210522_212945.jpg

Congrats, man!  I was actually wondering about your kid, no really.  We had those conversations 4 years ago about getting in and he got into PE and all that. 

He sounds a lot like my kid, who's taking pretty much the same tack right now (not yet a Master's, but he's formed his own large-resource real estate company in Austin and has already closed some deals.  Best of luck to him as he goes on.

33 minutes ago, Hate said:

No creeper pics of hot co-eds...negged.

I will say that reports of the demise of hot co-eds at UT have been greatly exaggerated 

Yeah, despite my wife aggressively encouraging me to take hot covert coed pics as much as I could, I told her that I love her so much I could never bring myself to do it.

Oh, sorry, that was the other graduation in Opposite World.

 

17 hours ago, phdhorn said:

This was when the last one mentioned, after the usual Army, Air Force, Marine, and Navy newly-minted officers, was commissioned into the new Space Force.  I'm not sure why, but the crowd erupted, maybe at yet another UT first.  For me, the cooler part is... I know the kid, he was one of my son's housemates this year!  

Out of curiosity, what ROTC program did he go through? I assume Air Force or was it actually a Space Force program?

5 minutes ago, F250 said:

Out of curiosity, what ROTC program did he go through? I assume Air Force or was it actually a Space Force program?

He could tell you, but then...

47 minutes ago, F250 said:

Out of curiosity, what ROTC program did he go through? I assume Air Force or was it actually a Space Force program?

I don't think (yet) they have a full-blown Space Force program, my guess is they will down the road.  Actually I believe he was Army.  I love the guy, he's one of those quiet, polite guys who can bend steel or fly under a bus about to crash and take it to safety.  I can only see great things for the kid moving on.

Edit:  I heard that right now, this was their curriculum - 30 hours per week of this, then seminars and reports on same:

Rick_Morty_banner1-640x300.png

Edited by phdhorn

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