Graduation 2012 brings big names to campus

Black caps shook as the class of 2012 rose and applauded Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s closing statements.

“Manhattan College has given you all a major in the field of love,” said the Roman Catholic archbishop of New York.

Cardinal Dolan’s commencement speech on Sunday asked Manhattan College graduates to view their liberal arts education as a tool to “broaden our perspectives, to widen our view, to free us up for love.”

“I need alumni of Manhattan College helping in our soup kitchens and homeless shelters. I see them teaching in our inner city Catholic schools. I see them wheeling kids with cancer to their MRI or blood tests. I see them soothing the face of the dying,” said Cardinal Dolan. “I’ve seen the data folks. Manhattan College teaches love.”

More than 750 graduates strode across the stage, where their program’s dean and college President Brennan O’Donnell gave them salutatory handshakes. After beach balls were tossed around the Draddy Gymnasium, Jennifer Wong and a few fellow graduates praised the cardinal’s speech.

“I thought it was a good way to end college — focusing on other people — because now we’ll be going out serving other people while working,” said Ms. Wong, who studied mechanical engineering.

Graduation season kicked off in Riverdale on May 18, when graduates at College of Mount Saint Vincent partook in the school’s 100th commencement. Graduates received baccalaureate awards and donned hoods associated with their academic achievements. 

Families gathered on the school’s lawn on Saturday to watch graduates walk from the founder’s hall down the newly-reconstructed centennial stairs. Last June, the college celebrated 100 years as a degree-granting institution by refurbishing the stone steps and decorative walls graduates historically marched down. 

Madeleine Melkonian, the vice president of institutional advancement and college relations, said it was a “thrill” to watch the graduates walk across the stairs for the first time in about two decades.