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IT WAS THE BEST OF TIMES;
it was, well, the best of times. Commencement day
2000 dawned cloudless and warm, and by midmorning on Sunday,
June 11, there was just enough breeze to keep the estimated
25,000 parents, relatives and friends from overheating at
Stanford Stadium.
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Annan exhorts
grads to clean up the Earth.
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Ashis Vora,
Jyoti Bollman, Kristin Stanley, Corey Griffin and
Suzanne Lee (front) clown in front of the
Claw.
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A pensive
Kimberley Sheaf watches Annan deliver his
address.
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The forecast for the newly minted alumni was, if anything,
even more sunny. The Class of 2000 emerged into the best job
market in a generation. Starting salaries in some of the
hotter fields -- high tech, engineering -- were running
above $50,000 a year.
Even graduates who had yet to find a position were
feeling confident. "I don't have a job yet," admitted
biological sciences major Catherine Chase as she stood
outside Memorial Auditorium after the stadium ceremony. No
problem. She expects to find work in education reform at a
nonprofit. "I'm moving to New York with some friends," said
Chase, who grew up in Pittsburgh. "I'm sure I'll find
something." Her friend Jennifer Pfeiffer landed a job with
SCA Consulting in Los Angeles. "I'm a psych major -- and
even I got a job at a consulting firm," said
Pfeiffer, a native of Portland, Ore., who will work in the
company's personnel practice.
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Filmmakers
Hope Hall and Sadia Shepard celebrate their final
scene.
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Casper, with
Annan, looks as jubilant as anyone.
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Provost John
Hennessy shares the spirit.
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Once the Band
begins to play, it's all right now.
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This year's graduating class -- Stanford's 109th -- was the
stuff of a personnel consultant's dreams. In his last
commencement exercise as University president, Gerhard
Casper conferred 1,799 bachelor's degrees, 2,094 master's
degrees and 922 doctorates. All told, Casper reported with a
hint of wistfulness, he had presided over the granting of
36,506 degrees in his eight years as president. "Many of you
know that I am fond of saying that, at a university, all
days are first days," he said, once the graduates had
stopped chanting his name. "And yet today -- there is no
getting around this -- it is a last day for many of us,
myself included."
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Michelle Lin
and her brother, Stephen, waltz in Tanner
Fountain.
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Jill Meskell
limbos during the Wacky Walk.
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A humanities
student looks for an Old Economy
job.
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Y2K grad
Laurel Whitnah dresses for the
occasion.
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In his commencement address, United Nations
Secretary-General Kofi Annan struck a note of caution. He
urged the Class of 2000 to work to reverse the effects of
global environmental damage -- water pollution,
overpopulation, atmospheric warming -- caused by humans.
"Corporations have made lots of money polluting the
environment," he said. "But I can tell you, they can make a
lot more cleaning it up." In the end, Annan accomplished the
main job of a commencement speaker -- he left the graduates
convinced that they were ready to take on the world. "Poet
Robert Frost said that 'education is hanging around until
you've caught on,' " he said. "My friends, you've caught
on."
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