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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
OHIO UNIVERSITY GRADUATE COMMENCEMENT SPEAKER URGES STUDENTS TO SEEK JOY, NOT MATERIAL SUCCESS
ATHENS, Ohio -- Ninety members of the Class of 1999 received their D.O. degrees at Ohio University's graduate commencement on June 11 at the Convocation Center in Athens. Also receiving master's and doctoral degrees were about 600 students from the university's graduate colleges. Several thousand guests of the graduates and university were in attendance for the 245th commencement exercises.
The ceremony opened to a beautiful rendition of the National Anthem by Tracy Rae Buck, a graduating master's student, whose soprano voice soared to lovely crowd-pleasing heights. OU President Robert Glidden, Ph.D., then welcomed guests, graduates, faculty and staff.
The occasion also marked the last time that the college's graduation would take place with the OU graduate commencement exercises. Starting next year, the college's graduation will be scheduled the week before.
The Class of 1999 was the 20th graduating class to receive the D.O. degree. It includes 52 men and 38 women -- among whom are 21 underrepresented minorities and 12 persons from Southeastern Ohio -- bringing the school's total number of graduates to 1,548.
Glidden preceded the conferral of degrees by urging all the graduates to stand and say "thank you" to everyone in the audience that had supported and helped them along the way as they pursued their degrees.
Mary Willy, D.O. ('99), was one of several graduating students singled out by Glidden for special mention in his remarks about noteworthy persons among the graduates. Willy, he said, unlike many in the audience who had possibly grown up believing that all physicians were M.D.s, grew up thinking that all physicians were D.O.s. because two in her family were: her maternal grandfather and her father, the late Richard Willy, who was a respected faculty member of the college for ten years before his death in 1994. "Today," he said "she follows in her grandfather's and father's footsteps as she receives her D.O. degree."
Dean Barbara Ross-Lee, D.O., introduced the graduating class and congratulated its members on their exemplary effort and achievements in earning their D.O. degrees. After they received their degrees, Ross-Lee led them in the recitation of the Osteopathic Oath.
The commencement speaker was Martin Schwartz, Ph.D., chair of OU's Department of Sociology and Anthropology. Schwartz, is the author, co-author or editor of eight books and some 60 research articles. A considerable focus of his work is on violence against women. In 1997, Schwartz was the recipient of the Graduate Faculty Award. He also received the Outstanding Teacher Award from the College of Arts and Sciences on two occasions; the career research achievement award from the American Society of Criminology; has been noted as one of the top 10 cited scholars in critical criminology; is a past president of the Association of Humanist Sociology; and recently received OU's Presidential Research Scholarship Award.
His address, titled "Don't drive like my brother," homage to the hosts of National Public Radio's CarTalk(r), was an amusing yet thoughtful exhortation to graduating students to seek joy, not happiness in life, especially the not the kind of happiness that comes as a result of material gratification.
"This is," he began, "one of the most difficult speeches I've ever written and luckily for you, one of the shortest ones!" Frequently poking fun at himself throughout, he noted the real reason for the title of his address was that "in the time-honored tradition of all commencement speakers" he really didn't have anything original to say.
"Few of us ever really have anything original to say," noted Schwartz, so he settled on five points that he hoped the graduates would seriously consider and, over time, embrace.
"There is always time to do more good in this world," said Schwartz. "Everyone has the capacity to do more good, even if it's just helping old folks like me across the street."
Next he said, "Not only is there time to do this, but there are especially good reasons for you to do good." He told the graduates that the best way for them to show that they were as talented and blessed as many of them felt they were and, in fact, really were, was to spread those gifts around in society to benefit those who were genuinely in need. "The worst mistake is to think that you're better. Too many people refuse not only to be good, but to treat very badly secretaries, pizza delivery persons, custodians and the people who have to clean up after all your messes."
"Be careful to use your intelligence not to engage in what criminologists call moral panics. The idea of a moral panic is that our irrational fears of other people have begun to harm us more than those people do." Over the past 20 years, Schwartz said, despite falling crime rates, we have locked up 500 percent more people. This we've done at the expense of other societal interests, such as educational funding, medical care and the environment, while raising taxes to build more prisons, he said. "While you're getting old and doing good, try to hold onto your friends. Why not spend time this afternoon picking out who it is you really don't want to lose."
"The most important goal of life is to pursue joy, not happiness," which he credited as being said by one of the founders of Apple Computer Inc. "Seeking joy means to find out what gives you the most joy and to pursue it. He cited several famous persons of note from popular culture who were very successful -- as society measures wealth and fame -- yet died as a result of that. Seeking joy, he said, means to "follow paths, interests and pursuits that do not automatically lead to happiness or material possessions."
Concluding on a humorous, tongue-in-cheek note, Schwartz said, "Finally, most important of all, there is one single thing that you must remember as you go through life wherever you are, whatever you are doing: always buy my books in hardback as soon as they come out!"
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