MEADVILLE —
The mood was pretty light. Parents and friends were snapping pictures, waving and yelling as their soon-to-be graduates meandered into Allegheny College’s David V. Wise Center.
“I congratulate you,” Allegheny College President James Mullen said as he welcomed the college’s 196th graduating class. “You have earned this day with your hard work and dedication.”
But it wasn’t long after that Saturday’s graduates were presented with some hard facts about today’s economy and what they can expect in the days, months and years ahead from New York Times columnist Bob Herbert, one of five individuals bestowed honorary doctorates of humane letters at the commencement ceremony.
A day earlier Herbert made a speech at Allegheny that was full of humor. He was asked if he would have people laughing during his commencement speech, as well, to which he answered, “Sadly, I will not … at least not intentionally. I’m going to talk about some serious things.”
“As Franklin D. Roosevelt said, ‘This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly,’” Herbert said to members of the class of 2011 as many of those students who suddenly began to squirm in their seats and chew away at their fingernails.
Herbert’s speech dealt with at length his concerns about income disparities and the role this year’s graduates can play in narrowing that gap. He pointed to deteriorating school systems, homelessness and expanding poverty rates. “Think about all those workers who have gone into America’s vast sea of unemployment,” he said. “Think about the once solid middle-class families who have had to turn to food stamps and food banks.”
The harsh reality is that “the United States is becoming a dangerously fractured society,” Herbert said. “Your help is needed to get this country out of economic hardship.”
And Herbert said Allegheny’s graduates are as prepared as any to do so thanks to the school’s strong commitment to public service.
“Become more civically involved,” he said.
Katrina Tulloch of Albany, N.Y., was the recipient of one of the 501 degrees handed out by Mullen. She said Herbert’s speech had a huge impact, particularly from a personal standpoint.
“I’m a journalism major,” said Tulloch, who is headed to Syracuse University in July to further her education. “And to have somebody from The New York Times coming at a time when journalism and the economy is all a rough place, it’s a big deal. I was very excited to see him. It was a very forlorn speech. It definitely didn’t have jokes. There was very little humor. Compared to other speeches where there is a lot of humor, that was a little disappointing. But the speech itself wasn’t disappointing at all.”
Herbert has written about politics, urban affairs and social trends in a twice-weekly column for the Times for the last eight years. He has also served as a national correspondent with NBC and a reporter and editor with the New York Daily News. Herbert has won multiple awards, including the Meyer Berger Award, American Society of Newspaper Editors Award, the David Nyham Price and the Ridenhour Courage Prize.
In addition to Herbert, honorary doctorates of humane letters were handed out to five-time Grammy-nominated entertainer Michael Feinstein, Max Kade Foundation president Lya Friedrich Pfeifer, and Allegheny graduate and trustee emerita Patricia Bush Tippie and her husband, Texas businessman Henry B. Tippie.
Lisa Byers can be reached at 724-6370 or by e-mail at lbyers@meadvilletribune.com.
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For Allegheny Class of 2011, the future commences now
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