Commencement 2005
Commencement day gets going as graduates make their way to Merrill Gymnasium.
Honoring the Class of 2005
Speaking at Bates’ 139th Commencement, NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams observed that this graduating class will be known as the Class of 9/11, a catastrophe that occurred just days after its members started college.
“As much as we would like to hold you all and cradle you in our collective arms and guarantee your safe passage into that American ideal of job and family and prosperity and happiness, that no longer, sadly, comes with the diploma you will receive today,” said Williams. “But I’m not altogether sure it ever did.”
Williams was one of five honorary degree recipients offering advice, ranging from the personal to the political, to 517 seniors graduating on Memorial Day, May 30.