Multimedia: 19 moments from Commencement 2015
For 484 members of the Class of 2015, four years of study culminated in several joyous hours in Merrill Gymnasium, the site of Commencement this year as rain showers fell outside.
Here are 19 moments, in photographs and video, from those final four hours on May 31, 2015.
7:56 a.m.
Precious Cargo
Workers with Facility Services guide their precious cargo, 484 Bates diplomas, into Merrill Gymnasium.
8:20 a.m.
Getting with the Programs
Student workers, including Anan Ahmed ’17 of Malé, Maldives, place Commencement programs on chairs.
Within 90 minutes, the gym will fill to capacity with 3,300 seniors, family, friends, faculty, and honorands. Eight hundred and fifty guests will watch from overflow locations on campus with another 2,000 tuning in for the livestream. (Marc Glass ’88/Bates College)
9:20 a.m.
Thinking Caps
The Commencement speaker, mathematician Manjul Bhargava (left), winner of the Fields Medal in 2014, gets some expert advice on mortarboard style from President Spencer (second from left) and fellow honorands Joan Benoit Samuelson, Mark Abelson, and Thomas Moser. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/Bates College)
9:28 a.m.
Selfie Aware
Honorand Mark Abelson takes a selfie with his faculty host, John Kelsey, professor emeritus of psychology.
Kelsey was the academic and thesis adviser to Mark’s son, Stuart Abelson, a 1997 neuroscience graduate who is now a Bates trustee. Stuart is also the CEO of Ora, the company that Mark Abelson founded and that is now the world’s leading ophthalmic research and product development firm. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/Bates College)
9:33 a.m.
Persuasive Tricolon
They came, they robed, they selfied: Faculty members of the Department of Rhetoric pose for a memento. Jonathan Cavallero holds the phone. Next to him is Stephanie Kelley-Romano, and Jan Hovden is below. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/Bates College)
9:39 a.m.
The Party Arrives
Professor of Sociology and Mace Bearer Sawyer Sylvester leads the academic procession, including the platform party headed by President Clayton Spencer, into Merrill Gymnasium. (Phyllis Graber Jensen)
10:33 a.m.
Wide Audience
Manjul Bhargava delivers his Commencement address in Merrill Gym. This line got a big laugh:
“I suspect that when you all exited your last class here at Bates and were getting ready for graduation, you probably weren’t thinking, ‘I wish I could have had one more math class!’ In case you were thinking this, your dream has just come true.”
(Phyllis Graber Jensen/Bates College)
10:44 a.m.
‘Ideally Prepared
Bates professors applaud as Manjul Bhargava concludes his Commencement address. He ended with this sentiment:
“Use all these wonderful experiences, these things you enjoy, these connections, to find a job but beyond that, to do good work — in the language of Bates, to find your Purposeful Work — to have fun, to make new friends, to take care of your family, your friends and others, and to do good work in the world. Of course, I believe the experiences that you’ve had at Bates already ideally prepare you to do exactly this.”
(Phyllis Graber Jensen/Bates College)
10:50 a.m.
Sad Songs Say So Much
Emotion shows on the faces of the Commencement Choir, composed of underclassmen, as they perform “For Good” from the musical Wicked, which ends with the line, “Because I knew you, I have been changed for good.” (Phyllis Graber Jensen/Bates College)
10:54 a.m.
The A’s Have It
The first seniors march to the stage to receive their Bates diplomas.
The first two seniors, Cody Abbott and Eric Adamson, have already passed the photographer at this point, so the seniors you see are, from right, Alexandra Adolph of Amherst, Mass., Olalekan Afuye Ado of Ekti, Nigeria, Yaa Agyare of London, David Alfaro of Los Angeles, John Allen of Westfield, N.J., and Hannah Allerton of New York City. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/Bates College)
11:24 a.m.
Call and Response
The cheering section for senior Asha Mohamud of Lewiston calls out as she receives her diploma. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/Bates College)
11:33 a.m.
Stepping Out
President Spencer approves as senior Isaiah Rice, a dance and politics double major, does some quick moves as he arrives for his diploma. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/Bates College)
11:37 a.m.
To a Certain Degree
Hannah Siegel of Tokyo, an environmental studies major who graduated cum laude, holds her diploma. The Class of 2015 has 14 Fulbright Fellows, 93 double majors and one triple major, 37 honors thesis students, and 69 All-Academic athletes. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/Bates College)
11:41 a.m.
Fotografía Final
Cody Tracey, a cum laude Spanish major from Baltimore, poses for the official photographer after leaving the stage. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/Bates College)
11:46 a.m.
Right Left
Bryan Lehrer of Armonk, N.Y., adjusts the tassel of Thomas Leonard of North Granby, Conn., after the seniors made the traditional tassel move from their right to left. At right is Vasu Leeaphon of Bangkok; at left, Frances Leslie of Wiscasset, Maine. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/Bates College)
11:53 a.m.
The Handoff
Professor of Sociology Sawyer Sylvester, the senior member of the Bates faculty and thus the bearer of the college mace at ceremonial events, hands the mace to his successor, Charles Franklin Phillips Professor of Economics Michael Murray. Sylvester retires from the Bates faculty on July 31.
11:54 a.m.
Pomp and Circumdance
Faculty members move to the jubilant recessional music by the Atlantic Clarion Steel Band. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/Bates College)
11:59 a.m.
Embraceable You
Outside of Merrill Gym, as the graduates march past the faculty during the recessional, Daniel Oyolu, a Spanish major from Houston, receives a congratulatory embrace from Associate Professor of Spanish Claudia Aburto Guzmán. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/Bates College)
12:08 p.m.
Touching Moment
The formal ceremonies over, it’s time for families to reunite. Julia Ofman ’15, a religious studies major from Brooklyn, N.Y., gets a loving squeeze from her sister, Kaitlin, as their mother, Ursula, watches her two daughters. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/Bates College)
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