By MATT BROMLEY
Staff Writer
 

The honorary speaker this year was James O. Freedman, President of Dartmouth College. Educated in law at Harvard and Yale, he studied under Chief Justice Thurgood Marshall and worked in a New York law firm for several years. After being a professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania, he became Dean of that college for three years before transferring to the University of Iowa to assume the Presidency there. Throughout his career, he has remained proud of his Jewish heritage and has a steadfast belief in the quality and progress that a Liberal Arts Education has the possibility of giving.

As an opening to the Commencement ceremonies, Liam D. Clarke, president of the Representative Assembly, addressed the incoming class of 2001. He advised them to stand up and look around in order to "...take note of what is around us." On the subject of a Liberal Arts Education, Clarke believes that it can teach leadership and compromise and that involvement is a responsibility used to question and explore the world and the community one belongs to. "Liberal Arts helps to teach how to solve different problems," he said. Clarke believes that the Liberal Arts help people utilize their "...potential to make an impact as we learn how to make an impact in our lives and the lives of others near to us, as well as those distant from this place."

James O. Freedman echoed these thoughts and elaborated on the subject in his address to the Class of 2001. President Freedman advised the students that the most important ideal they can learn from their Bates experience is the usage of a Liberal Arts Education: "A Liberal Arts Education conveys to you...a sense of joy in learning." After describing his connection to Bates College (his father was a graduate in 1920 who, as a debater, was teammates with Benjamin H. Mays and admired Brooks Quimby, who graduated two years before him). He went on to emphasize Bates' continuing devotion to the Liberal Arts and its consistent reinforcement of a Liberal Arts Education. The importance of a Liberal Arts Education can be expressed in many ways according to President Freedman. Significant aspects of a Liberal Education are the provision of contact with different cultures, working standards, and opportunities to develop emotions. It can "fire the mind with new ideas" and "probe the mysteries of the natural world." The education Bates can produce meaning in enduring historical achievements, awaken the power of art, or express the hopes, desires, dreams, and nightmares of the students. He urged students to "seek admiration of the most authentic authorities" and to "develop an individual perception" of the world. Yet he advised the audience to retain an inherent skepticism, for the "notion of skepticism is an important characteristic of a fine mind and a quality of Liberal Education." He also charged the incoming class to "emulate men and women who are idealists." Individualism is a direct product of a Liberal Arts Education which James O. Freedman believes must originate from within in order to change the world.

The final Commencement speaker was Bates College President Donald W. Harward. Instead of concentrating on the subject of the Liberal Arts education in process and practice, he focused instead on Bates' role in the future which will aid its contribution to a Liberal Arts Education. Looking forward, he believes the college should identify how the Liberal Arts, and Bates, should and will respond to futures challenges, such as program funding and changing teaching methods. "Bates is busy examining how teaching works now as we teach," Harward said. He also charged the college community to examine "how reality stimulates an atmosphere of learning," and to determine "...the boundaries of learning now."

An ill-attended commencement for the beginning of the 1997 Bates College academic year examined the role of a Liberal Arts Education and welcomed the incoming class of 2001. Liam D. Clarke welcomed the first-years and challenged them to discover the "classroom around them." Following an introduction from Martha A. Crunkleton, Dean of the Faculty and Vice President for Academic Affairs, James O. Freedman advised the students of various methods of utilizing a Liberal Arts Education. He also suggested the new class use their Bates education to become individuals who make decisions based on both observation and experience. Finally, President Donald W. Harward spoke on the future of a Liberal Arts Education with respect to Bates' role in its future and the need for money to enhance facilities where teaching can be changed and utilized to promote Bates' Liberal Arts Education. These speeches could, perhaps, be summed up in one sentence which President Freedman quoted at the end of his speech from Eudora Welty: "All serious daring starts from within."