Thousands graduate across state

FAYETTEVILLE -- A joyous time for new graduates Saturday at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville also brought words of encouragement and appreciation.

"Go out there and love the world. Don't try to change it, love it. And be willing to change, so you can love it better," said the Rev. Becca Stevens, speaker at the All University Commencement held at Bud Walton Arena.

It was one of many college and university commencement ceremonies held across the state Saturday.

Stevens, the founder of Thistle Farms, a residential and social enterprise program in Tennessee for abused women, told the more than 900 graduate students receiving degrees during the first ceremony Saturday at UA that "it's true that love heals," relating how hope can rise out of trauma.

"The story you are writing with your life is always a love story," Stevens said.

Honorary degrees were awarded to William Dillard II, chief executive officer of Little Rock-based Dillard's Inc., and L. Clifford Davis, the first black student admitted to the UA School of Law.

The crowd of perhaps a few thousand gave a standing ovation to Davis, 92, who in the 1940s declined an offer from UA to attend segregated classes. He earned his law degree from Howard University in Washington, D.C., and worked on desegregation cases, later serving as an elected judge in Texas.

"Judge L. Clifford Davis is recognized nationally as a civil-rights pioneer, but he is also an unsung hero in efforts to integrate the University of Arkansas School of Law," Chancellor Joe Steinmetz said at the ceremony.

Steinmetz described how Davis, an Arkansan from Wilton who earned an undergraduate degree from Philander Smith College, was denied admission to UA's law school and enrolled at Howard University but kept applying to UA. Steinmetz said Davis' persistence was a key reason the law school was integrated in 1948. At the time, UA did not allow black students to enroll as undergraduates.

Davis' face beamed as he shook hands with Steinmetz.

The ceremony was one of many across Arkansas on Saturday.

In Jonesboro, interim Chancellor Doug Whitlock urged Arkansas State University's more than 2,200 graduates to use their education to become tomorrow's leaders.

"For a long time in America, we have given the impression that the objective of a college education is to make more money," he said, according to remarks issued by the university.

"The thinking is a college education will give us a marketable skill set that will enable us to earn. In my mind, the objective of a college education is to build leaders with the ability to think critically, creatively and use what students have learned. If leaders happen to make more money, that's a bonus."

University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff students got to hear from a celebrity -- keynote speaker Phylicia Rashad, an actress and director who is best known for her long-running role as Clair Huxtable on The Cosby Show.

In North Little Rock, the University of Arkansas-Pulaski Technical College's 1,625 graduates participated in the two-year community college's first spring commencement as part of the UA System.

Saturday was a first for the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, too. Its new chancellor, Andrew Rogerson, participated in his first spring commencement, days after his investiture. About 1,300 students participated in one of the three ceremonies at UALR.

And at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith, one of the speakers -- a member of the university's Board of Visitors, an advisory panel -- shared how education lifted her from a difficult background.

"I grew up in Syracuse, New York, the oldest of 11 children, and we were very, very poor," said Eileen Kradel, former vice president of compliance at Washington Regional Medical Center, according to remarks issued by the university.

"I lived in a housing project, we were on welfare, I stole penny candy from the corner store. ... I had a little gang. I beat a girl up once because I thought she looked rich."

But her teachers, she said, transformed her.

"Those women were my inspiration -- they cared for me, they were brilliant, and so at one point I had to start making a decision," she said. "And one of the important messages that I wanted to give to you is: You, and you alone, are in charge of those decisions about your life.

"I had to decide whether I could keep going with my gang ... or do something else," she said. "And with the encouragement of the teachers, I got all A's to please them ... and I took the fork in the road and realized that my liberation was education. And that was my choice."

In Fayetteville, more than 4,000 students were expected to take part in commencement ceremonies Friday and Saturday at UA, with friends and family also visiting the campus.

"I'm extremely proud of him," Shawn Clifton said of his stepson, Chris Berry, who earned a doctorate in business administration.

Shawn and Elaine Clifton drove more than 500 miles from Murfreesboro, Tenn., to see their son. "I know how hard he's had to work," Shawn Clifton said.

Stevens was paid $3,500 by the University of Arkansas Foundation for her speech, university spokesman Steve Voorhies said.

Steinmetz also addressed the crowd, speaking about how students traveled different paths, "some certainly fraught with difficulty."

He told of challenges facing students, including Ariel Romero, the student speaker Friday at the commencement ceremony for the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, the largest college within UA.

"Ariel moved to Arkansas from Honduras with his missionary parents when he was 6. He came to America as an undocumented immigrant but was unaware of his status until he applied for a driver's license 10 years later," Steinmetz said, praising Romero's academic success -- he was valedictorian at Fayetteville's Haas Hall Academy -- and his determination in overcoming a time of homelessness after his mother's death.

Romero was able to avoid immediate deportation through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals federal policy, and he earned a bachelor's degree in fine arts from UA, Steinmetz said.

On Friday, Patricia Rodriguez, 31, described the Fulbright College ceremony and earning her bachelor's degree in social work as the culmination of years of effort.

Rodriguez, a first-generation college student, said she juggled classes with the duties of raising her son, Diego, now 16.

"Being a single parent, all of the responsibility falls on me," she said. After taking her first college course 10 years ago at Northwest Arkansas Community College, she went on to earn an associate degree and transferred to UA in 2015.

"Even though I grew up in Fayetteville, the University of Arkansas was really scary to me," Rodriguez said, adding, "it just seemed intimidating and unattainable."

She said she's made sure to take her son to campus frequently, "so that he knows the university is for him, too."

New graduate Kathryn O'Guinn, 21, of Texarkana said her college career began with a semester of straight A's, in line with her expectation to earn perfect grades.

But a B grade at the end of her freshman year, followed by the death of her grandmother -- "a second mother," O'Guinn said -- and an emotionally abusive relationship took its toll, she said.

She found herself considering suicide.

"I had a plan. I was about to execute it," O'Guinn said.

After being hospitalized, she said, her mother and aunts provided ongoing support, as did friends and UA's Center for Multicultural and Diversity Education.

Medication has helped, she said, describing herself as now "at a really good spot." O'Guinn graduated with distinction this weekend for having a high grade-point average, according to UA.

Negative feelings tend to be temporary, O'Guinn said.

The feeling of accomplishment "is way bigger than the feeling that you may feel in the moment where you don't really want to do anything anymore," O'Guinn said.

Information for this article was contributed by staff members of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Metro on 05/14/2017