First came the platform party: the president, honorary
degree recipients, dean of students, dean of faculty, dean of the College,
registrar, faculty marshals, trustees. Then the faculty, resplendent. Then 449
about-to-be graduates, two by two, flowing down Miller Library's steps in black
robes.Most other years, the Portland Brass Quintet would have been right on the money
in striking up, as they did, a tune from Wagner's Die Meistersinger von
Nürnberg. Wagner is not known for his brevity; neither are Colby
commencement processions. But in 1996 it took just 13 minutes--about half the
average for the last five years--for everyone in the long line to process and
be seated. (At a luncheon following the ceremonies, President Bill Cotter joked
that if the faculty had picked up its pace a little, the parade might have come
in under 10 minutes. "We're old!" Professor of Government Sandy Maisel
protested.) Innovation has its hazards, of course. From the platform, Dean of Students
Janice Kassman spotted Hacho Bohos Bohossian '96 (summa cum laude, Phi Beta
Kappa, honors in chemistry), who didn't appear to have a chair placed behind
him. This would be a problem, she surmised, when the seniors were directed to
sit. The dean sent an emissary. "I'll have a chair when it's time to sit,"
Bohossian said confidently, and with good reason--economics professor Patrice
Franko was on the job, raiding the faculty seating section. A chair appeared.
Not much of a glitch--and the last of the day. Colby's 175th
commencement was all but flawless.Rabbi Raymond Krinsky, the College's Jewish chaplain, asked in his invocation
that the graduates be granted "courage, determination and a loud voice" against
injustice and inequity. Cotter thanked the class for the cool, sunny weather
and reported that the 1996 Senior Parents Fund topped $357,000, a record. Class
President Ginger Comstock of Westfield, N.J. (daughter of Robert '67 and
Frances Richter Comstock '67), offered a cautionary tale. Persuaded by a friend
that she was "a lock" for an internship at HBO and that a visit to the
corporate offices was a formality, Comstock said, she was surprised to be
ushered into a mogul's office for a formal interview. "And I have nothing, no
résumé, nothing to show this man," she said. "And he began to
ask me questions. `Why HBO? Why communications?' I didn't know why. And then he
said, `So, what are your strengths?' I hadn't given it any thought. So of
course I sat there and I said, `Uh, I dunno.' That's not really what they want
to hear. And then after that he said, `What are your weaknesses?', and of
course, immediately, I had an answer. I don't know where it came from, but I
said--I looked this man, he was so unfriendly, right in the face--and I said,
`Sometimes I have a hard time following
directions.' . . . He showed me out." Comstock advised her
classmates to take some time to assess their strengths. "You are going to go
off and do something, each one of you, that fits you and is going to be
perfect," she said.
