Another graduation today...more ex-students

The years don't creep by, but fly by, and the ranks of my students continue to grow.

Later today --as I have every year since 1991 for two or three times a year--I'll put on my academic "regalia"--robe, doctoral degree robe and black beret with gold tassel, and at 2 p.m. march into the field house at UCO in the processional with other faculty.

There we'll sit amid the pomp and ceremony as hundreds of students from the College of Liberal Arts and another college gather on the floor, the stands packed with family members and loved ones. On the podium the administrative deans and vice presidents and president will gather. There will be a few remarks, and then the graduates will file forward, have their names called, and there will be cheers and yells from the stands in celebration. Some of the students will catch my eye, and other profs', and we'll give them thumbs up and congrats. When we march out I'll see the smiles and there will be some "Dr. Clark"s shouted. It's cold, but there will be plenty who gather outside and want a photo taken, and more or my students with degrees in journalism, public relations, advertising and photography and broadcasting, will pass into memory and their futures. I'm proud that our department, Journalism and then Mass Communication, has more graduates than any other on campus.

If you want to watch you can catch it on line at http://www.uco.edu/commencement.asp

It's a great job.

Note to Sharon, et. al.:
Many have "crossed the hall"
But it doesn't cast a pall
on some of the best, I'm proud of 'em all
So here's more of the roll call:

2003--Michael Larson, Timber Massey, Nicole Maxwell, John McBee, Danny Peters, Summer Pratt, Michael Ross, Ann Schlesselman, Emile Trulove.
2004--Morgan Rabatine, Marck Schlachtenhaufen, Sara Wheeler.
2005--Miacah Gambino, Caleb Germany, Bonnie Harris, Chrystal Lambert, Paul Riedel, Carolyn Seelen, Cody Vignal, John Williams.
2006--Carol and Luie Booth, Courtney Bryce, Matt Cauthron, Kelly chambers, Brett Deering, Radina Gigovna, Sara Lorenzen, Midori Sasaki, Naomi Takebuchi.
2007--Justin Avera, Tiffany Batdorf, Karissa Bradshaw, Vallery Brown, teddy Burch, Lindsay Cobb, Chad Crow, Elizabeth Erwin, Ronnie Helton, Lindsey Laird, Kelly Petruschewitz, Niq'uita Pollard, Megan Rossman, Charles Sager, Desiree Treebie, Meika Yates, Nathan Winfrey.
2008--Robert Agnew, Jessica Akers, Ashlie Cambell, Tess Mack, Allison Gober, Ivo Lupov, Jeff Massie, Katie McCannon, Aaron Wright.

The plaque is not yet up for those students who graduated in spring of 2009. coming soon.

I've missed some, and some I can't read my handwriting, which is getting worse, along with my memory. And some I probably have the years wrong. I'll add a few more soon. And the ones I mentioned on the first post without the years aren't included here. But these are a few of the students who have enriched me, students who are more than names and face, living stories I can remember and tell and treasure, sparkling like grains of sand, in the river of my life.