Showing posts with label Graduation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Graduation. Show all posts

Thursday, May 07, 2026

Graduation 2026 The Saturday Ceremony

The main graduaiton ceremony took place on Saturday.

Held in the Big House, With 14,000 graduating, there was really nowhere else to hold them all along with their families and guests.


 Rather packed it was, and quite chilly, with temperatures starting in the high 30s and moving into the low 40s during the ceremony.

This was a landmark ceremony as the University was going to confer its one millionth degree since its founding.   Graduating students received a commemorative tassel with 1M on it in addition to their department tassel.

The ceremony, of course, began with a land acknowledgement, which was, of course, both politically correct and purely performative.

The acknowledgment, from the first speaker, stated the land had been ceded by the Wyandot, Seneca, Delaware, Shawnee, Potawatomi, Ottawa and Chippewa under the Treaty of Fort Meigs, which it was, to forma  college for educational purposes

The University of Michigan has, for some unknown reason, made no move to hand itself back to the Wyandot, Seneca, Delaware, Shawnee, Potawatomi, Ottawa and Chippewa, nor has the University offered the descendants of the Wyandot, Seneca, Delaware, Shawnee, Potawatomi, Ottawa and Chippewa a free education at the University's expense.

Funny, that. 

Then honorary degrees were given out.

Shirin Ebadi was honored with a well-deserved Doctorate of Laws.  Funny, as the majority of UofM students and much of the faculty are busy supporting the same theocracy that has stripped her of her titles and career and imprisoned her.

Michael Phelps alsp received an honorary doctorate, as did Jalen Rose. Engineer Ingeborg Hochmair received an honorary doctorate of engineering, which given her engineering accomplishments is only fitting. Regent Emeritus Ron Weiser and Kent Syverud, who was set to become the new president of the university before being diagnosed with brain cancer also received honorary doctorates.

Then a speech by Professor Peterson had to throw in a one-sided anti-Israel comment, supporting the pro-Hamas protesters on  campus and equating them with actual civil rights heroes -- and not more appropriately with civil rights villains with their attacks on Jewish students and blocking them from classes, disruptions of classes and ceremonies, and, of course, support for terrorism.

Unfortunately many students cheered this bit of crap, but many people in the audience shouted "Bull Sh#t" in response. 

In short, it went as one might expect from the progressives of the University of Michigan.

Aside from that bit of leftist performative foolery, the ceremony went quite well and each department rose in turn as graduates and were allowed to move their tassel to signify their new status as graduates. 

That's one down, one to go! 

Monday, May 04, 2026

Graduation 2026

Abby was awarded her degree this weekend in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology from the University of Michigan.

The main graduation was on Saturday where 14,000 students earned their degrees and the University of Michigan conferred its one millionth degree since it was founded, which is quite a milestone. More on the Saturday ceremony later.

For the record, that she graduated with that degree means she is a heckuva lot smarter than I am.

In addition to that, at the smaller and much more personal graduation ceremony for the MCDB Department, on Friday evening, she walked and received her degree certificate and her thesis was announced.

She also received the award that is given to the honors undergraduate with the highest ranked thesis not just in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology but in the entire Biology Department. That make her the #1 graduate out of 600 graduates. The Review team for the award had comments that included that the thesis was not an undergraduate level but was instead a thesis at the doctoral level, which is amazing.

For the record, that means she is a heckuva, heckuva, lot smarter than I am.

The members of the lab she worked at, including the head professor of the lab, and two of her co-(and more senior) researchers and friends who had just earned their Ph.D.s were there to cheer her on. 

She's going to work in the lab this summer as an actual employed (and paid!) Research Aisstant and then she will be heading out of town to a PH.D. program in  Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology to make her mark in the world doing some cutting-edge research in the field.

To say I'm beyond proud is an understatement.