Nearly 650 graduate at ENMU

PORTALES -- With pomp and colorful academic trappings, Eastern New Mexico University on Saturday celebrated commencement for 647 students who earned graduate, bachelor and associate degrees.

As they filed onto the floor of the Greyhound Arena to the "Pomp and Circumstance" theme played by ENMU's brass quintet, undergraduate degree earners wore mortarboard caps and black gowns.

Some were decorated with ribbons and cords designating academic achievement or membership in campus organizations. Some decorated the table-like tops of the mortarboards with messages about personal achievement or humor, like the one that read "I already forgot everything."

Faculty and administrators wore octagonal tam caps instead of mortarboards, if they had doctoral degrees, and sometimes burgundy-colored robes to indicate their level of academic achievement and rank within university administration. Hoods of varying colors hung around the neck and draped down the back of academic gowns for PhD and master's degree holders, along with cords and ribbons of different colors that indicated other achievements.

New master's degree earners received hoods along with diplomas, as well, color coded to indicate ENMU and their specialties.

In his commencement address, Jayson Evaniuck, assistant professor of Education Foundations and Secondary Eduction and winner of a presidential award for scholarship, told students their education is just beginning.

He objected to the phrase "educated human," because "educated is a misnomer," he said. "It implies completion."

He challenged the students to engage in "a lifetime pursuit of free learning."

Besides pure knowledge, he said, the college experience has taught many students fortitude and tenacity.

It takes both, he said, to take on an assignment and see it through to completion, even though it takes students beyond their perceived capacity.

Life lessons, he said were also to be found in laboratories, in on-stage performances and internships that went beyond pure academic knowledge.

He urged students in the future to "read great books, pursue awe and wonder in nature, and truth and beauty in the arts" throughout their lives.

Education should not merely be a "means to an end" as career preparation, he said, but as a continuous process.

He quoted a phrase from the Greek "learner," he said -- not philosopher -- Socrates: "The unexamined life is not worth living."

When Dr. Patrice Caldwell, ENMU's outgoing chancellor, announced her retirement, she received a standing ovation from participants and spectators alike.

On a sad note, the family of Analuisa Mendoza, who died in an auto accident on Oct. 13 near Amarillo, received her posthumous associate's degree diploma.

At a regents meeting on Nov. 29, Jamie Laurenz, ENMU's vice president of academic affairs, said Mendoza would have completed her degree in December. Laurenz said Mendoza was planning a career in law enforcement.

ENMU student Alicia Bustos also died in the Oct. 13 accident.

After the ceremony, Beau Burns, a summa cum laude (high-achieving) graduate in physical education with an emphasis in health and wellness, said, "I feel that I have come full circle, I've been working so long."

Burns said he is not done yet, though. He now wants a degree in biology, then a master's degree in physical therapy.

For Reydecel Coss, Friday's ceremony was part of a familiar routine, since it marked his fourth degree from ENMU. Coss works as ENMU's director of campus life. Before Friday, Coss had earned one degree in agriculture and two in education. On Friday, he added a degree in student counseling.

Justine Lockhart, a business major, said her bachelor's degree "feels good," but she said she is going on to earn a master of business administration degree.

Another graduate, Lisa Jim, came to Portales from Shiprock to pick up her bachelor's degree diploma in social work. With a toddler in tow, she said the completion of her bachelor's degree "is a relief."

She earned the degree exclusively with online classes while holding down a full-time job.

She said she plans to continue her education in social work at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Ariz., again using online classes.