Concordia Journal Home > Archives > November 22, 2007 issue >

Marching Forward 

It was a new way to present fall convocation, and it worked. Three relatively short fall convocation ceremonies were held on Sunday, Nov. 11, at Place des Arts, instead of two longer ones.

“The shorter ceremonies were well received by graduates, their families and staff,” said organizer William Raso. He noticed that very few in the audience left before the end.

It was Remembrance Day, and at 11 a.m., proceedings halted for the playing of the Last Post, the solo trumpet soaring out over the hushed crowd.

Raso said the big electronic screens that relay students’ names and significant data work well, and have been generating interest from the U.S.

In a warm and well-received address to the students, Michael Di Grappa recalled his own student days in the School of Community and Public Affairs and his stint as president of the Concordia University Alumni Association. He joked that now, 23 years after his convocation ceremony, he’s still at Concordia .

“The learning process at Concordia is not only in the classroom, the laboratory or the studio,” he said. “Once you have shared meals and classes, laughter and problems with fellow students, once you have together walked up the steps of escalators that aren’t working, you have formed a bond that makes all of us stronger and better able to take on the real problems the world is facing: environmental, social, economic.”

Chancellor David O’Brien expressed the same sentiment. “Together, you formed one academic village where you learned to collaborate and to value the differences of your academic peers,” he said. This diversity is a model for a world struggling to accommodate many voices.