Paul A. Volcker, head of President Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board, told Union’s newest graduates that “the abrupt downward slide in the economy may be slowing.
"With massive government spending and monetary expansion, we have headed off the kind of deep recession that faced some earlier Union College graduates. But there still is a long way to go to restore and sustain prosperity,” the former chairman of the Federal Reserve said during the College’s 215th Commencement Sunday.
A professor emeritus of International Economic Policy at Princeton, Volcker, 81, is one of history’s most acclaimed central bankers, widely credited with reining in high inflation in the 1980s with a series of courageous, if sometimes unpopular tactics, including raising interest rates.
He characterized the current big recession as "one big wake-up call. It can and must be the start of a corrective process."
His prescription fo sustaining prosperity is to "learn to save more, to invest more, to stay on the leading edge of technology. In some ways, we have to challenge ingrained habits of thinking and working… Union College has helped prepare for those changes and get us back on a better track."
Economic news aside, families and friends cheered from their seats in Hull Plaza as some 500 students received their diplomas on the walkway in front of Schaffer Library under a bright blue sky.
Volcker, who encouraged graduates to take "time to experiment, to take a risk,” received an honorary doctor of laws degree from Union Sunday.
The College awarded an honorary doctor of science degree to Martin L. Perl, winner of the Nobel Prize in physics in 1995 for his discovery of a new elementary particle, the tau lepton. Perl was nominated for the honorary degree by Jay Newman, the R. Gordon Gould Professor of Physics, and Michael Vineyard, the Frank and Marie Louise Bailey Professor of Physics.
Volcker, Perl and President Stephen C. Ainlay arrived on campus in a 1914 Duplex Drive Brougham Detroit Electric Automobile once owned by Union Professor and famed electrical engineer Charles Proteus Steinmetz.
In his remarks to the Class of 2009, Ainlay enumerated ways in which students contributed to campus and community life, from athletic and academic accomplishments to raising funds for local and global causes.
“No matter what you choose to do in the years ahead, remember that your academic lineage is a great one and your lineage beckons you to make a difference,” he said.
His single piece of advice: “Don’t take these relationships or your relationship to this College for granted. Stay in touch with … people who made a difference in your life and who care about what happens to you.”
Class valedictorian was Daniel C. Bailey of Mount Vision, N.Y., a chemistry major who begins work as a chemical development scientist at Roche Carolina Inc.
Salutatorian was Steven M. Herron of Ridgefield, Conn., also a chemistry major. After building homes in West Virginia this summer with Passionist Volunteers, Herron will begin his Ph.D. in chemistry at Stanford University.
The student speaker was Sean D. Mulkerne of Whitesboro, N.Y. A political science major, he will pursue a Masters of Science in global politics at the London School of Economics and Political Science after graduation.
“Union College is exactly what you make of it,” Mulkerne said. “Each individual has the opportunity to shape the College into something that excites and challenges them… Indeed, life is exactly what you make of it.”
Sunday was particularly special for Leslie H. Bernstein and his family. Fifty-five years after he attended Union, Bernstein joined his granddaughter, Julia ‘09, in receiving his diploma. Bernstein, of New Rochelle, N.Y., left Union before completing his degree to attend the University of Louisville School of Medicine Health Science Center, where he received his medical degree in 1958.
Each year, the College awards bachelor's degrees to alumni whose study at Union was cut short, in many cases because of military service. To be eligible, alumni must have completed at least three years at Union, received an advanced degree and attained distinction in their field, and they must not have a bachelor's from another institution. Since 1990, more than 40 alumni have received their bachelor's degrees through this program.
Bernstein ‘55 attended the ceremony to see his granddaughter graduate, but his son, Leonard (Julia’s father) and other family members surprised him with a cap and gown Sunday so he could receive his long-awaited bachelor of science degree. In addition to Bernstein, a gastroenterologist with Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx, and his granddaughter, Julia, son Paul ’82, and his wife, Tamara DiNolfo ’83, are also members of the Union family.