'08 CU graduates head out into world

By Brittany Anas, Daily Camera

Published May 9, 2008 at 9:30 p.m.

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Photo by Joshua Lawton / Daily Camera

University of Colorado architectural design graduate Amelia Kai Kupperberg, of Rhode Island, salutes fellow graduates.

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University of Colorado graduate Wesley Ashwood will travel to Rwanda to work for Engineers without Borders.

Jessica Rieken, a theater and business graduate, is leaving for Bremerton, Wash., to help out her pregnant sister, who is seven months along.

Casen Ross, with his bachelor's in music, will join a touring quartet.

And Stephen Metzger is taking his environmental studies degree to the mountains to relax for the summer. When he enters that real world, he has pledged that he will be an environmentally responsible graduate, with a green cord lying on top of his graduation gown to symbolize that promise.

Before they disperse around the globe, thousands of CU graduates gathered as one - the Class of 2008 - Friday morning for the campuswide commencement ceremony in Folsom Stadium.

Those in attendance observed a brief moment of silence for those who could not be at the ceremony. A small plane crashed Thursday in the mountains about 40 miles west of Boulder, killing pilot Barry Maggert, who was traveling to Boulder to attend his son's graduation from CU.

The campus awarded 5,488 degrees to its students, most who enrolled at the school during a period of "intense scrutiny," said Chancellor Bud Peterson.

Four years ago, a series of controversies badgered the school - the campus had gained the reputation as a top-party school because of a Princeton Review ranking, there was an athletic-recruiting scandal and turnover of several top leaders.

Peterson, who took helm of the Boulder campus in 2006, told the graduates that he knows many of them were pestered with questions about why they chose CU.

"You had confidence in us," Peterson said. "You knew that things would get better, and they have."

Degrees will continue to go up in value, he said, and he listed the campus' accolades - including top rankings for CU's specialized graduate programs, faculty awards and a presidential award honoring CU's student body for its volunteering.

Jeanne P. Jackson - the former CEO of Walmart.com, Banana Republic and Gap Direct - delivered the commencement address, telling the students that she has learned a lot about their generation. The 1974 CU graduate - now the general partner of MSP Capital, a consumer goods strategy and investment firm she founded - said the graduates prefer plain front pants to ones with pleats.

They are also blunt, confident and savvy, Jackson said.

"You want meaning in what you do," she said. "I love your generation."

CU President Bruce Benson, whose candidacy drew controversy this spring, began delivering his address over some boos coming from the sea of students.

Benson gave them mantras to live by: "You can accomplish a lot more if you don't worry about who gets the credit."

"Try to listen more than you talk."

"Treat everyone with respect."

And then he squeezed in what sounded like a pitch for donations: "Be generous with your time, and when you can, your money. And remember your alma mater."

CU honored a half-dozen people with honorary degrees, including Sister Helen Prejean, who began her prison ministry in 1981 and is the author of the book Dead Man Walking.

Before the students flipped their tassels to indicate their newfound graduate status, they stirred in their seats.

A business graduate popped a bottle of champagne and sprayed others in the crowd. Beach balls volleyed throughout the seats. And cell phones were attached to students' ears as they tried to connect with their parents to relay their exact latitude and longitude in Folsom Stadium.

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