Master of Arts candidates and your families and friends.Welcome to the year 2006 Convocation of candidates for the Master of Arts degree. This is the Graduate School’s eighth annual Convocation dedicated to the celebration of those about to receive the Masters of Arts degree from the Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. This is our second convocation in Lerner Hall, as we have outgrown the space we used in previous years. I thank all of you for joining us in this well-merited acknowledgment of the candidates’ accomplishments.

The fields of study and areas of specialization of the MAs we offer cover nearly 60 different programs. Many of you completed your MA studies in traditional disciplines such as Art History, English and Comparative Literature, Anthropology, Political Science, Chemistry, Earth and Environmental Sciences, and Statistics. Others pursued intellectual interests that defy such disciplinary boundaries, ranging from African-American studies to Biotechnology; from Curatorial studies in Modern Art to Liberal Studies in Human Rights; from Philosophical Foundations of Physics to the Mathematics of Finance; from Conservation Biology to French Cultural Studies and Japanese Pedagogy. Some of you are getting your MA en route to a PhD in the same discipline, some of you have been testing the waters for further study, while for others the MA is an end in itself and a means for immediate professional certification.

Columbia Masters holders have long made major contributions in their chosen fields, and their studies at Columbia have enriched their lives and sustained their varied and successful careers. Later in this program we will celebrate one of our illustrious MA alumni. We are proud of them, as we are proud of you.

We should also not forget to celebrate the family and friends, present or absent, who supported you as you worked towards your degree. Most of us who are here today – and I speak for myself and the faculty as well as the candidates – are here because someone close to us, usually our parents, placed an unusually high value on education and intellectual curiosity. This is a great gift, and it is fitting to recognize it at the time we recognize the achievements of the candidates. Let us have a round of applause for the families and friends of the candidates.

It is now my pleasure to introduce my colleague, Mark Cane, who will deliver today's Convocation Address. Mark Cane is G. Unger Vetlesen Professor of Earth and Climate Sciences at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and Professor of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics in the Engineering School. Dr. Cane received the BA and MA from Harvard and the PhD from MIT. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and has been awarded the Sverdrup Medal of the American Meteorological Society and the Cody Medal of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. His research interests include climate dynamics, including paleoclimate; prediction of El Niño and impacts of climate on society. We are delighted that he is speaking today because he initiated and directs the newest interdisciplinary MA program—Climate and Society—and we know a few of you from this program are here today and graduating tomorrow.

Click here to read the text of Professor Cane’s speech.

I am now pleased to present the Dean’s Award for Distinguished Achievement by an MA alumna or alumnus of the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. This award recognizes alumni of the Graduate School whose contributions to society and to Columbia are singularly notable and worthy of the highest praise. Nominations for this award are made by the Alumni Association of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

The recipient of today's Award is The Honorable Rosa L. DeLauro, who received an MA in International Politics in 1966. The citation will be read by Dr. Robert Y. Shapiro, Professor of Political Science.

Click here to read the text of Congresswoman’s DeLauro’s citation.

As you experience the next stages of your careers, we would appreciate feedback from you about what we could do even better to help you in your careers. Your continued involvement with Columbia is most welcome, especially through participation in the Alumni Association of GSAS, Laura Brown, the graduate school’s alumni relations officer, who is here today, can help you make contact. Tomorrow, following Commencement, all of you who are graduating tomorrow are invited to 301 Philosophy to receive your diploma and to be welcomed into Columbia’s Alumni Association. Besides your diploma, you will also receive a few gifts from GSAS. 

A word about the symbol on the alumni gifts that you will receive tomorrow: the “Michelangelo symbol” has been in use by GSAS since the 1950s, when it was adopted by then-Dean Jacques Barzun, one of my intellectual heroes. Some of you may have recently seen his book: “From Dawn to Decadence: 500 years of Western Cultural Life.” The symbol was used by Michelangelo in his household and on many of his drawings to signify “excellence.” Hence it is an appropriate representation of the Graduate School’s motto of “excellence within,” which you know is embodied in each of the graduates present at the ceremony today. It is shown on the pin that I will hand to all the candidates as they come up.

Before closing this ceremony, I want to express my appreciation to Beatrice Terrien, Elizabeth Doran Keromytis, and Carmen Aragon Vilardi of the Graduate School, who worked very hard to organize this event, to acknowledge and thank Laura Brown and the members of the Nominating Committee of the GSAS Alumni Association Board of Directors for their help and advice.

Will the candidates all stand so we can give them a round of applause?

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL GRADUATES!