IT’S OVER FOR A BOOKISH LOT

arching, running, juggling and walking on stilts, 4,678 exuberant soon-to-be graduates entered Stanford Stadium to receive their degrees during the university's 107th annual commencement ceremonies on June 14.

After cheering wildly, tossing balls and staging a mock boxing match, members of the Class of 1998 settled down to listen to President Gerhard Casper and the commencement speaker, veteran broadcaster Ted Koppel. Casper said he would always think of the class as "los niños de El Niño," in reference to the Feb. 3 rainstorm that prompted hundreds of students to race to the university's libraries in the middle of the night to save thousands of flooded books. "A bookish lot you are in every sense of the word," Casper said.

While the ceremony was dominated by joyful students letting off firecrackers, roasting wieners and playing croquet on the grass, Koppel's speech focused on weightier matters. Koppel, A.M. '62, urged the class to work toward an ethical society. "Aspire to decency," he said. "Apply a rigid standard of morality to your lives; and if, periodically, you fail as you surely will adjust your lives, not the standards."

Provost Condoleezza Rice presented awards and this year's degree candidates. The university granted 1,754 bachelor's, 2,038 master's and 886 doctoral degrees. Included were 394 students graduating with departmental honors and 268 with university distinction, 152 students satisfied the requirements of more than one major, 65 graduated with a dual bachelor's degree, 288 graduated with both a bachelor's and a master's, and 287 students completed minors.

Casper said the Class of ' 98 had set a new record for contributing to the Senior Gift; 1,142 students, 73 percent of the class, had raised $24,591. With matching gifts, Casper said the total gift to the Stanford Fund for Undergraduate Education was more than $187,000.

107th Commencement (Plain text)

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