Hard year, also amazing year

Anne Burke: take risks

Justice Anne Burke, an Illinois Supreme Court Justice, gave a worthy challenge to our graduates today. Last night, she told me she was going to encourage the graduates always to take risks, and she did. The message got through. It was clear that several students were thanking her just a bit later as they were walking across the stage and she was shaking all their hands. Read her complete text, and see lots of photos and video of the UIS commencement on the UIS web site.

I also thought student speaker Denean Vreeland was terrific. Her enthusiasm was evident all day long, as the video indicates. And now she'll be teaching math at a high school. What a great story!

Why I love commencement

This is commencement weekend. I love going to the ceremony for one simple reason: I see so many happy people, especially happy students, who have achieved something significant. All around the convention center are smiling faces. Big smiles. Whatever angst I might have been feeling in recent weeks always melts away when I see those faces and watch people celebrating these accomplishments. I posted a few pictures from last year's ceremony on Flickr; you can see them here. And you can watch this year's ceremony on a live webcast at 2 pm Saturday, May 10. What a great time of year!

Favorite professors, and awards

Everyone who goes through college has a story to tell about a favorite professor. Mine was an economics professor in the 1970s who used "multimedia" TV screens before anyone used that word. He also would read from biographies, and poetry, during his lectures "just because I thought it is interesting." He was interdisciplinary all by himself at the University of Missouri, and his biggest lesson was: Education is not about what you know, but what you can figure out. This man was also deaf and could handle large lecture halls and small classrooms equally well. His name was John Kuhlmann.

UIS honored its own top faculty members of the year this week at a very upbeat ceremony. Hats off to the great teachers we have!