President Sorensen calls on grads to remember days at a ‘big university’ made ‘small’

University of South Carolina President Andrew Sorensen called on graduates of the Class of 2008 to make the communities in which they will live “small” – no matter where they live.

Sorensen, who is leaving the presidency July 31, delivered the commencement address Friday afternoon, the first of three ceremonies for 2,342 bachelor’s and 947 master’s degree recipients at the Colonial Center. The university also will confer 107 pharmacy degrees, 19 certificates, 44 specialist degrees and eight associate degrees during those ceremonies.

Sorensen said the University of South Carolina has succeeded in creating a close-knit community “beyond my wildest expectations” and attributed that achievement to the fact that “all of us believe we are members of one Gamecock family.”

He cited the closeness of that family through two encounters involving students, one in which a group of students showed up at the president’s home one night and asked to borrow a cup of sugar to make sweet tea. In the other, students created T-shirts emblazoned with the words, “Andy is my home boy” – Andy having become a familiar appellation among students for the president.

“You, you and I are Gamecock family,” Sorensen said pointing to the graduates and their families and friends. “In the years that lie ahead, I pray that you will take with you the message of making a big university small and translate it into making a big community small – everywhere you live!”

The university made Paul “Pete” Dye a member of the Gamecock family by awarding him an honorary doctorate in business administration. Considered the father of modern golf architecture, Dye has designed and built golf courses in 23 states; seven of his layouts are in South Carolina.

Closer to home, the Klump family in Greenville consider themselves a “Gamecock family” in every sense of the word. When Deanna Klump saw the empty nest ahead of her, she decided to follow in the footsteps of son Allen, already at Carolina. On Friday, Mrs. Klump was awarded a master’s degree in library and information science. Her son, who wants to attend law school, will graduate Saturday with a double major in political science and philosophy.

Mrs. Klump, who earned a bachelor’s degree in 1985 in teaching from USC Spartanburg (now USC Upstate), learned this week that she will have a job as media specialist at Blue Ridge Middle School in Greenville in the fall. In typical “mom” fashion, however, she wanted to downplay her achievements.

“This is a very special weekend, and I’m very excited for Allen,” she said. “I just want to graduate and put the emphasis all on Allen.”

Her son, however, saw it differently. “I didn’t realize when she started that we’d graduate at the same time. That’s been really great. Even though I always made the Dean’s List, my mother always had better grades.”

But Saturday probably isn’t the end of commencements for the Klump family. Daughter Natanlyn will be a freshman in Sorensen’s “Gamecock family” in the fall.

Mrs. Klump said she and her husband, Kevin, are “very, very proud parents to have both children as students here.”

On Saturday, the university will hold two commencement exercises for bachelor’s- and master’s-degree students. Barbara McConnell Barrett, the newly appointed U.S. ambassador to Finland and the first woman to chair the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, will be the speaker for the 9:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. ceremonies. She will receive an honorary doctorate of human letters.

Also on Saturday, the university will award 77 doctoral degrees at a 1 p.m. ceremony at the Koger Center. Dr. Mary Anne Fitzpatrick, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, will speak.

Earlier Friday, the School of Law awarded 204 degrees, and the School of Medicine awarded 76 medical degrees, two doctoral degrees and 39 master’s degrees.