Twin Peaks, a Day in the Sun

For the first time in the College's 227-year history, two undergraduates tied for the honor ofvaledictorian. Both Daniel Fehlauer, a physics and German literature major, and J. Brooks Weaver, a physics and religion major, delivered valedictory addresses at June's Commencement (The difference between the 3.99 grade-point averages was a mere 00026455, atleast casting doubt over the claim that science majors earn lower CPAs than the humanities majors.)

It was a perfect day for the pair to speak. The sun was shining as a crowd of 10,000 parents and friends vied for 8,000 chairs lined out row on row along the Green. (Those without ended up under the trees in front of Dartmouth Hall, thankful for the shade.) The 1,035 undergraduates and 428 advanceddegree recipients guzzled water bottles and fanned themselves with programs in attempts to stay cool. Graduates in what is becoming tradition—came decorated with flowers, Hawaiian leis, and painted mortar boards.

Fehlauer drew inspiration from the College's motto "Vox Clamantis in Deserto." We have lost the courage, he told his classmates, to be this dissenting voice. Echoing themes in President James Freedman's address (see Presidential Range), Fehlauer urged the graduates to speak boldly, and to lead deliberate lives that will inspire others. "But before you can do this," he said, "you have to challenge everything that's been taught to you. Hunger for the truth, search for her, and she will reveal herself to you. Know what you believe and why you believe it." Fehlauer will spend next year in Germany on a Fulbright teaching assistantship.

Weaver invited the audience to view life without artificial boundaries. "Commencement is not the simple closing of another chapter in our lives," he said. "It is an opportunity to tie that chapter in a significant way to those which preceded it. It is a celebration of the fact that, despite the circumstantial upheavals we encounter in our lives, the continuous thread of self-identity, though often obscured, is never broken."

Commencement speaker Paavo Lipponen '64, the prime minister of Finland, kept his message short and to the point: American involvement in Europe is still needed to guarantee political stability. "Finland is ready to shoulder an even greater responsibility for peace and stability around the Baltic Sea," he said. "But it takes NATO, the United States, and Russia, too, to create a genuine security community."

With such weighty matters as a backdrop, the ceremony had its private moments, too. As the graduates' names were read, several groups of parents released helium balloons into the air, so that their sons and daughters could pick them out in the crowd. "I was watching one of my students come up to receive her diploma and she was fighting back tears," says English professor Lynda Boose. "These students have one of the most intimate associations with Dartmouth that I've ever seen. lean't believe their four years went by so fast."