Over 1,000 students take part in PSU commencement

Family and friends gathered Friday in the John Lance Arena, Weede Physical Education Building, to see loved ones collect diplomas from Pittsburg State University.
Graduates in the PSU Colleges of Education and Technology graduated Friday, while those earning degrees from the Colleges of Arts and Sciences and Business will graduate in ceremonies at 10 a.m. today in John Lance Arena. Between 1,000 and 1,100 students were eligible to participate in the 2008 spring commencement.
PSU president Tom Bryant thanked the parents present for entrusting their children to the university.
“I hope you will find that trust well-founded,” he said. “Earning a university degree is not — and should not be — an easy thing, and students earning degrees have achieved much. As proud as you are of the graduates, you may be worried about their future. If we made a list of all this world’s ills, we might be tempted to give up in despair.”
However, Bryant said, he is optimistic. “These graduates are the future, and it is impossible to know them and not have hope for the future,” he said.
He advised them to “be the change you want to see in the world. Get involved in your community and your profession. Do not be a passive observer, but a force for change.”
Donna Shank, Liberal, represented the Kansas Board of Regents.
“As vice chairman of the board, I get to pick the commencements I attend, and I chose to come to PSU,” she said. “I envy all of you graduates — you are going into a rapidly changing world. My question for you is, where are the ideas going to come from for the future? I think they will come from you. PSU is a world-class university with a world-class faculty, and you have received a world-class education.”
The university presented a bachelor of science in technology posthumously to Brandon Jones, a construction management major. He died Feb. 8 following a battle with cancer. Receiving his diploma, and a standing ovation, were his parents, Melody Ann Smith and Greg Jones.
“This is almost like closure,” said Benjamin Hendrick, a close friend of Jones, following the ceremony. “In the last few months Brandon was alive, he put graduating above everything else. It was his last goal.”
He said it was commendable of the university to grant this wish. “The respect you feel here for other people is something you don’t find everywhere,” Hendrick said. “It’s what keeps me coming back.”
The PSU commencement was only one of four graduations going on for one PSU student.
“My whole family is graduating this weekend,” said Ashley Randle, Kansas City, Kan., who received her master of arts in teaching.
Her mother, Elvira Randle, is receiving her master’s degree in administration from Baker University, her father, Ricky Randle I, is getting his  bachelor’s degree in organizational management from Friends University, and her brother, Ricky Randle II, is getting his high school diploma from Sumner Academy in Kansas City.
“It’s been a lot of hard work,” Randle said, “but it feels great.”