Veritas, Vol. 41, No. 09, Summer 1999

              Veritas
Summer 1999
Volume 41 • Number 9
For the Faculty and Staff of the University of Miami
Graduates and stars share center stage at commencement
No rain plan was needed for the 18th year in a row, as the University was blessed with yet another beautiful sunny day to celebrate its graduates during the 73rd annual commencement ceremony on May 14. More than 2,300 students received their degrees along with eight distinguished individuals representing a cross-section of the arts, humanities, and sciences who were awarded honorary degrees.
The celebrities on stage heightened graduates’ enthusiasm as their screams were equally loud for their own schools as they were for the stars.
Just before pop singer Gloria Estefan, a member of the Board of Trustees and a University alumna, personally awarded famed salsa queen Celia Cruz an honorary degree, Cruz incited the crowd by yelling “Azuca!” into the microphone. The huge roar from the audience was matched again when music legend Quincy Jones received his honorary degree.
The keynote speech was delivered by Martin E. Marty, considered the foremost expert on religion in America.
“What university life at its best opened to you is awe before learning. There is so much still to be discovered in libraries, in the memory of our computers, in human reaction,” he said. “We take the sandals off our feet in front of the flame of possibility, of what is not yet known.”
A University of Chicago professor and author of several books on religion, Marty spoke about going barefoot figuratively and literally. “If you have learned at the University of Miami when to question the known, and when to revere discovery, and when and why to go barefoot,” he said, “and if you carry that discernment with you from here today, there is no reason for us to care whether or not you go barefoot literally.”
Marty received the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters. Honorary doctorates were conferred as follows on the seven other dignitaries:
• Colombian artist Fernando Botero, Doctor of Fine Arts;
• Political columnist David S.
Broder, Doctor of Journalism;
• Salsa performer Celia Cruz,
Doctor of Music;
• Noted author Ernest J. Gaines, Doctor of Letters;
•	Nobel laureate Alfred G. Gilman, Doctor of Science;
•	Music impresario Quincy Jones, Doctor of Music;
•	Social activist Eunice Kennedy Shriver, Doctor of Humanities.
The international celebrities were
not the only inspiring individuals at the commencement ceremony. Of campus fame, student government President Andrew Paul gave a warmhearted
Above: President Edward 77 Foote II delivers the closing remarks to the commencement audience. Left: After receiving their honorary degrees, from left-, lyrical writer Ernest J. Gaines and music moguls Quincy Jones, Gloria Estefan, and Celia Cruz applaud for the graduates at the commencement ceremony.
speech to his fellow classmates. He used the metaphor of an airport layover to describe students’ time at the University of Miami.
“We have all just disembarked on a long and exciting journey and are now waiting for your respective flights to the future,” said Paul. “I wish you health, happiness, and continued success in your future.”
Paul also prompted students to give their alma mater a proper goodbye, suggesting they take a walk around Lake Osceola and think about their years at college.
The University awarded a total of 2,373 degrees, including 1,289 undergraduate degrees, 499 graduate degrees, 480 law degrees, 148 doctoral degrees, and 137 medical degrees. When President Edward T. Foote II gave his closing remarks to the graduates, he added that the Board of Trustees had succeeded in raising $ 162 million this year.
“You have studied here during enormous institutional growth and excellence,” said Foote. “We’re very proud of you. Good luck, thanks for passing by this way, and stay in touch.”
Former professor appointed new law dean
Dennis O. Lynch, professor and dean emeritus at the University of Denver College of Law, has been named dean of the School of Law. A nationally recognized expert on Latin American law, Lynch was a member of the University of Miami law school faculty from 1974 to 1990 and served as associate dean from 1983 to 1986. He moved to Denver in 1990 to become dean of the law school there.
“Dennis Lynch is the right person to lead our School of Law into the next century,” says President Edward T. Foote II. “An experienced academic leader, he will build upon the tradition of excellence our law school has achieved during the past 71 years.” Lynch will succeed Mary Doyle, who has served as interim dean since former law school dean Samuel C. Thompson, Jr., resigned in May 1998. Doyle, who also served as dean from 1986 to 1994, will rejoin the faculty as professor of law.
“Dennis Lynch has had a close association with this law school since 1974,” says Doyle. “He loves this institution, and he will bring his considerable talent and experience to bear as dean. Our school will be in very good hands.”
Fluent in Spanish, he was a Fulbright Scholar in economics in Venezuela and a program officer with the Ford Foundation in Colombia. In
addition, he served as a consultant for the U.S. Agency for International Development on constitutional reform in Colombia, legal reform in Nicaragua, and the administration of criminal justice in Central America. From 1973 to 1977, he held an International Legal Center Research Grant to study the Colombian legal profession.
Lynch’s teaching specialties are civil procedure, employment law, and labor law. A well-known lecturer on current issues in labor arbitration, he also has been a consultant to the -Federal Trade Commission on labor antitrust
issues and a member of the boards of directors of the International Third World Legal Studies Association and the In ter-American Legal Services Association.
A 1965 graduate of the University of Oregon, Lynch holds a J.D. degree from Harvard Law School and J.S.D. and LL.M. degrees from Yale Law
Dennis O. Lynch
School. He was admitted to the bar in the District of Columbia in 1969.
His selection to head the School of Law was the culmination of an intensive nationwide search. The search committee was headed by Bernard Fogel, dean emeritus of the School of Medicine, and co-chaired by Robert Waters, professor of law. The committee included four other law professors, representatives of the law school’s alumni and student body, and a professor from the School of Business Administration.
“I look forward to this opportunity to work with the
University of Miami’s talented faculty, students, and administration,” Lynch says. “I am especially eager to meet with the law school’s alumni, to become reacquainted with many of my former students, and learn firsthand about their professional careers.”
Lynch began his new position on July 1, 1999.