A Day of Green
Commencement / The Class of 2007

COMMENCEMENT 2007 WAS Pomona’s first in three decades to be held outdoors, offering the sunny sight of smiling graduates striding along Marston Quadrangle’s perfect turf. Approximately 370 Sagehens received their degrees.

The green theme carried beyond the scenery as President David W. Oxtoby praised the Class of 2007 for its environmental consciousness. “You took the issue of climate change and did not just watch movies and throw up your hands; instead, you analyzed College practices and proposed specific strategies to reduce our carbon footprint; you started a campus climate challenge that lowered dormitory electricity use. You laid the groundwork for other critical steps ranging from reducing water consumption to cutting the number of cars on campus,” Oxtoby said in his charge to the class.

Senior Class President Alexandra Romano offered a heartfelt talk, recalling how she didn’t come to fully appreciate Pomona until she came home from study abroad in Kenya. “Returning to the familiar campus and faces after learning so much in a different context certainly helped me see the privileged environment we are so lucky to live in here,” she said. “The major thing I started to realize was how incredible my peers are. I came back with a new respect for the familiar acquaintances a small liberal arts college provides.”

Senior class speaker Carter Kenneth Delloro was light-hearted, even as he recalled the massive wildfires that burned through the hills north of town near the beginning of the graduates’ first year, creating a “dark-red post-apocalyptic haze.” “At that point I really questioned my decision to come out to California,” he cracked.

In his keynote address, former threeterm U.S. Senator Bob Graham of Florida discussed the importance of public service and leading a life full of challenge. “Test life,’’ he said. “If you worked at a job you liked and thought you were good at it, resist the temptation to do the same thing again—challenge yourself with something new. Travel and get to know the world and its diverse cultures.”

Along with Graham, Dr. Robert E. Tranquada, M.D. ’51, chairman emeritus of the Board of Trustees of Pomona College, and Mary Patterson McPherson, president emeritus of Bryn Mawr College, received honorary degrees. The Trustee Medal of Merit was awarded to Rosemary Choate ’63, who helped initiate the popular Alumni Symposium, held each year during Alumni Weekend.