Campbell to Rowan Grads: Change Is Coming

It’s been a tumultuous decade at Rowan: the university has reinvented itself, with the addition of new science and education buildings, the creation of a technology park on 600 acres of new land, the founding of the new medical school and the beginnings of Rowan Boulevard, which is poised to remake downtown Glassboro.

Change is most certainly in the air.

Commencement speaker Keith Campbell, chairman of Mannington Mills, a flooring company in Salem County, and former member of Rowan’s Board of Trustees, brought that message home in his address.

“Welcome to the world of change,” he told the 2,408 undergraduates on Bunce Lawn Friday morning, after asking for a moment of silence to mark a recent change, the passing of former university president Herman James in January.

Campbell talked about the shift in America and the world after 9/11, and the upheaval in the Middle East–revolutions brought about partly by Twitter and Facebook, themselves recent inventions–as some of the most obvious changes. But he also pointed out to grads that shifts in technology, like the texts many of them were probably sending from their seats on the lawn, are fueling faster and faster changes every day.

“The world is instantaneous,” he said.

But graduates’ time at Rowan, Campbell said, has prepared them for that coming onslaught of change: in their personal lives, in their jobs, in their families, in their world.

“It isn’t easy, nor is it liked, but it is forever moving,” he said.

Michael Sands of Hackettstown, an entrepreneurship and management major, knows that change is staring him in the face.

“My life’s not going to be the same papers and tests–it’s a whole other way of life that I’m not quite sure if I’m ready for,” he said.

And while he’s sent out “thousands” of resumes in an effort to get a job, he’s only gotten a handful of calls back–a difficult prospect, given the tens of thousands of dollars in student loans he’ll have to pay over the coming years.

“It’s the best time to open a business, when you’re in a recession,” Sands said, but that debt makes it a tougher prospect. He’s hoping to open a business of his own, possibly a restaurant, but figures on at least five years before he can think seriously about that.

Sands' sentiments were reflected even on a few mortarboards, which sported "Hire Me" as often as "Hi Mom."

It wasn’t all grim reality, though–there were moments of levity throughout the ceremony. More than a few students got up and danced as the wind ensemble and choir played a pair of Chicago hits, “You’re the Inspiration” and “25 Or 6 To 4,” which featured what was probably a first, as guitarist John Demko rocked out in front of the dais.

And a group of music majors honked vuvuzelas throughout the ceremony–though they were especially loud as Robert Page, who served as special artistic adviser to the university’s choral music program, was given an honorary doctorate In music midway through.

Steve McMahon, one of the vuvuzela players, said the idea came together via a series of Facebook messages, and was at least partly inspired by a group of music department grads who took didgeridoos to the ceremony a few years ago.

“We have this tradition of doing something dumb,” McMahon joked.

Afterward, emotions ran the gamut, from fear to elation.

Ruth Jimenez of Camden said finishing her final semester and going through the ceremony was a breeze, compared to what she has coming up: a nine-week internship with Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry’s Washington, D.C., office, then a flight to London to start working on her graduate degree in international relations.

“It’s nerve-wracking, but exciting,” she said. “I’ve got some big plans coming up.”

Around her and the other graduates, Bunce Lawn was a riot of kisses and reunions and families snapping pictures, before the throng of thousands scattered across campus for the individual college ceremonies.