THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Tuesday, May 14, 1974
Graduation: A new start fo
Walking up and down the serpentine lines
outside of Crisler Arena on Graduation Day, one
was struck by more than the awesome size of
the University's student body. After all, what
has plagued every undergraduate for four years
would not magically disappear at the end.
More surprisingly, b u r i e d underneath the
judicious black robes, rented for a few hours
from Moe's Sports Shop or Tice's, were many
formerly-blue-jeaned and tee-shirted friends,
those with whom one had joined to rail against
tradition and to major in iconoclasm. All of us
were supposed to have told our parents not to
come, because we weren't bothering to attend
ourselves; and there we stood, all-too typically,
ending our college careers waiting in line.
One protestor, standing atop the tunnel en-
trance to the arena, repeatedly taunted the
participants for attending the ceremony, not for
themselves but for their parents. But with the
costs of education what they are, who was to
begrudge them this bit of satisfaction? Many,
however, attended for more personal reasons
as well. For graduation, the ceremony and the
event, represents hundreds of individual water-
sheds, the caps and gowns
flowering of a four-year fa1
With the job situation bleak
thing else more ominous tl
tremely easy to jettison colle
celebrate with the old folks
had vowed to avoid. Besides,
to be highlighted by another
President of the United State
For anyone still not suit
prospect of the "real" woriq
Jerry Ford's visit to Ann N
jolted him into harsh recog
as a homecoming of sorts,
,was only one brief stopover
tour around the country, as
tinuing series of White Houst
apologists. His speech, a lat
graduates of the countless ho
in chemistry lectures, cony
well-chosen and often-retread
Watergate; and while close
any revelations, revealed n
noteworthy was the context5
tered; for the Vice-Presidea