CCU honors largest fall graduating class
Commencement speaker Edgar L. Dyer, longtime CCU professor and administrator, spoke about the importance of universal public education in the advancement of free and civil societies.
"I have been fortunate to work for the past 38 and a half years in one of the three professions that are privileged to wear the robe," he said. "They are the clergy, the judiciary and academia. All three wear the robe to de-personalize the job that all three perform, which is to seek the truth and to deliver it with intellectual honesty…. In my lifetime, however, all three of these professions have become increasingly politicized and partisan, with a predictable erosion of intellectual honesty. I sincerely hope that this phenomenon will subside. Too much is at stake for it to continue. Nothing is more precious to a free society than the objective seeking and speaking of the truth without fear or favor or politically partisan motivations."
Dyer joined CCU's political science faculty in 1976. In addition to his teaching duties, he has held many key administrative positions including university counsel, interim director of athletics, interim dean, vice president of university relations, and executive director of the Coastal Educational Foundation. Since 2007, he has served as CCU's executive vice president and chief operating officer. Dyer is retiring in July 2015.
Graduating student Aleksandar Dimkovikj received the President's Award for Academic Achievement, which recognizes students with the highest cumulative grade point averages. Dimkovikj, who earned bachelor's degrees in biochemistry and marine science, achieved a perfect 4.0 grade point average.
The family of the late Kate Eason, a CCU nursing student who died in November, accepted a bachelor's degree in nursing that was awarded posthumously at the ceremony.