President Bush's Speech .... Meredith Neville Speech .... Dr. Shi's Charge to the Graduates .... Sophomore Andrew Barnhill Receives Honor from President Bush .... Greenville News Coverage
 |
| President George W. Bush spoke to Furman's Class of 2008 Saturday evening. |
GREENVILLE, S.C.—The weather was perfect and a crowd of 10,000 provided an appreciative audience Saturday night as President George W. Bush spoke to Furman University’s class of 2008 in Paladin Stadium.
President Bush spoke for about 15 minutes during the university’s 182nd commencement. Sharing the stage, as well as the national spotlight, with President Bush was student speaker Meredith Diane Neville, a graduating senior from Charleston, S.C. The university awarded a total of 637 undergraduate and 14 master’s degrees.
President Bush received several standing ovations from the students, faculty and audience from the time he entered the stadium. He left after he gave his address and before degrees were awarded.
The announcement that President Bush would speak at commencement had created controversy for several weeks, both on campus and off. Fourteen of the 202 faculty members in attendance removed their academic robes to reveal “We Object” T-shirts and then stood silently in the back row of the faculty section during President Bush’s speech.
The Scholarship Cup, given each year to the graduating senior with the highest academic average, was awarded to three students — Melissa Mundy Allen of Greenville, Gregory Michael Amend of Manhasset, N.Y., and Elizabeth Caroline Cooke of Richland Center, Wis. Allen and Amend majored in Chemistry, while Cooke was a double major in English and Earth and Environmental Sciences.
All completed their college studies with a perfect 4.0 grade-point average.
The General Excellence Awards, given by the Furman faculty to the outstanding female and male student in the graduating class, were awarded to Cooke and to Peter James DeMarco of Bloomsburg, Pa., a Political Science major.
Furman also presented Alester G. Furman, Jr., and Janie Earle Furman awards for meritorious teaching and advising. The teaching awards went to Bryan Bibb (Religion) and Weston Dripps (Earth and Environmental Sciences). The advising award went to Laura Thompson (Biology).
For more information, contact Furman’s News and Media Relations office at 864-294-3107.
##########
5-31-08
Releases maintained by 
