Graduates had a lot to smile about Dec. 18 during commencement at the Colorado Convention Center. 

 Office of Marketing Communications

As 2004 ended the downtown Denver campus celebrated as about 675 graduates saw their educational careers conclude and began the new year with a new vision and greater opportunities.  At the Colorado Convention Center on Dec. 18, Linda deLeon, GSPA professor and commencement marshal, welcomed graduates to the next chapter of their lives.

“As the year draws to a close, we rejoice in the connections that link us to family and friends,” deLeon told graduates and guests. “We savor our achievements and look forward to the challenges that lie ahead.”

DeLeon stressed that as grads continue their journey in the world, there is plenty of work to be done. “We need never weep, as did Alexander, that there are no worlds left for us to conquer.”

The two-hour ceremony was broadcast worldwide on the web so the UCDHSC International College in Beijing, China, as well as Western Slope graduates and  other graduates and relatives unable to make the trip could revel in the pomp.

Chancellor James Shore welcomed attendees and introduced honorees, distinguished guests and retiring faculty and staff. President Elizabeth Hoffman congratulated attendees and read the Norlin Charge to Graduates. An address first given by former CU-President George Norlin in 1935, the charge has been at each University of Colorado commencement since then. It calls graduates into action, not as a former student of the university, but rather as its cherished son or daughter. “This exercise denotes not your severance from her, but your union with her. Commencement does not mean, as many wrongly think, the breaking of ties and the beginning of life apart. Rather it makes your initiation in the fullest sense into the fellowship of the university, as bearers of her torch, as centers of her influence, as promoters of her spirit.”

More than 1,000 students graduated from the UCDHSC downtown Denver campus in December, well over half attended commencement. Eighteen faculty presenters and more than 50 downtown Denver campus and Alumni Association volunteers again helped make the event an smooth-running success.