Commencement 2006

Rain on Commencement day usually means an indoor ceremony, but not when it arrives two hours ahead of when Doppler radar says it will and graduates are already processing to Bentley lawn.

Allegheny graduated 413 members of the Class of 2006 on May 14. The rain may have caused temporary discomfort, but you wouldn't have known it from the graduates, who beamed every bit as brightly as if the day had been one of Meadville's sunniest.

Starting what is hoped will be a new tradition, graduates processed through the Tippie Alumni Center at Cochran Hall to acknowledge that by the end of the day's ceremony they would have a new status: alumni of the College.

Allegheny recognized noted arts educator Barbara Walton with the doctor of education degree, honoris causa. "Today, Allegheny College recognizes not only a well-respected educator and friend of the College but also a mother whose enthusiasm for educating and nurturing children has won her admirers throughout our region," said Assistant to the President for Institutional Diversity Terrence Mitchell as he presented Walton to receive the degree.

Walton has served Cleveland area schoolchildren for more than 29 years, most recently as the principal of the Cleveland School of the Arts.