New Recreation Center Challenges Students to Greater Heights ...

On May 11, Colorado School of Mines granted the largest numberof bachelor’s degrees in the School’s history. Spirits remainedjubilant throughout the two-and-a-half-hour ceremony, despitean almost cloudless sky and the mercury climbing to almost 90degrees Fahrenheit.Festivities had begun the evening before at the Graduationand Alumni Banquet, which had been planned for the GreenCenter’s Friedhoff Hall, but had to be moved to Volk Gymnasiumto accommodate the 550 guests who registered. A surprise visitfrom Colorado Governor Bill Ritter kicked the evening off with anexciting start. Repeating some of the themes from his March visitto campus, he congratulated graduates on their achievementsand remarked on the key role Mines plays in the modern world,particularly in energy.The keynote speaker for the evening was Stephen Bechtel,chairman (retired) and a director of Bechtel Group. Echoing someof the governor’s ideas, he spoke of the critical role applied scientistsand engineers play in modern society. Bechtel went onto identify three key factors that will keep this year’s graduatesbusy in the coming decades: displacing dependence on foreignoil with environmentally sensitive energy solutions; mitigatingthe risk of natural disasters in a world made fragile by dependenceon technology and complex systems; and the massive demandsof “a Third World that wants to move toward a First World2007standard of living.”CommencementGov. Bill RitterBy Nick Sutcliffe24 Spring/Summer 2007