Some words for graduating CS majors (and their families) in the class of 2020 (#1073)

Topics/tags: Speeches, Grinnell, Grinnell CS, N3rd

On Monday, 18 May 2020, we had a graduation event for Grinnell’s CS seniors [1]. It was a bit different than normal.

Traditionally, we conduct three separate events associated with the end of our CS majors’ Grinnell careers. We have a celebration of CS seniors at Relish [2]; we conduct the Pledge of the Computing Professional for interested students (not only CS majors but also those intending careers in computing), most frequently immediately after Baccalaureate; and we have a breakfast for our seniors and their families on the morning of commencement.

This year, we crammed all of that [3] into a short thirty-minute ceremony. As happens all too frequently, I got asked to be the master of ceremonies. Stuff related to social events often seems to be my responsibility.

I’m not great at speaking off the cuff [4]. I always forget something that I intended. So I’m trying to put my words down in bits in advance, in the hope that I’ll remember, that I’ll get things right. Fortunately, I have a speech from 2018 available [5] as a starting point. I’m not sure what I’ll keep, what I’ll discard, what I’ll rework. But I need to get something down [6]. Next year, if I do this again, but in person, I’ll need to refer back to the earlier notes; there’s much I removed.

Here goes.

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Part one: Introductory remarks

Good morning, good day, good evening, or good whatever time of day matches wherever you are.

If you haven’t done so already, please silence your mics.

I’ve posted a link to an automated transcription of this event in the chat box. I hope it will help some of you. I should warn you that it will do particularly poorly on names.

Thank you all for joining us: 2020 grads, 2019.5 grads, parents, grandparents, siblings, other family members, friends, faculty, zoombombers, everyone. I’m Sam Rebelsky, one of the faculty in Grinnell’s CS department, and I’ve been tasked with giving the opening and closing remarks for this, our insufficient attempt at celebrating our graduates.

I should let you know that there are approximately five parts to our ceremonies. As in many exams, you will find that the different parts of this ceremony require different amounts of time and carry different weights.

Part one: I will begin with some opening remarks. It appears I’ve begun those already, but there are more to go.

Part two: Professor Jerod Weinman, Chair of the Computer Science Department, will announce the recipients of the department’s two awards. Chair Weinman will also announce those graduates who, through their demonstrated commitment to the discipline and the department and their strong academic performance at Grinnell and in the department, have received honors in computer science.

Part three: We will conduct the Pledge of the Computing Professional Ceremony. Professor Weinman will lead us in that pledge. While we hope that many of our graduates will choose to participate, you should not feel obligated to do so.

Part four: I will make a few announcements. What good is a celebration without a few announcements?

Part five: I will make some concluding remarks. I apologize in advance for speaking so much; that appears to be my role in the department.

We hope to get you out of here by about 9:30 a.m. Central Daylight Time so that you have sufficient time to line up or otherwise get ready for Grinnell’s Commencement. I hope it’s more than the twenty-second video clip I saw for my own graduate.

Back to part the first, I have some remarks that I will address remarks primarily to our graduates.

Thank you for much for joining us in this celebration. My real thanks are for all that you have brought us in the time you’ve been at Grinnell, both physically and remotely. Individually and collectively, you have done so much for Grinnell, for the department, and for each other. We appreciate the grading, the mentoring, the tutoring you’ve done; the resources you’ve created; the phone and Web apps you’ve developed; other software, too: libraries, scripts, programs large and small; the papers and articles, poems and books you’ve written; the outreach you’ve joined and led; the social events you’ve developed or joined; the feedback you’ve given. We also appreciate your performances on the athletic field, on the stage, in your creations. And there’s so much more; if I tried to list all of your accomplishments, we’d still be here tomorrow, and I still wouldn’t be done. So let me just say, thank you for being you.

Many of you are double majors and that you have brought concepts from those other majors to our department. If I count correctly, your class includes double majors with thirteen other disciplines. In alphabetical order, they are Anthropology, Biology, Biological Chemistry, Chemistry, Economics, German Studies, GWSS, Mathematics, Music, Physics, Political Science, Sociology, and Studio Art. Not a bad set of subjects! (And sorry if I missed any.)

I hope that most of you chose CS because you found something you loved about the field, and not for the reasons we’ve heard from Kumail Nanjiani ’01, who said something like I majored in CS for my parents. I majored in Philosophy for myself. Flipping the count, I don’t know what to make of the fact that fully half of this year’s eight graduates in Music are also CS majors.
Clearly the disciplines share something; a love of patterns or of creation, perhaps?

I don’t intend to prioritize our double majors. We appreciate our single-majors just as much. We’ve particularly valued the ways that the single major has permitted you to do more in the department and to explore a wide variety of other topics.

In any case, we are thankful for all of you. We are very sorry that your senior year has had to end remotely and that we could not be together in person for the three events we have combined into today’s celebration.

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Part two: Awards and honors

Jerod Weinman will present the department awards and honors.

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Part three: Pledge of the Computing Professional

Jerod Weinman will lead us in the Pledge of the Computing Professional ceremony [7].

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Part four: Announcements

Thank you, Prof. Weinman, for that excellent ceremony.

I am not sure whether or not everyone else is aware, but this year marks the conclusion of Prof. Weinman’s term as Chair of the Computer Science department. Next year, I will return as chair. You can consider yourselves fortunate to have avoided the chaos that will once again reign in our department. In any case, can we please thank Prof. Weinman for his excellent service as chair in a time of complexities and continued growth. Please unmute your mics, applaud, and silence your mics.

We are saying goodbye to many seniors. We also have two other important goodbyes to say.

[Those goodbyes should not necessarily be public, so I have removed them.]

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Part five: Final remarks

If you’ve been keeping track, we are now at part five, the final part of the ceremony.

Let me begin with a comment to the parents and families here. Thank you so much for sharing your children, your grandchildren, your siblings with us. I know that I speak for all of my colleagues when I say that it has been a true privilege to teach them and to watch them grow. We wish that we could have celebrated their achievements with you in person.

Let us now return to a few final comments to the graduates.

We wish you the best in the many careers you choose. I’ll remind you that there are many things you can do with a CS degree. While we have many graduates in the computing industry, we also have graduates who are helicopter pilots, physicians, documentary filmmakers, fund raisers, and professional comedians. Please do not feel constrained by your major.

I must also remind you once again that computing technology has great power, power to change the world. As technologists, you have responsibility to think about the technologies you build or contribute to. I hope that our conversations at CS table, in our classes, and in the hallway have gotten you to think more about the risks of computing and your own relationship to those risks.

While we are sorry to see you go, we also revel in knowing that you are going on to new and exciting things. Please drop us a note from time to time to let us know how and what you are doing.

Take care and be well.

Now get out there and graduate!

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At that point, we were officially done. Most of us stayed on the video chat, looking awkward or exchanging a few comments.

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Postscript: While I would have much preferred to see our students in person and to snack on the overpriced carbs from catering services [8], I can say that I did appreciate not having to attempt social graces with parents and families. I seldom know what to say to them, except Thank you for sharing your offspring with us; it was a delight to have them here. It’s true, but it’s not very deep. Those conversations remind me that, deep down, I remain a true introvert.

We would also have had more people in person. I was sorry that we were missing about half of our majors. We also only seemed to have a few family members. Sad. But we’re always missing some of our majors, sometimes because they have competing graduation breakfasts, sometimes because they are too busy with other things. In the latter case, we occasionally get parents, but not their children.

In any case, I hope to celebrate this class in person in a year or five.

Congratulations graduates!

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Postscript: Here’s the automated transcript (or at least the transcript of my parts), as created by Otter.AI. Isn’t AI wonderful?

Good morning Good day. Good evening or good whatever time of day it is matches wherever you are.

If you haven’t done so already, please silence your mics. I’ve posted a link to an automated transcription of this event in the chat box. I hope it will help some of you. I should warn you that, like all automated transcription systems they will do particularly poorly on names.

Thank you so much for joining us, 2020 grads 20 19.5 grads parents, grandparents siblings, other family members, friends, faculty zoom bombers, everyone.

I’m Sam Rebelsky, one of the faculty in LCS department, and I’ve been tasked with giving the opening and closing remarks for this. Our insufficient attempt at celebrating our graduates.

Can you move to the next slide Jared [9].

Okay, I should let you know there are approximately five parts to our ceremonies, and as in many exams, you will find the different parts of the ceremony require different amounts of time and carry different weights. In part one, I will begin with some opening remarks. I guess I’ve done that already. There are more to go.

In part two. Professor Jared Weidman chair the computer science department will announce the recipients of the department’s two awards, Chairwoman [10] will also announce those graduates who, through their demonstrated commitment to the discipline and to the department, and through their strong academic performance at Grinnell and the Department have received honors in computer science.

Ah, I can’t write.

In part three, we will conduct the pledge of the computing professional ceremony. Professor Weinman will lead us in that pledge. While we hope that many of our graduates will choose to participate, you should not feel obligated to do so.

Part Four, I will make a few announcements. What good is the celebration without some announcements. Oh, I guess i’m saying farewells, they’re close enough two announcements.

Part Five I’ll make some concluding remarks. I apologize in advance for speaking so much that appears to be my role in the department.

We hope to get you out of here by 9:30am Central Daylight Time, so you have sufficient time to line up for Grinnell his commencement, or otherwise get ready for Cornell’s commencement.

I saw a 22nd [11] video clip from my own graduate I hope you get more than that.

So I guess back to part the first opening remarks. I will address my remarks primarily to our graduates. Thank you so much for joining us in the celebration.

However, my real thanks for all of you. You have brought us in your time you’ve been at Grinnell, both physically and now remotely individually and collectively, you’ve done so much for Grinnell for the department, and for each other. We appreciate the grading, the mentoring, the tutoring you’ve done the resources you’ve created the phone and web apps you’ve developed other software to libraries scripts programs, large and small, the articles and papers poems and books you’ve written the outreach you’ve joined in lead the social events you’ve developed are participated in the feedback you’ve given.

We also appreciate your performances on the athletic field on the stage in your creations. There’s so much more. If I tried to list all of your accomplishments we’d still be here tomorrow morning, and I still wouldn’t be done.

So let me just say thank you for being you.

Many of you are double majors, and you have brought concepts from those other majors to our department. If I count correctly, your class include double majors with 13 other disciplines in alphabetical order. Their anthropology biology biological chemistry chemistry economics German studies, gender women’s and Sexuality Studies, mathematics, music, physics, political science, sociology and study art. Not a bad set of subjects. I’d also apologize if I missed any.

I hope that most of you chose CFX [12] because you found something you loved about the field, and not for the reason we’ve heard from Camille nanjiani oh one that stood on the graduation stage and said something like, I majored in CS for my parents, I majored in philosophy for myself.

Returning to the double majors, I would like to note that fully half of this year’s eight graduates in music are also CS majors. Clearly disciplines share something. Is it a love of patterns or a love of creation, perhaps, I’m not sure.

Of course I don’t intend to prioritize our double majors. We appreciate our single majors just as much. We particularly valued the ways that the single major has permitted you to do more in the department, and to more widely explore a variety of topics.

In any case, we are thankful for all of you. We are very sorry that your senior year has had to end remotely. And then we could not be together in person for the three events we’ve combined in today’s celebration.

Those are my opening remarks, Professor Jared Weidman will now present the departmental awards and honors. And I will attempt to mute myself.

[Material elided.]

[Sam fails to unmute himself.]

Thank you Professor Weinman for that excellent ceremony. I’m not sure whether or not everyone else is aware, but this year marks the conclusion that Professor Wyman’s term is chair of the computer science department trying to figure out how to unmute himself. Oops.

[Sam unmutes himself.]

I know, am I unmuted now. Yeah. Sorry.

Thank you Professor Wyman for that excellent ceremony and for reminding me that I was still muted. I’m not sure whether or not everyone else is aware, but this year marks the conclusion of Professor onehans term is chair of the computer science department. Next year I will return this tear, you can consider yourselves fortunate to avoid the chaos that will once again reign in our department. In any case, Can we please thank Professor Wyman for his excellent services chair in a time of complexities and continued growth. Please unmute your mics applaud and silence your mics.

Thank you.

We are saying goodbye to many seniors, but we also have two very other very important other goodbyes to say.

[More stuff elided.]

If you’ve been keeping track. We are now at part five the final part of the ceremony, who Jared put up a slide and everything a lot a bit begin with a comment to the parents and families here.

Thank you so much for sharing your children, your siblings your grandchild and whatever they are with you. I know I speak for all of my colleagues when I say that it’s been a true privilege to teach them and to watch them grow, We wish we could have celebrated their achievements with you in person.

We will now return to a few more comments to the graduates.

We wish you the best in whatever careers you choose. I’ll remind you, there are many things you can do with a CS degree. While we have many graduates in the computing industry. We also have graduates who are helicopter pilots physicians documentarians fundraisers, and even professional comedians. Please do not feel constrained by your major.

I must also remind you once again the computing technology has great power, power to change the world. As technologists, you have responsibility to think about the technologies you build or contribute to. I hope that our conversations at CES table in our classes, and in the hallway, have gotten you to think more about the risks of computing and your own relationships to those risks.

While we are sorry to see you go. We also rebel [14] in knowing that you are going on to new and exciting things. Please drop us a note from time to time to let us know how and what you are doing.

Take care and be well. Now get out there and graduate.

Hey, that wasn’t so bad. It seems better than when it’s doing a typical faculty meeting. But it doesn’t like CS. I wonder why.

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[1] There was also the posting of the Grinnell Commencement Video. CS preferred a more synchronous event.

[2] Since Relish is closing, this was to be our last year of having the celebration there. I’m not sure where else in town would hold all of our department and let us take over the place.

[3] Except for the food.

[4] I’m not good at speaking in cuffs, either.

[5] I don’t know what happened to 2019.

[6] More precisely, I needed to get something down. I recorded my intent in this musing, gave the speeches, and then posted a slightly modified version of the musing.

[7] Jerod did the transition.

[8] Also CS.

[9] Even the AI fails to spell Jerod’s name correctly. So sad.

[10] Chair Weinman -> Chairwoman. Fascinating.

[11] Twenty-second -> 22nd.

[12] ????

[14] It seems somehow appropriate that revel became rebel.

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Version 1.0 of 2020-05-18.