UMUC - Asian Division - Mason G Daly - Far East Commencement Greetings - March 24 1958 - Tokyo

Asia;Hoffmann, RosemaryGreetings Commencement Ceremony, Dr. Mason G. Daly, Director [Far East] Division, University of [Maryland] Overseas Division, Tokyo, Japan, March 24, 1958 The commission to extend greetings to this assemblage on behalf of the Far East Division of the University of Maryland Overseas Program, happily falls to me. We all know this division in Maryland’s world wide educational venture is the youngster, the new one; but those of us in it do not feel of another generation, we know we are quite dry behind the ears, we may have gotten started ten years late, but that does not mean we are a decade behind. We are, in fact, feeling very important today, sure that we have emphatically made our mark, confident that we deserve a full measure of attention. We are insistent that the size of our graduating class is not small, but startlingly large, and we have been insistent that the event getting underway here today must measure up to the significant number of significant men who are being honored. This audience has assembled, I am sure, out of shared interest and effort, out of pride, and out of curiosity. Many of you are men and women who have worked directly with us and our students in your education services, you have invested time and energy in unmeasured quantity, and you have come to see an especially dramatic result of your cooperative effort. Others of you who have shared in the effort have perhaps come to collect some of the psychic pay that a teacher takes as part of his reward. You are the large number of lecturers who have bolstered our teaching staff and helped make this program possible. There are many commanding officers, from Generals and Admirals to company and wing commanders, there are fellow students, and there are the wives and children of these graduating men, all here in large number, all taking pride in their relationship with these men. And, there are many others present who are not immediately involved or closely acquainted with the graduating group or with dignitaries appearing here. Many of you are Japanese who have come to observe this American ceremony taking place in your midst. Your press, radio and television are here and they will bring this event to the attention of still more people in the Orient. You are all welcome, indeed. You are going to observe a traditional ceremony with is also unique. It is traditional in that it is being conducted in the same spirit and with the same procedures that hundreds of commencement are staged annually in the United States. I tis unique in locale, it is unique in the personnel of its graduating class (at least in terms of their age level and accumulated off-spring), and it is certainly a unique representation of an advance in university educational philosophy, a philosophy with now permits, even expect, a university to reach mature and deserving students wherever in the world they may be. We were asked one day this fall, and not too facetiously, when we expected to set up classes on the far side of the moon. I suppose the replay must be: as soon as the requirement exists, and as soon as the conditions up there are correct (those conditions may have to include a big boost in the oxygen supply when college professors report in for action). I won’t dare anyone present to say that Maryland on the Moon is too wild a dream. However, it will be enough today to contemplate the significance of this American event in this place, to contemplate the significance of this American even this this place, to contemplate the fact that these graduates represent a Maryland student body of many thousands here in the Far East, many more thousands in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, the Atlantic area, the State of Maryland, Washington D.C., and the Pentagon. We bid you all welcome to our commencement and to the reception which will follow