UNC Asheville Celebrates Class of 2015 at Spring Commencement

UNC Asheville celebrated its 87th annual spring commencement Saturday morning, May 9, on the university Quad, with best-selling novelist and distinguished alumnus Wiley Cash delivering the commencement address.

Cash received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from the university, as did Michell Hicks, principal chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. Hicks has served as principal chief since 2003, and was named 2015 Tribal Leader of the Year by the Native American Financial Officers Association.

Chancellor Mary K. Grant led the ceremony, her first commencement at the university, and expressed pride in the graduates who have “inspired us with success in the classroom, in the labs, on the athletic fields and courts, in the theater, the galleries and in the community.” Grant said, “You leave here well prepared for the opportunities and challenges ahead … we know for certain there will be plenty of both.”

Graduating senior and 2014-15 Student Government President James Whalen served as the student speaker and received a standing ovation from the 465 May graduates. Whalen, a double-major in mathematics and philosophy, spoke to the challenges and the preparation: “From this liberal arts university, we have learned to find creative solutions to new and old struggles. From this public institution, we have learned that we are inseparably linked to our fellow human beings. Taken together, we have learned that the best of human creativity and imagination is most valuable when it can be shared with all of humanity. Thus, we graduate today with a dual responsibility: first, to the unending expansion of human creativity and wisdom, and second, to the continued development of our collective social conscience.” Whalen graduates from UNC Asheville prepared to serve as a presidential intern for the University of North Carolina system, one of only three students statewide chosen for this honor.

Cash, who graduated from UNC Asheville in 2000, recalled his feelings as a student in vivid terms, describing how, during his sophomore year, he first gave himself over to writing. “It was late, probably near or past midnight, my girlfriend had just dumped me, and I was sitting at my desk over in Scott Hall working on a story about a guy whose girlfriend has just dumped him. Downstairs in the lounge, a group of my close friends were having a party, and several of them had come upstairs throughout the night to invite me down. But I never went. Something kept me at the desk in front of the computer where I was putting words on the screen. … I had fallen in love with writing. … I have never felt more like a writer than I did that Saturday night in Scott Hall.” Cash then urged the graduates to give themselves over to something they love.

“When children are young, we ask them, ‘What are you going to be when you grow up?’ And then, once those children are grown, we ask them what they do for a living,” said Cash. “As adults, we seem intent on privileging the doing over the being, and one could make the argument that we too often forget that we are human beings and not human doings.

“When we think of education, we often think of it as preparing us to do something, but an institution like UNC Asheville, which is steeped in the liberal arts, is geared toward allowing us to be something: to be enlightened, to be aware, to be involved, to be curious, to be interested, and hopefully, especially as you go into the job market, to be interesting. Today, I want you to think less about what you want to do after this morning’s commencement and more about what you want to be. … But the good news is this: That the thing you want to be, I’d be willing to bet you already are.” Cash then wished his new fellow alumni “all the success you can have and all the joy you can stand.”

Cash is the author of two novels – A Land More Kind Than Home (William Morrow, 2012) and This Dark Road to Mercy (William Morrow, 2014) – which reached the New York Times best-seller list and won numerous awards.

Additional Awards Conferred

The Manly E. Wright Award, which is presented to the student first in scholarship, was presented to Kelly Olshan, who graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with distinction in art, distinction as a University Scholar and as a University Research Scholar, and summa cum laude honors. She also served as a writing consultant at the University Writing Center for three years and as president for the student organization Art Front, and she is a member of the Phi Eta Sigma National Honors Society. As Manly E. Wright Award winner, Olshan received her degree on a silver platter.

Patrick Bahls, associate professor of mathematics, was presented the 2015 UNC Asheville Distinguished Teaching Award by last year’s awardee, Peter Caulfield, professor of literature and language. Caulfield described Bahls as an “extraordinary teacher and a prolific scholar in a variety of areas,” who has mentored many students in their undergraduate research and senior seminar projects. Though he is a professor of mathematics, Bahls also has served as chair of the Writing Intensive Committee, taught poetry classes and written a textbook on using writing to teach math. He currently serves as director of UNC Asheville’s Honors Program, where he advises and guides honors students from every discipline.

Leah Greden Mathews, professor of economics, received the 2015 Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Teaching. For more information, see the Excellence in Teaching award news release.