Professors enthusiastic about student name-calling
By Mike
Flanagan
 |
| Thomas
Russell | |
June 2, 2004 — For a typical graduate, the best part of
commencement is the commencing. Pep talks are inspiring, pomp is a
great circumstance, but mostly it’s all about picking up that piece
of paper when your name is called.
But for the person whose job it is to call grads to the stage,
the list of names can be a minefield of silent letters, unexpected
inflections and baffling consonant combinations. At DU, the task of
calling names falls upon Dennis Barrett, associate professor of
biological sciences, and Thomas Russell, professor of law.
Barrett has been calling undergraduate and graduate names since
1978. He earned the name-calling honors by “shooting off his mouth”
about how he could improve on the practice. The next year, he got
the call.
“It comes at the end of a ceremony, and people are getting tired.
You have to get the name right and move the agenda. The more people
have their diplomas, the more relaxed and rowdier the crowd
becomes,” he says.
Barrett works from the card each graduate presents to him.
Invited notations by the grads to indicate pronunciation sometimes
clarify, but often confuse the issue. He is also well aware of
intricate sensibilities. “For instance, if you have a rich Italian
name and you give it a rich Italian pronunciation, the graduate may
like it, the parents will hate it and the grandparents will love
it.”
This week, Barrett will call between 700 and 800 names in both
the undergraduate and graduate ceremonies. When contrasting his
style against that of Russell, who has about half of the territory
to cover at the College of Law, Barrett quips that “he takes his
time, about 7 seconds per name. I take three.”
When Russell arrived from the University of Texas in 2001,
tradition thrust the announcing duty upon the newest faculty member.
“I felt that we failed to honor the graduates by assigning the job
to the newest hire,” Russell says. “Our graduates have worked hard
and deserve to be honored.” Russell enjoyed the duty so much that he
kept the job; now he calls the names at the two annual
ceremonies.
Russell does advance work to learn how to pronounce graduate
names, contacting the students personally if he has any doubt. His
printed copy, with around 100 names in winter and four times that in
spring, is filled with pronunciation notations. Russell contacts the
students personally if he has any doubt. The prep pays off. When
Lisa Mari Mochizuki received her degree, her mother thanked Russell
for being the first to pronounce her daughter’s name correctly in a
public ceremony.
Still, there is room for levity. Each law graduate hands Russell
a card with his or her name printed on it. If the graduate writes
the initials “LW” on it, then Russell has permission to say their
names as the Colorado Rockies announcer might say “LAIR-eeeee
WALL-kerrr!!!!” Last year, Melissa June Walker handed Russell her
card and whispered, “Go for the gold!”
Both Barrett and Russell take the dignity of the moment
seriously, but realize the value of humor in the most formal of
situations. “I look forward to it,” says Russell. “I have a nice
Stanford robe I like to wear.” Adds Barrett, “My job is to make the
student feel they have gotten individual treatment, to maintain the
dignity of the University and to get us out of there before anyone
has a stroke.”
| 
