Florida Memorial College - Arch Yearbook (Miami, FL)

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Involvement and Service •WP Mr. Charles Dai Fraternity with ley and Dean A. Chester Robi Helping To Make A Change. Dr. Zola Sullivan, Florida International University Professor, shares a work and artifacts collected while on tour in Africa and Europe. Kevin Dickerson, a senior, presides over the Career Day Program. Mrs. Erma Williarr Career Placement Director, looks on approvingly. Metro Officers stand by to give informatio on Career Day, 1983. ng law enforcement Dr. Benjamin Isom, Psychologist; Mrs. Isaac, Upward Bound Program Coordinator; and Mrs. Anna Price, Guest Speaker, share the platform with Mrs. Erma Williams, Career Placement Director, as Kevin presents other representatives from the corporate community.

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THE PRESIDENTS MESSAGE I am very pleased to congratulate you on the occasion of your graduation from Florida Memorial College. You are a special class: your success during these past four years has been paralleled by the successes of the College during the same time. Nineteen Eighty Three marks your personal commencement; it also marks the commence- ment of the institution through which you have achieved your higher education goals. Commencement means beginning. It is a rite of passage, a time to begin again. We successfully complete one event in order to begin another. You have spent four important years of your life obtaining your bachelor ' s degree in order to begin a new venture: a career, additional education or new life roles. These four years may have been difficult; you may have encountered academic or financial or personal crises; but, you achieved. You realized your potential, and now you are prepared to create a new future for yourselves. The class of 1983 is particularly important to me, because your difficulties and achievements of the past four years are reflected by the institution as a whole. Florida Memorial College has experienced its own rite of passage. It, too, has realized difficulties, has had to draw on its potential, and now is in an era of achievement. Even though one hundred and four years old, the College is commencing , beginning again, just as you are. It is preparing to create a new future for itself, just as you are! You can be proud of Florida Memorial College ' s commencement as you are of your own. The institutional goals we set, when you entered the College, have all been met and surpassed. As we commencement together in 1983, the College has successfully responded to all recommendations of accreditation committees. It has launched and completed ahead of time its $3,365 million-dollar campaign fund, the most important fund-raising attempt in its long history. Three new buildings have been added to the main campus during your life here: the new College din- ing facility, a beautiful modern dormitory, and the Dr. Susie C. Holley Religious Educational Center, which includes the first chapel built by the College since relocating in Miami. You can also be proud of Florida Memorial College ' s commencement, as it has obtained a highly credentialed and gifted faculty: approximately 70% have doctoral degrees, surpassing our earlier goal of 65% to be achieved by the mid- 1 980 ' s. The College has established an important Honors Program to meet the needs of its specially gifted students. It has expanded its curriculum broadly and has created satellite and other campuses for a variety of students in the South Florida region. It has strengthened its main library with the accumulation of important holdings. And, significantly, it has raised funds to support its endowment program, creating a financial base for its future. Commencements, however, are never just individual accomplishments. Your successful commencement was supported by families, teachers and friends. The College ' s new beginnings in 1983 are also partly the result of oth- ers ' efforts. Mr. R. Ray Goode has provided outstanding leadership as Chairman of the College ' s Executive Committee and of the funds campaign; alumni of Florida Memorial are showing new commitments to the College; Baptist churches, clergy and laity have made Donation Day the important yearly milestone in the life of the institution; and, the private sector in South Florida is supporting this College continuously. Commencement is only possible with the commitments of others. The College has helped you achieve your new rite of passage just as it has been aided by these important persons and groups to achieve its own rite of passage. Again, congratulations to this special class on its graduation! As you and Florida Memorial College commence a new future, do not forget your past. Remember the institution that helped make your commencement possible and continue your commitment to it as it, too, creates a new future. Nineteen Eighty Three can be the year in which you and Florida Memorial College together begin a new beginning of achieving the goals of our historic educational heritage.