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Colby creates visionary Convocation

Inspiration for the school year came by the way of speech and song at the 2000-2001 Convocation last Friday in Founders Auditorium. Gary Colby, professor of photography, mixed a multi-media presentation, speech and a song by Bob Dylan to help convey the message, "May You Stay Forever Young." Shawn Kirshner, assistant professor of music, accompanied Colby on the piano. / photo by Jason Cooper
Inspiration for the school year came by the way of speech and song at the 2000-2001 Convocation last Friday in Founders Auditorium. Gary Colby, professor of photography, mixed a multi-media presentation, speech and a song by Bob Dylan to help convey the message, “May You Stay Forever Young.” Shawn Kirchner, assistant professor of music, accompanied Colby on the piano. / photo by Jason Cooper

by Stacey Mleczko
Features Editor

Professor of Photography Gary Colby spoke words that echoed throughout the Quad on Friday after Founders Auditorium, filled to its capacity, hosted the year’s first school-wide event.

Convocation is a tradition that sets the standard and the mood for the academic year ahead. Professor Colby, known for his speechless talents, demonstrated his other gifts as he offered them to University of La Verne students and faculty.

Colby said he graciously accepted the offer of being the 2000 Convocation speaker when the committee selected him from among all ULV faculty.

“When an institution like this one gives you the time and opportunity, I kind of feel like I need to make it worth their while. Most people forget that you have to give more, you owe your life to the institution if you accept tenure. It was extremely personal for me. As much as it was an honor I was also terribly frightened.”

He admitted that the hardest part of writing the speech was confronting a topic that applies to the entire audience.

“You’re talking to Steve Morgan, Rex Huigens, Roswitha Brooks, [and] an 18-year-old from Chino Hills. When you are faced with such a diverse audience, it is hard to address a focus. We have some very smart people here and to write a speech that applies to all is really difficult.”

Colby found his focus. At the all-school picnic in the quad following the Convocation, Colby was the center of conversation.

David Rojas, a junior theater major, was emotionally riveted by the speech. He said, “That was off the hook! Complete theater. Gary was amazing. I was almost in tears.”

Freshman diversified major, Carli Torrez said, “If you are a visual learner, he really incorporated great aspects of visualism into his speech.”

Colby admitted being a visual learner himself. He said that with that quality, ideas that evoke a picture or a song often arise. He said he built the speech by the ideas offered from one photograph.

“The young boy being passed through the barbed wires speaks on so many levels. When you look at the photograph, you can’t tell if the child is laughing, crying or indifferent. You can’t tell if anyone else is upset or not. Anything you perceive, you bring to it yourself. Your perceptions are what make that picture live.”

As his speech so consciously showed, the photograph speaks volumes on violence against one another, the separation between families and the teamwork to help someone through conflict. These three components led to the centerpiece of his speech, which was the gift of benevolent support.

In a disappointed voice, he said, “It is irresponsible to be living on this planet of accumulating wealth at this time without as full awareness that you could possibly have of the sacrifices that others make so the bread ends up on your table and then do nothing to help.”

He emphasized the importance of respect for life. “Human dignity is a thing that I see missing right now. Be accepting of difference.”

Human relationships have proven to be a popular interest among professors. Janis Dietz, associate professor of business administration, was last year’s convocation speaker. Along the same lines of Colby’s speech, she set an emphasis on the development of human relationships.

“I wanted students to walk away knowing they could accomplish anything. All parts of education are important to achieving accomplishments, but above all, even above courses, human relationships are the most important. The relationships you acquire during college are the ones that will last. They will be more memorable than a course and you can gain knowledge and accomplishments through them much longer,” said Dietz.

The ideas for the visual expression in Colby’s speech, the way it came about and fell into place was not the result of one mind but from a collaborative effort – relationships.

“It happens because there is somebody out there like Steve Biondo [music technician] around to help you get all the lights off behind the curtain to make the image look right on screen, because there is somebody like Kevin Holland [operations manager of photography] with enough skill and willingness to follow along, somebody like John Gingrich [dean of arts and sciences and professor of religion and philosophy] around to suggest that we ought to be thinking about conflict resolution. It is successful because it is a cooperative effort and our faculty is a wonderful thread of connection.”

Kristine Werthwein, a junior behavioral sciences major said, “There is a lot of beauty in everything. We need to take time out of our hectic schedules and the crap in our lives and recognize the beauty.”

Michael Houdyshell, coordinator of campus activities and commuter programs said, “It was a nice speech. It will be tough to top next year.”

Colby said he recognizes the benevolent support that he received on Friday and throughout the progress of his preparation. That support did not go unnoticed. As freshman Spanish major Kimbre Sargent said, she felt the song might have made the most impact. “If you didn’t listen to anything, hopefully you heard the song.”

Colby ended his oration not with a concluding paragraph but with words from his heart in the form of a song. In collaboration with the vocals and piano talents of Shawn Kirchner, Colby paraphrased his entire speech through the Bob Dylan song “Forever Young” with its open-ended question ‘May you stay . . .’ on everyone’s mind.

Stacey Mleczko, Features Editor
Stacey Mleczko
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Jason Cooper, Staff Photographer
Jason Cooper
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