NOTE: This web page is archived for the Class of 2003. To see the Commencement site for this year's class, click here.

Matt Dunphy
Class of 2003 Student Commencement Speaker

You know, as an actor, everyone tells me that I'm supposed to look forward to working in an arena with 22,000 people, but actually, I'm just nauseous.

::audio problems::

This is going really well so far, isn't it?

Good Morning, UMass! My name is Matt Dunphy and I am a Theater and English double Major, a 4-year member of the UMass Minuteman Marching Band, a native of Cambridge, Massachusetts and most importantly, a fellow member of the graduating class of 2003 from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. It gives me great pleasure to join President Bulger, Chancellor Lombardi, members of the UMass faculty and staff, all of you, my classmates, our parents and loved ones, as we stand on the threshold of a new beginning.

Recently, the UMass Department of Theater produced Tom Stoppard's play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, and I had the pleasure of playing the part of The Player. Now, for the 4,000 or so of you that may have missed that performance, I'd like to do a little bit of it for you today to get things started. The Player says:

“Look on every exit as an entrance somewhere else”

And really, isn't that what brings all of us together here this morning at Warren P. McGuirk Alumni Stadium for the University of Massachusetts Amherst 133rd Commencement; making an exit here and an entrance somewhere else?

The word commencement is most often associated with graduation ceremonies. By definition, the word means a beginning. And as much as this day may feel like the end, in reality aren't we really just getting started?

::phone rings::

Phone.

For the past four years (or five or six or how ever many it took) the University of Massachusetts has been our home and everyone from the dining common workers to our Gen Ed professors have been our surrogate parents. In less than an hour, we will leave this home and bid a fond farewell to our UMass family,

::crowd noise::

Beach ball.

but we will not leave as we arrived.

::more crowd noise::

I love this place.

We have been through 2 U.S. Presidents, 3 Governors, 3 Chancellors and countless changes in the University administration, to say nothing of the number of roommates. We have weathered budget cuts, and budget reallocations and more budget cuts and tuition - no, wait - fee increases. We have watched the skyline of New York City change before our eyes and with it, a change in how we view the world. We have seen U.S. foreign policy emerge as a tangible presence in our life. Yet, we have endured!

Over the past four years, much has happened at our school, in our state and our country. and the world and like everything, these events, along with our individual experiences at UMass have had an effect on who we are and how we have developed as people.

Whether you played sports or instruments, wrote for the paper, worked at the Bluewall, stage-managed a play, or even just played Nintendo and ate wings in your dorm room, (that's what I did) we are who we are today because of our time at UMass. As we exit this stadium today and enter the "real world" - whatever that may be for each one of us, we take our on new beginnings with a passion; a passion that was fostered at the University of Massachusetts. As we leave our small family here in the Pioneer Valley, we join an even larger family - the Alumni of this institution, proud of our alma mater.

I stand before you as the student speaker because I was lucky enough to be selected out of many qualified and talented applicants. The real importance of my being chosen, and standing before you, a class numbering 4,305, flanked by eleven other graduating seniors, is that today is a day about us - the class of 2003. Today is a day about all of you. My kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Cook recently passed away, and when I was graduating eighth grade she gave me a book and she had written a small inscription in it. I would like to share a piece of her inscription and part of that book with you today, because I feel it reinforces our reason for being here today. She said to "always be true to yourself and the rest would follow," and, as Walt Disney said, "if you can dream it, you can do it." The book was Oh! The Places You'll Go, and our childhood friend Dr. Seuss has this to say: "You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And You are the one who'll decide where to go."

::cheers::

That's right.

Congratulations, Class of 2003, this is OUR day. The University of Massachusetts has prepared us. They have given us our costumes and helped us rehearse our lines. This is our beautiful sweeping exit from one grand stage and our motivated, educated entrance onto an even grander stage: the rest of the world. Mister Bulger? Mister Lombardi? We are ready for our close-up. Good Luck and GO UMASS!