CDU 2024 Commencement Offers an Inspiring Moment of Sendoff to its Graduates( continued)
A dizzying number of 457 graduate candidates drawn from the College of Medicine, Mervyn M. Dymally College of Nursing, and the College of Science and Health were treated to a variety of tributes under the banner of the day’ s theme: the inspirational“ I Am No Longer Accepting the Things I Cannot Change. I Am Changing the Things that I Cannot Accept,” first uttered by Dr. Angela Davis as a call to action.
From General Counsel John W. Patton, Jr., to Commencement Address Speaker Dr. Thomas A. Parham, there was a‘ let freedom ring’ tenor. Attorney Patton invoked the need for students to fulfill the mission that they had set out to achieve by attending the University, aspiring to accomplish the delivery of excellent health care for all.
Board of Trustees Chair John Backes offered personal congratulations to the graduates that reflected the many long years of service that he and his company L. A. Care Health Plan have provided to CDU. 2024 Class Speaker Gabrielle Carter echoed Dr. Davis’ call to be a catalyst for change in a personal way.
The Commencement Address that CSUDH President Dr. Thomas Parham delivered will surely be invoked by many in the audience for years to come. The address was structured as a basic, inspirational sendoff speech. But Dr. Parham’ s command of vocal rhythm, his placement of emphasis on key messaging elements, and his very essence as an African American man living in a world of challenge were so outwardly hypnotic, so positively compelling, and so fulsome in drawing attention to the theme of the day.
He emphasized the importance of the ancient Egyptian healer Imhotep, the figure on the front of the day’ s program
booklet, and his place in history. Dr. Parham noted that by now, while many people have forgotten Imhotep’ s core underlying vision, his work is still replicated throughout society sans attribution to its originator. Imhotep was a polymath, someone gifted with the brilliance to accomplish success in a wide variety of disciplines. His accomplishments were broadly pervasive.
Dr. Parham’ s command of the sermonic delivery style was very effective in this setting. He evangelized a secular message and utilized both contemporary imagery as well as underscoring the importance of the timeless adage of success as a leader giving their all to the commitment to making change. In that regard, he recalled the lessons that he learned from the teachings of the great Dr. Frantz Omar Fanon, the French Afro-Caribbean psychiatrist, political philosopher, and Marxist from the former French colony of Martinique.
In evoking Fanon, Dr. Parham revealed his roots as a psychologist who embraced the principles of mental emancipation espoused beginning in the 1960s onward within the Black Liberation movement. In one’ s commitment to making change, it is necessary to synthesize opposites. Ideas are the substance of behavior. Unlock conceptual incarceration, he prescribed. Passion is effective but is most relevant when linked with purpose. Find hope in the midst of despair.
How ironic it is that CDU hosted the Fanz Fanon Center on campus during the University’ s formative years as a major center of Black political thought in this country.
CDU College of Medicine | PG. 11