Office of the Chancellor

Chancellor Ron Elsenbaumer’s 2025 Commencement Address

May 14, 2025

Good afternoon, everyone. Please remain standing as you are able. We will open the 2025 Commencement Ceremony of Purdue University Fort Wayne with the National Anthem performed by Jack Oberley, who is graduating today with a Bachelor of Music in the College of Visual and Performing Arts. He is accompanied by the Purdue Fort Wayne Symphonic Wind Ensemble, under the direction of Dr. Daniel Tembras, Professor of Music and Director of Instrumental Studies.

Thank you. Please be seated.

Distinguished guests, families and friends, members of the faculty, and especially our graduating students, welcome to the 57th Commencement Ceremony of Purdue University Fort Wayne. We are delighted to be together with you today.

It is my pleasure to introduce the members of our platform party who are joining us today.

I ask them to stand and remain standing as they are able as I call their names. Would you please hold your applause until all have been introduced.

Dr. Carl Drummond, Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs.

Dr. Krissy Surface, Vice Chancellor for Enrollment Management and the Student Experience.

Jerry Lewis, Vice Chancellor for Communications and Marketing.

Glen Nakata, Vice Chancellor for Financial and Administrative Affairs. We congratulate Mr. Nakata who is retiring at the end of June.

Dr. Nodir Adilov, Dean of the Richard T. Doermer School of Business.

Dr. Janet Badia, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts.

Dr. Sherif Elfayoumy, Steel Dynamics Dean of the College of Engineering, Technology, and Computer Science.

Dr. Ronald Friedman, Dean of the College of Science.

Dr. Isabel Nunez, Dean of the School of Education.

John O'Connell, Dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts.

Tara Lewis, Associate Vice Chancellor and Registrar.

And Dr. Frank Paladino, Jack W. Schrey Professor of Biology and our distinguished Grand Marshal for today's ceremony.

Colleagues and friends, we appreciate your participation in our ceremonies this afternoon.

Thank you. Please be seated.

Graduates — it is my honor to stand before you — and to present you as the Class of 2025. 

It has been a long road to get to this day! 

I know I join your families and friends in recognizing your significant accomplishments. You worked hard. You stuck it out. And here you are! Right where you belong — graduating from Purdue University Fort Wayne!

We are overjoyed to share in your amazing accomplishments and celebration today.

In addition to the thousands of guests gathered here in this room today, I'd like to extend greetings and a warm welcome to the more than 1,000 people in 30 countries around the world who are streaming this event online right now. Graduates, please wave and say a big Thank You to your loved ones who couldn't be here in person today.

As I look out at all of you today — and there are so many of you — I feel tremendous pride and hope. Hope for your success. Hope for your future. Hope for your good health. And, above all, hope for your happiness.

This journey has brought you to a pivotal moment in your lives. Whatever comes next, you should be truly proud of all that you have learned and all that you have accomplished during your time here at Purdue Fort Wayne.

To the families and friends of our graduates: I can only imagine the enormous sense of pride you are experiencing today. And, as a father myself, I'm guessing probably just a little bit of relief as well!

Graduates, I think your families and friends deserve a really big thank-you. Please stand as you are able and join me in showing our appreciation by giving everyone here and online a huge round of applause.

To the members of our faculty, staff, and administration: Thank you for the unwavering dedication you have shown to the education, success, and well-being of our students. You are the heart and soul of our university — and you are always there for our students when they need you most. Thank you so much.

As a matter of fact, each year I have the honor of recognizing faculty members who were present at the university's very first commencement back in 1968. Three of those faculty members are joining us today — 56 commencements later. When I call your names, would you please stand:

Linda Balthaser, Assistant Dean Emerita of what was then the School of Arts and Sciences

Dr. Lowell Beineke, Retired Jack W. Schrey Professor of Mathematics, and

Dr. Art Friedel, Retired Professor of Chemistry, and a life-long supporter of Purdue Fort Wayne.

Let's give all of our faculty, staff, and administrators a well-deserved round of applause.

Graduates, we hope that you have enjoyed your time here at Purdue Fort Wayne, and we trust that you feel confident in the outstanding education that you have received here.

We want to assure you that the Purdue degree you receive today will only increase in value and prestige. Our university — your university — is an institution on the move, and we look forward to sharing our future successes together.

Regardless of the field of study and degree earned, what those of you gathered here today have achieved — especially in the eyes of your future employers — places you among the best-prepared graduates entering the workforce, not just in Indiana, but also around the world.

As our friends and benefactors invest in this cycle of success, we too remain committed to our university's growing reputation for accomplishing bigger and better things.      

All of this effort ensures that Purdue Fort Wayne will continue to graduate more and more highly qualified students, just like all of you, who will be launched into exciting and fulfilling careers.

One thing is certain. Your Purdue degree will be yours forever, and you will forever be a Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodon!

And now it's time for the moment you've all been waiting for. At this time, we will confer degrees. Will the candidates please rise and remain standing as you are able.

Exercising the authority of the Trustees of Purdue University, legally vested by the people of the State of Indiana, and upon the recommendation of the faculty, I now confer upon each of you who have fulfilled the stated requirements, the indicated degree with all the rights, privileges, duties, and responsibilities of that degree.

As evidence of this achievement, you will receive an appropriately inscribed diploma.

Congratulations to each of you!

Please be seated.

Graduates of Purdue University Fort Wayne, I extend our best wishes.

Wherever your lives and your careers may take you, it is our sincere hope and expectation that you will keep in touch always and visit campus every chance you get. You will always find a warm welcome here.

We will now introduce our graduates. As people are taking their places, I want to give everyone a heads up that, at the end of our ceremony today, there will be some loud noises and bright, flashing lights. We just wanted you to be sure that you're aware.

The first degree we will be presenting today is bittersweet — because it is being conferred posthumously.

It saddened our university community to learn that senior Andrew Tudor passed away this past March.

On the recommendation of the faculty of the Department of Computer Science and under the authority of the Purdue University Board of Trustees, we are awarding Andrew's richly deserved Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science today. It is my honor to invite Andrew's wife, Melissa, to accept his degree on behalf of his family.

Congratulations, graduates! Could you all please stand as you are able.

It is now time for you to observe the tradition of moving your tassel from the right side of the mortarboard to the left — signifying your new status as alumni of Purdue University Fort Wayne.

Congratulations! You may be seated.
Graduates, welcome to the Mastodon Alumni Community!

As a member of the Class of 2025, you'll soon find how powerful it is for you to be an alumnus of Purdue University Fort Wayne. There are tens of thousands of PFW alums in Indiana, across the nation, and around the world.

The connections you have made here will carry you far and will last a lifetime. Purdue Fort Wayne will always be your home, and we hope you will keep us in your hearts and come back to visit often.

Congratulations again, graduates! We're all so proud of you!

Will everyone please stand as you are able. And please be aware that there will soon be some loud noises and flashing lights.

Before we begin the recessional, I want to once again thank all of the family members and friends who joined us here in this hall and around the world today. Thank you all for being part of the Purdue Fort Wayne family!

Let's GO DONS!