Samford University professor encourages 314 graduates to ‘focus on others’ in life

Samford University professor Chuck Sands urged Samford graduates to remember the importance of relationships and relating to other people as they complete their university experience and head off into life.
  
“Right relationships are the key to life,” Sands said at fall commencement Dec. 16, 2006. “It begins with focusing on others and not on self.”
  
The head of Samford’s exercise science and sports medicine department, Sands addressed an audience of more than 2,300 in the Wright Center at Samford. Some 314 seniors received degrees.
  
“My sense is that, in many respects, we have lost, or we are losing, the ability and the art of relating to each other,” he said. “I don’t think we are lacking in our attempts to communicate information, but I wonder about the impact of technology on our ability to relate.”
  
He cited the growth of cell phone users and e-mail messages in the past five years as evidence that “we are transmitting data and information at a record pace.”
  
He said technology provides many advantages but asked his audience to recognize that “one potential negative of this increase in technology is a reduction in the development of relationships.”
  
Sands received Samford’s annual John H. Buchanan Award for Excellence in Teaching at the start of the 2006 fall term. With his remarks, Samford began a tradition of having each year’s Buchanan winner speak at fall commencement.
  
Graduating senior Lee Wright of Granbury, Texas, received a special hug along with his degree. His great-granddad, James A. Head Sr., was on stage to congratulate him as he was handed his diploma by Samford President Andrew Westmoreland. Head, age 102, has served as a Samford trustee since 1955.
  
As part of commencement weekend, Samford also held its pinning ceremony for graduates of Ida V. Moffett School of Nursing, hooding ceremonies for school of business master’s degree recipients and a commissioning ceremony for Air Force ROTC graduates. (SU)