This weekend, over seven hundred people gathered at the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha to celebrate Georgetown's first commencement exercises in Qatar. It was the usual mix of grandeur, absurdity, and that historical feeling.
As all gatherings in Doha, there were round reception tables, flowers flown in, and munchies. The museum view across the water to the growing skyline was impressive, however.
The first order of business was to get dressed. Academic robes can be quite confusing things.
Then there was a lot--a whole lot--of standing around and waiting. Eventually the task of herding cats into alphabetic order began. To the far left in orange is Anthony Lake, former national security adviser to President Clinton, who is a faculty member on the Main campus, visiting Doha for the occasion.
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(The following with thanks to my friend Mohana for taking my camera during the ceremony)
After getting dressed, lining up, waiting for the Emir to arrive and getting very sore feet, we processed into the atrium of the museum, led by the University Registrar carrying the new Georgetown mace (that thing in his hand) for the Qatar campus. Its a stick with a nob on the end, with a mix of symbols both confusing and contradictory, some Islamic architectural accents, the tree of knowledge, an open book, and some Jesuit medieval things. There is another one back on main campus that's been around for a century, but this one was made new for Qatar. There was a dinner held especially in honor of it.
Students from different nations carried in their flags.
The seniors entered with their hoods ready.
Then came the faculty, with various degrees of amusement and boredom.
Then some members of the board of trustees, some sheiks...
Once everybody sat down it was time for speeches. Sitting on the stage behind the podium, we (the faculty) could not hear a word of anything. The students told me later that the president gave a vacuous speech about building bridges between two cultures, and then every time he said bridge the students started laughing, and they would not remember anything else. There was a lot about the Jesuit tradition as well, which seemed out of place.
Then for the hoods, getting properly dressed...
Then diplomas, mace in foreground.
Then every student got his own photo opp. with the Georgetown President. Even when you graduate with a PhD you don't get this! These kids were spoiled...
Then it was time for the guest of honor to speak. Nancy Pelosi's husband is on the Georgetown board, and while she was not on the program, she was asked half way through the ceremony to speak. She gave a student-approved speech (since I didn't hear it, I'll rely on their testament) about compasses, astrolabes, and the contribution of "this part of the world" to the development of the West. Each student had received an engraved compass as a gift from the school the night before at the awards banquet. She had liked this symbolism. Most get blamed for overgeneralization with that phrase "this part of the world," (which I did hear in the garble several times) but she pulled it off remarkably well.
His Highness and Her Highness posing with Jack, Jim, Bob, and Jim-- the Deans, Provost and President.
The students smiling with their new yellow hoods.
The reception on the West terrace, after the ceremony.
Posing for happy pictures with the family.
Faculty and friends enjoying the waterside view.
And that round reception table, still with orchids, but no vegtables, as we walked back at sunset to take off those polyester robes and examine the damage to the sweat soaked dress underneath. Then it was off to the president's dinner, where I was too tired to take any pictures, and where he repeated the same speech about bridges. How to let something this abnormal slip into normal, tired cliches--that took some effort!
