Now IUP approaches, in the year 2000, the conjunction of the millennium, the fin de si cle, and our 125 th anniversary as an institution of higher learning. To honor and celebrate this occasion, we shall once more invoke those rites and protocols, but in a fresh manner with the theme of technology and how it unites the past and the future.
Historical landmarks are important to the life of human institutions.
They help us to understand who we are, and they guide us into our future. The quasquicentennial affords us an opportunity to recall our proud heritage and to chart the steady march of IUP toward academic distinction. It is a happy coincidence that the first class in the Robert E. Cook Honors College will be graduated at the 2000 Commencement. Mr. Cook has agreed to be the Commencement speaker. This will also be an occasion for us to affirm the values that have made this a compassionate and humane institution at the same time that it has aspired to greater academic quality and prominence.