UC urges grads to be 'Boldly Bearcat'

The University of Cincinnati celebrated its fall commencement Saturday in a newly renovated Fifth Third Arena packed with enthusiastic friends and family.

The arena was a fitting backdrop for the august celebration. Guests applauded the graduates as their names scrolled down four jumbo screens in each corner. Live video streaming on enormous screens above center court captured happy graduates and their decorated mortar boards thanking moms and dads.

“What do you think? Is this a good day or what?” UC President Neville Pinto asked the crowd.

The graduates now join esteemed company, a list of alumni that includes artists, entrepreneurs and professionals around the world, Pinto said.

His commencement address spoke to what it means to be “Boldly Bearcat,” the theme of the university's Bicentennial celebration next year.

“It’s a phrase that encapsulates what defines us as a university: forward momentum, optimism and persistence in striving for the best,” Pinto said.

“More than a motto, ‘Boldly Bearcat’ is an attitude – stretching for excellence by seeking the highest, questioning the status quo to create something even better and challenging those around us to rethink the norms,” he said.

“Class of 2018, it is now your turn. It is time for you to write the UC story. It’s time for you to bend the future,” Pinto said. “Wherever you go, remember this: Be Boldly Bearcat.”

UC Board of Trustees Chairman Thomas Cassady spoke of how graduates will define success in different ways in their lives.

“I hope you have the humility and insight to know yourself well enough to change as your situation ebbs and flows,” Cassady said. “Failures are expected if you live an aspirational life. They provide the lessons that will help you. Learn from them and understand them.”

The arena was packed with proud family and friends.

Tyler Reinhold’s family cheered as he accepted his diploma from Dean Lawrence Johnson of UC’s College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services.

“We’re beyond proud,” his mother, Terri Reinhold said. “First year freshman year was a little rough. But he made his mind up that this was what he wanted to do and buckled down and did it. I think graduating from UC gave him a lot of confidence.”

Paula Taul wiped tears from her eyes as she watched Aisha McNeal take the stage to accept congratulations from Dean Ken Petren in UC’s McMicken College of Arts and Sciences. McNeal took classes while raising her first child, Eden Scott, now 4.

Taul, a UC alumna, said she gave her daughter encouragement when she struggled.

“You just persevere. It takes hard work and determination,” Taul said.

College Conservatory of Music student Shannon Keegan performed the national anthem and the University of Cincinnati Alma Mater. The CCM Commencement Band led by conductor Kevin Holzman provided music befitting the day's pomp and circumstance.

• Students from the Fall 2018 graduating class hail from 29 countries, 46 states and Washington, D.C.

• More than 58 percent of all graduates are from Ohio, and 62 of Ohio's 88 counties are represented in this year's class.

• UC awarded 162 associate degrees; 1,237 bachelor’s degrees; 835 master’s degrees; 121 doctoral degrees and three professional degrees.

• This commencement class includes 230 graduates who began their UC careers at a UC regional campus while 352 graduates transferred to UC from other institutions.

• Nearly 17 percent of graduates — 383 students — are first-generation college students.

• More than 28 percent of this year's class graduated from distance learning programs.

• Among the graduates are 24 student athletes, including All-Americans Omar Cummings (soccer) and Jordan Thompson (volleyball).

Fall commencement caps off a big year for UC.

• UC enjoyed a sixth-year straight of record enrollment, which now stands at 45,959.

• The university has kicked off observance of its Bicentennial year, the never-to-be-repeated moment to celebrate the university’s past, elevate its present, and bend the future.

• UC leadership announced the official start of Next Lives Here, the university's new strategic direction in February 2018.

• The UC College of Law’s Ohio Innocence Project helped to free three wrongly convicted defendants in 2018. UC law students and their professors have helped to free 28 defendants to date.

• Recognized as a Research 1 institution by the Carnegie Foundation, UC continues to be a national leader in diverse fields. UC opened its state-of-the-art 1819 Innovation Hubin October. The innovation hub provides research space for tenants such as Cincinnati Bell, Kroger, CincyTech and the Live Well Collaborative.

• UC enters Reuters’ list of the world’s 100 most-innovative universities. The university is one of only 46 U.S. universities to make this prestigious list, and was ranked ahead of such luminaries as the University of Virginia.

• In athletics, the UC men’s basketball team returned to the NCAA tournament while its football team won 10 games this year, marking only the seventh time the program has reached this milestone. UC football coach Luke Fickell was named American Athletic Conference Coach of the Year.

• Thirteen UC alumni, including a current student, received journalism’s top award, a Pulitzer Prize, for the Cincinnati Enquirer’s series Seven Days of Heroin. The project was hailed as “a riveting and insightful narrative.”

And UC alumnus C. David Allis, a graduate of UC’s McMicken College of Arts and Sciences, was awarded the Lasker Prize for biomedical research. Many Lasker winners go on to win the Nobel Prize.