U.S. Rep. James P. McGovern, who received a Chancellor’s Medal and delivered the Commencement address, called for more National Institutes of Health funding to sustain medical research advances.
Under sunny skies, 227 graduates of UMass Chan marked a milestone in their long educational journey on Sunday, June 1, as they marched across the stage in front of faculty, family members and friends to proudly accept their degrees.
U.S. Rep. James P. McGovern, who received a Chancellor’s Medal and delivered the Commencement address, used the opportunity to call for more National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding to sustain the remarkable medical research advances that are saving lives and helping people live longer, healthier lives.
“Research funded by NIH at institutions like UMass Medical School has been the single greatest contributor to advances in health. Today the average American lives six years longer than in the 1970s, largely because of pioneering NIH investments,” said McGovern. “If you look at NIH funding in terms of constant 2003 dollars, we invested 22 percent less last year than we did a decade ago. That is simply unacceptable.”
He challenged the graduates to be political.
“Being political doesn’t have to mean being partisan or nasty—it means fighting to get what you want and what you believe is in the best interest of your city or your state or your country,” he said.
Full text of speeches:
--Chancellor Michael F. Collins
--Rep. James P. McGovern
“You have been given a great gift with the education you received here. You will certainly change for the better the lives of those you treat as nurses and doctors and the people you help through your research. But you have the potential to do more,” McGovern said. “And so I will close with something that might be strange in a speech to graduates of medical school. I will ask you, when you confront the diseases of cynicism and apathy, to violate your Hippocratic Oath and pull the plug.”
Cherylann and Leonard Gengel, founders of the Be Like Brit Foundation and the Be Like Brit Orphanage in Grand Goâve, Haiti, and H. Brownell Wheeler, MD, the Harry M. Haidak Distinguished Professor emeritus and founding chair of the department of surgery at UMass Medical School, received honorary degrees at the ceremony. UMass Chan conferred 118 doctor of medicine degrees; 36 doctor of philosophy degrees in the biomedical sciences; five MD/PhDs; and, in nursing, 48 master of science degrees, five post-masters certificates, three PhDs and 12 doctor of nursing practice degrees.
Chancellor Michael F. Collins outlined the many examples of how UMass Medical School is making a difference locally and globally.
“There is no greater accomplishment than those who graduate this day. For we have seen them as they were; their lives were transformed before our eyes and we look to the greatness they will bring to the world,” said Collins. “In Main South and Mattapan, in Mumbai and Monrovia, in Barre and the Berkshires, in Port au Prince and Chengdu, today, UMass makes a difference. Our institution is on the move and these students have earned their rightful place as graduates who will continue that legacy.”
The three class speakers of
