URI speaker: Telling stories of others is one key to immortality – The Providence Journal

Alex Kuffner Journal Staff Writer kuffneralex

SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. At a time when President Donald Trump and others are accusing the media of manufacturing fake news, award-winning TV reporter Vladimir Duthiers, in his commencement address at the University of Rhode Island on Sunday, defended journalism as a profession that gives voice to the powerless.

At the universitys 131st commencement ceremony, Duthiers, a 1991 graduate in political science, spoke about his time as a CNN correspondent in Nigeria covering the terrorist group Boko Haram. An activist once told him that even after more than 1,000 people had been killed in a series of attacks by the group, their families only rarely heard from the government, he said.

But they do see journalists, Duthiers said. Journalists who take what theyve seen, what theyve witnessed, the voices of those theyve spoken with, and put this all in front of the countrys leaders. To hold them accountable in front of the world, so that you and everyone else with access to a free, fair press will know.

That knowledge may not bring someone home from the clutches of a terrorist, he continued. It certainly wont bring someone back from the dead, but in remembering them, we honor them. In a sense, we immortalize them.

Duthiers, who is now a correspondent for CBS News, was one of two journalists who spoke during the schools commencement weekend. On Saturday, Boston Globe columnist and associate editor Thomas Farragher, a member of URIs Class of 1977, delivered the keynote address to students receiving graduate degrees. Farragher was part of the Globes Spotlight team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2003 for investigating sexual abuse by Catholic priests.

Both Duthiers and Farragher were awarded honorary doctoral degrees on Sunday. The other honorees were Loren Spears, Class of 1989, executive director of the Tomaquag Indian Museum; Alfred J. Tella, Class of 1955, an economist, professor, composer and author; and Robert L. Carothers, the president emeritus of URI.

The road to the university quadrangle was a sea of black robes as thousands of graduates marched in for the ceremony just after noon. As they went to take their seats, relatives and loved ones gave them hugs and cheered them on.

In all, 4,122 graduates were honored. The youngest was 20 years old and the oldest was 77, said university president David Dooley. There were 78 military veterans in the graduate and undergraduate classes and nine sets of twins.

All together, our youngest to oldest, we represent this creative, vibrant and dynamic public institution of research and higher education in Rhode Island, Dooley said.

Gov. Gina Raimondo urged them to remain a part of the Rhode Island community.

I want all of you to think about sticking around Rhode Island, she said. We need your talent."

Duthierscame to journalism later in life. He worked in finance after graduating and decided to switch careers at the age of 37.

It was the fulfillment, he said, of words attributed to Saint Augustine: The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering.

After getting a graduate degree in journalism from Columbia University, he joined CNN as an unpaid intern, working first for foreign correspondent Christiane Amanpour, another URI graduate, and then Anderson Cooper. He reported on the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti and then became a correspondent in West Africa, covering such stories as the kidnapping of more than 200 young girls by Boko Haram, reporting for which he won a Peabody Award.

He told the graduates not to fear change and to look for a life of meaning.

Ive come to realize that yes, the key to some kind of immortality is living a life worth remembering, Duthiers said. But Ive come to see this isnt just about my own life being memorable. Its about being a conduit for the stories of others.

And now I do what I do so others will not forget those who would otherwise be forgotten, he said.

University of Rhode Island's 131st Commencement

3,383 undergraduate degrees; 749 graduate degrees awarded in Saturday ceremony

Undergraduate speaker: Vladimir Duthiers, CBS News correspondent and anchor

Student speaker: Colin Rumbel

Graduate degree speaker: Thomas Farragher, columnist and associate editor at The Boston Globe

Honorary degree recipients: Robert L. Carothers, URI president emeritus; Loren Spears, executive director, Tomaquag Museum; Alfred J. Tella, economist, educator, composer and fantasy fiction author; Duthiers and Farragher

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URI speaker: Telling stories of others is one key to immortality - The Providence Journal