Day of high spirits UF held two graduation ceremonies today. These grads added to more than 300,000 graduates of the University of Florida, according to the president of the UF Alumni Association who introduced the outstanding undergraduate student awards. As a marshal, I arrived 90 minutes before the ceremony to help with organizing for the processional. My assignment was to lead the doctoral students. For me, this was a special assignment, as I can appreciate the time and effort the doctoral students have invested in their academic work. Another special part of the doctoral graduation is that each doctoral student is escorted by a faculty — typically somone on his or her dissertation committee. I had worked with two of the doctoral grads — I had one in class and was on another’s dissertation committee. Both will be starting faculty positions in just a few days.