Graduation Under the Sun at Cal State Fullerton : Going Forth Into the World. . . .

Expressions of joy and relief could be heard Saturday as students and well-wishers celebrated Cal State Fullerton’s 30th annual commencement exercises.

“I am really so excited I am numb,” said Virgie Hinkle, a 51-year-old grandmother who on Saturday received a master’s of science degree in counseling.

“I’m stoked,” said Vince Downey, 26, who received a bachelor’s degree in physical education. He already has begun coaching baseball at Anaheim High School.

James Aragon, 27, last year’s vice president of the university’s Associated Students, who graduated Saturday with a bachelor’s in human services, said, “It’s been a long time in coming, so it’s just fantastic to be here with family and friends.”

Hinkle, Downey and Aragon were among about 5,500 students expected to take part in 2 days of commencement ceremonies that began Saturday morning and will conclude today.

To allow individual recognition of each graduate, eight exercises were scheduled for the university’s seven schools. The huge School of Humanities and Social Sciences, with nearly 2,000 graduates, was divided into two ceremonies Saturday.

One year, Cal State Fullerton officials conducted a single commencement exercise at Anaheim Stadium. But the ceremony lacked “warmth and humanity,” said Jerry Keating, director of public affairs for the university. They went back to having graduation ceremonies on campus because it provides for a “more intimate” feeling, he said.

Intimate or not, it was a sacrifice for Downey’s buddy, fellow physical education major Lionel Rangel, to be at his graduation at 12:30 p.m. Saturday. “I was in Hawaii yesterday, now I am here,” Rangel said, seemingly bewildered by the change of scenery.

Under a cloudless, sunny sky the commencement exercise for the School of Human Development and Community Services proceeded in a very orderly fashion, as the names of the 1989 graduates were read, one after another, and parents waited patiently for their offsprings’ brief moment of glory on the stage.

Proud father Bob Nigro had a tripod set up behind the last row of white folding chairs and a zoom lens focused on the stage about 100 yards away. “I’m all set,” Nigro said. “I got the camera for Christmas and it shoots two shots per second.”

Dr. Yolanda T. Moses, vice president for academic affairs at Cal State Dominguez Hills, gave the commencement address to the 785 students at the early afternoon ceremony. She said that graduates in education, social work and nursing would be spending their careers dealing with some of “our society’s most pressing needs.”

For Hinkle, Saturday was the culmination of a long struggle to get a college education. A secretary and a single parent, the former secretary from Santa Ana said she returned to school 9 years ago to begin earning a bachelor’s degree at UC Irvine, then came to Cal State Fullerton for her master’s. For the past 3 years, she said, “Every semester I thought I might have to drop out because of problems with financial aid.”

For Downey, his education degree may be only the first of several. “I just finished one school to go to another,” he said, adding that he expected to seek a teaching credential and master’s degree in education.

Aragon said his long-term goal is to pursue a doctorate in educational psychology and is interested in teaching college.

During the ceremony some of the crowd decided to find relief from the sun under shade trees. Patricia Napp, an elderly woman who came from New Jersey for the ceremonies, was relaxing on a bench out of the sun’s glare. “It was hot,” she explained. “That is my only complaint. It is a beautiful school and the people are so nice.”

Rick and Barbara Loyd said proudly that their daughter, Kimberly, finished her bachelor’s degree and teacher’s credential course in only 4 years instead of the usual 5. Cal State Fullerton, they said, is “a super campus with an excellent education program.”

But for many of the students in nursing, education, and social service, finishing in 4 years was impossible because of the need to work, sometimes full time, while going to school. Both Downey and Rangel said half-jokingly that their need to work at least part time put them on “the 7-year plan.”

At a later graduation exercise Saturday for liberal arts students in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Leo S. Shapiro, an 84-year-old community volunteer from Brea whose efforts have created a highly successful organization for retired professionals and the privately funded $2.5-million Ruby Gerontology Center at Cal State Fullerton, became the first recipient of the President’s Medallion Award.

Thirty-one students with perfect or near-perfect grade-point averages were also honored in a special awards reception Friday night. Graduation with highest honors is reserved for those students who earn at least a 3.9 grade-point average (on a scale of 4.0) in all their collegiate studies.

At the conclusion of Saturday afternoon’s ceremony, the newly minted graduates were told that they could move the tassel on their caps from right to left, signifying their new status. The graduates appeared pleased, but one observer, Judy Wagner, wondered aloud, “Why aren’t they throwing their caps into the air?”

The reason, it seems, is that participants are fined for any such displays of exuberance.

Most appeared glad it was over. As part of the university’s class of 1989 filed out of the grassy quadrangle, Luci DeRose spoke for many in the black robes when she exclaimed, “I’m so hot I want to die.”

Aragon, who summed up the sentiments of many participants, said he was “looking forward to a long party weekend.”

FO Cal State Fullerton graduate Virgi Hinkle gets a congratulatory hug from a friend after Saturday’s ceremonies; a proud graduate, meanwhile, raises her diploma in a triumphant gesture.