A spring downpour couldn’t dampen the spirit of the more than 5,000 family and friends gathered on UNC Asheville’s Quadrangle on the morning of May 5 to celebrate the university’s 2012 graduating class.

Some 731 students were honored as the Class of 2012 during the 84th annual Commencement Ceremony, including 480 spring graduates, 222 winter graduates and 29 summer graduates.

 Erskine Bowles, one of North Carolina’s best-known public servants, received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree and delivered the Commencement Address. With a serious rain shower in progress, Bowles congratulated the Class of 2012, then offered a shortened but strong message to the graduates about the national debt:

“lt’s an enormous problem that came about because my generation hasn’t been willing to step up... We have kicked the can down the road. I do want you to think about the problems facing this country. I do want you to be more aware. I want you to get mad at people like me and my generation. And then I want you to demand that the politicians in Washington, whether they are Republicans or Democrats, do something about it ….  They have to make the hard choices. Please make them do it… for yourselves, for your classmates, for the kids you’re going to have some day. Most importantly, please, do it for our country.”

Bowles, former chief of staff in the Clinton Administration and then president of the University of North Carolina System, was appointed by President Obama to co-chair the bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.

 Chancellor Anne Ponder also presented an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree to Al Whitesides, whom she described as “a leader in the Asheville community, a friend of local business, and an advocate for the state’s education system.” Chancellor Ponder recalled Whitesides’ activism as a student during the civil rights movement, and how he brought textbooks along to lunch-counter sit-ins. She quoted Whitesides as saying, “We couldn’t lose track of one thing: If we didn’t finish school and graduate, we couldn’t take advantage of what we were fighting for.”

 Whitesides went on to a long career in banking and was honored for his ongoing community service to many Asheville organizations and institutions including Asheville City Schools, the YMI Cultural Center, South College, and the Mission Healthcare Foundation. Whitesides has served as chair of UNC Asheville’s Board of Trustees and is now president of the UNC Asheville Bulldog Athletic Association.

Student and Faculty Awards

 During the ceremony, three graduates received UNCA’s highest student awards. Two top faculty teaching awards were also presented.

 Andrea Gottschalk, of San Diego, Cal., received the William and Ida Friday Award for Service to the Community. Gottschalk earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology with a concentration in Anthropology, a minor in Africana Studies, and distinction as a University Scholar. An active member of HOLA (Hispanic Outreach for Latin Awareness, Gottschalk helped organize the Latino Scholarship Festival to raise money for a local high school student to attend UNC Asheville. She also helped coordinate Manna Foodbank’s distribution of weekend food bags to children, and volunteered with voter registration drives, and with the Family Resource Center’s Latino Outreach Program. She has also helped build homes locally through Habitat for Humanity, and spent her spring break in 2009 helping build homes in Mississippi for families who lost their homes to Hurricane Katrina.

 The A.C. Reynolds Award and the Thomas D. Reynolds Prize for Leadership and Campus Service was presented to David Kaufman-Moore of Greensboro, who received a Bachelor of Science degree in Management with a concentration in Business Administration. Kaufman-Moore provided much-needed leadership for the International Student Association and for the fledgling Alpha Sigma Phil Fraternity colony, which has become a chapter. He has also lent his energies to the Student Management Association, the Senior Class Board and the Order of Pisgah, and he has served on important university committees.