Amidst rivaling chants of "Harvard" from senior men and "Radcliffe" from senior women, the University awarded degrees to the Class of 1999--including the members of Radcliffe College's final class of undergraduates--on June 11.

The University conferred 6,847 degrees at its 348th Commencement, including eight honorary degrees given to luminaries including Commencement Speaker and Federal Reserve Chair Alan Greenspan, Economist Kenneth J. Arrow and Herbert Block, a noted political cartoonist.

University President Neil L. Rudenstine presided over this year's sunlit ceremonies from a Jacobean chair that has been used at every Commencement ceremony since the 18th century.

And he declared undergraduates to have completed their College careers using the same celebrated words that have been used at many Commencements past.

"By the authority delegated to me I do confer on you the first degree in the Arts or in the Sciences," Rudenstine told the 1,659 seniors. "And I do finally admit you to the fellowship of educated persons."

He also offered special thanks to two administrators--Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III and Radcliffe President Linda S. Wilson--who are leaving the University this year.

"You have defined for Harvard the very meaning of what it is to be a Dean of Students," Rudenstine said of Epps.

Rudenstine also praised Wilson for leading Radcliffe as it made the decision to merge with the University.

"You have guided Radcliffe steadily and with great distinction to a point where you can now leave it, with enormous satisfaction, to a new future," he said.

After undergraduates and students from the University's 11 other schools received their degrees, Rudenstine conferred honorary diplomas on this year's eight honorary degree recipients.

The University Marshal introduced the recipients--Arrow, Harvard Professor Bernard Bailyn, Block, Professor Andrew F. Brimmer, statistician David R. Cox, Greenspan, Literary Theorist Julia Kristeva, and Author Mario Vargas Llosa. Rudenstine bestowed a witty epithet on each recipient--describing Greenspan as the man who "keeps America green"--before conferring the degrees.

The ceremony also included speeches by two undergraduates from the Class of 1999 and one by a graduate student, Hazel Trice Edney of the Kennedy School.

In his Latin Oration, Quentin Chu '99, told students to embrace the "trivial delights and daily vignettes" of everyday life.

"Whoever notices these trifles in life and delights in them, he has discovered the secret to happiness which eludes the rest of us," Chu proclaimed in Latin as graduating students followed along with the English translation.

"Many years from now, what you remember of this University will be precisely these trifles that escape your notice now," Chu added.