Bethel College conducts graduation ceremonies

Charged with the task of inspiring the graduating class of Bethel College during the commencement exercises Sunday afternoon at Thresher stadium, Dr. Janine Wedel, explained how pranks carried out by students during their time in college can help prepare them for the future along with their education.

Wedel, a 1978 graduate of Bethel and professor of public policy at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., began her address with explaining what a good speaker is suppose to do.

“Good speakers inspire and motivate audience members to do such things as wear hard hats more often, meet sales quotas, give better customer service or clean up trash in the office lunch room,” she said. “Your primary responsibility as a good speaker is to inspire. If you’re not motivated to even do this, it may be better to send an e-mail.”

She went on to explain in the 30 years since she graduated from Bethel College, she has had several instances where she was reminded of the solid educational foundation she received.

But what she remembers most from her time on the campus in North Newton is the common lore of the college — Bethel’s shared stories. These stories include a long history of pranks.

“Cows have been known to visit the library,” Wedel said. “Birds have been discovered under teacups. Cars have appeared on the top of buildings. Dining hall chairs have gone missing and eventually located on the roof after weeks of us having to eat while sitting on the floor.”

As a social anthropologist, she reflected for a moment on the significance of pranks.

“They say something about the community that enacts them,” she said. “Pranks require a sense of trust and belonging among members of the community. Anthropologists have even found that playing a prank on somebody can be an effort to bring them into the group. Good pranks require flexibility, creativity, daring, teamwork and upending the natural order of things.”

In whatever career you enter, it’s important to keep in mind the spirit of pranks that can bind a community together, as well as open up a wider world.

“It goes without saying the world you (graduates) are entering is far different from the one I beheld when I wrote my senior thesis,” she said. “When I left this stage, diploma in hand, my peers and I could reasonably plot a career path. Now, the only constant is change. According to some analysts, you will be required to change careers an average of eight times.”

“More than the great skills the graduates have acquired here at Bethel, their success may depend on the ability to adapt and risk doing things that couldn’t be foreseen. The pranksters among the class of 2008 already know that executing the kind of prank people will appreciate — although be it perhaps only later — requires good judgment and a sense of adventure,” she said.

“Remember, in life to keep that sense of curiosity, that sense of adventure and play with the rules of life’s game and honor the rules when they deserve to be honored and employ teamwork,” Wedel said.

In closing, Wedel said, “Now that you are graduates of Bethel College remember to meet sales quotas, give good customer service, wear hard hats and clean up the lunch room.”