GRADUATION TAKES FLIGHT WITH RETURN OF ASTRONAUT, BANNER

It was literally a "banner day" for Southeast Missouri State University at Saturday's commencement ceremony in the Show Me Center.

Astronaut Linda Godwin, a 1974 graduate of Southeast Missouri State University, received a standing ovation when she was introduced to the crowd of about 8,000 at commencement.

She returned to the university a specially commissioned banner that she took with her aboard the space shuttle Atlantis last month.

The banner features the Academic Hall dome against a full moon, with the shuttle soaring overhead.

Southeast President Kala Stroup praised Godwin's "championship performance" in space and said the banner would be permanently displayed at the university.

Godwin's parents, James and Maxine Godwin of Oak Ridge, were special guests at Saturday's commencement.

Stroup used the occasion to announce that the Center for Science and Mathematics at Southeast has been renamed in Godwin's honor.

The new name, the Linda M. Godwin Center for Science and Mathematics Education, was approved last week by the Board of Regents in a closed-door session.

Southeast's science and mathematics center was established in 1983 to improve science and mathematics education.

Stroup, who witnessed last month's launch of the space shuttle Atlantis at Cape Canaveral, Fla., praised Godwin as "an ideal role model for science and mathematics students."

During the six-day space flight, Godwin helped launch the $600 million, 17-ton Gamma Ray Observatory. The observatory will orbit Earth for at least two years and record the high-energy radiation coming from some of the most violent processes in the universe.

In brief remarks Saturday, Godwin congratulated the graduating students and presented Stroup with a plaque commemorating the shuttle mission.

Godwin said the shuttle orbited the Earth 93 times and covered 2.4 million miles during its flight.

She drew a laugh from the crowd when she jokingly lamented the fact that there were "no frequent-flyer bonuses" for the shuttle flight.

At Saturday's commencement ceremony, degrees were awarded to 652 undergraduates and 48 graduate students.

Four students with perfect 4.0 grade point averages led the spring 1991 class. The students were Corey J. Muench and Donna S. Reynolds of Cape Girardeau, Amy Elfrink of Marble Hill, and Kim Reeves of Ironton.

Sanford N. McDonnell, chairman emeritus of McDonnell Douglas Corp., delivered the keynote address. McDonnell Douglas, headquartered in St. Louis, is one of the nation's premier aerospace companies.

McDonnell called for a return to the teaching of traditional, ethical values in the nation's homes, schools and religious institutions. He said businesses should adopt codes of ethics.

"Throughout most of our history, basic ethical values were considered essential to the nation and essential to the people who made up the nation," he said.

Those ethical values, he said, involved honor, duty to God and country, service to others, loyalty, self-reliance and hard work.

McDonnell voiced concern that "America has become a nation of complacent, dependent people concerned only with their own well-being."

But he said that he believes a character-education program in the St. Louis area school districts is helping renew America's ethical values.

He maintained that character education should be an integral part of formal education, from kindergarten through graduate school.

"We in business haven't done all that great a job of reinforcing those values," McDonnell said.

He said his aerospace company instituted a code of ethics in 1983. Since then, more than 100,000 of the company's employees have been trained in ethical decision making.

He said that treating people ethically "is not only the right thing to do, it is the smart thing to do.

"Always take the ethical high road," he urged graduates. "That has to be emphasized just as strongly as the bottom line."

Stroup told those gathered at the ceremony, "We are joined together by a common bond and common interest, which is this university and its 118 years of commitment to quality education and this region."

In her closing remarks, Stroup pointed out that this graduating class was the first one to really benefit from the events offered at the Show Me Center, including the visit of then-President Ronald Reagan.

"No other class in our history has had an opportunity to see both Ronald Reagan and Hulk Hogan," she said.