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“We’re not all roses built for neat rows,” Kevin Fridy told the class of 2025 Friday during University of Tampa’s 161^st commencement ceremony at the Florida State Fairgrounds.

Fridy is the chair and a professor of political science and international studies, and the recipient of the 2025 Louise Loy Hunter Award, UTampa’s most prestigious faculty award, which honors excellence in teaching and cumulative contributions in service and scholarship.

“If you find out you’re a wildflower, be a wildflower. … If you’re a rose, understand diversity in the garden helps the pollinators we all depend on,” he told the graduates.

The advice was part of Fridy’s message, delivered to 714 graduates, including his wife, who was receiving her second master’s degree. He also told the graduates to ask more questions than they answer and said that nearly all the graduates would deviate from “the plan.”

He told them to stay curious and authentically embrace uncertainty.

“Your time at UTampa, if we’ve done our jobs, has fueled these flames you brought with you when you arrived,” he said. “That’s why we give you a general education curriculum — art and science, math and reading, courses that match your major and others that don’t. An open and flexible mind leads to better ideas.”

Lastly, Fridy urged graduates to care enough about others to act, stating that negligence won’t contribute to solving the world’s largest problems.

The student challenge speaker, Gabriel Mudd, challenged his peers to reflect on how they’ve been prepared to handle the unknown.

“So have faith in yourself, because you will face the future, when the time is right, and you’ll do it equipped with every version of yourself that has carried you through your life, through every incredible thing you’ve built, and into this moment right now,” he said.

The graduating class was left with a final remark from Fridy, who in a nod to popular vernacular, told the class to “Go slay.”
 

UTampa Graduates by the Numbers

Total graduates: 714
Countries represented: 8
Percent of graduates from Florida: 55%

Undergraduate students

Total bachelor’s degree candidates: 538
Summa cum laude (GPA 4.0): 8
Magna cum laude (GPA 3.75 or higher, but less than 4.0): 75
Cum laude (GPA 3.5 or higher, but less than 3.75): 85
Most popular undergraduate majors: Accounting, Finance and Marketing

Graduate students

Total candidates: 176
With highest honors (GPA 4.0): 15
With honors (GPA 3.9 or higher, but less than 4.0): 14
MBAs awarded: 29
Doctorates awarded: 8