Smiles, tradition and jubilation come to Brookings Quadrangle today as part of the Univeristy's 140th Commencement.
May 18, 2001
Books are closed, finals are finished, grades are in and so are the gowns --now it's time to graduate. This morning, 2,246 students will enter Brookings Quadrangle but leave as alumni.
Smiles, tradition and jubilation come to Brookings Quadrangle today as part of the Univeristy's 140th Commencement. |
Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton will award the degrees as part of the University's 140th Commencement, beginning at 8:30 a.m. Of the 2,246 candidates, 1,181 are undergraduates and 1,065 are graduate and professional students.
Among the graduate students are 380 who will receive doctoral degrees: 61 candidates for a doctor of philosophy degree in the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences; 10 for a doctor of science degree in the Henry Edwin Sever Graduate School of Engineering and Applied Science; 187 for a doctor of law degree in the School of Law; and 122 for a doctor of medicine degree in the School of Medicine.
In the event of rain, the ceremony will be abbreviated and souvenir plastic ponchos will be provided. If there is violent weather, the undergraduate Commencement exercises will move to the Athletic Complex, still beginning at 8:30 a.m. The graduate and professional degrees will be awarded at the regularly scheduled late-morning and early afternoon ceremonies of each school. (See Commencement schedule).
A decision to move to the violent weather schedule will be made by 7 a.m. This notice and other up-to-the-minute information on Commencement week activities are available on the Commencement hotline at 935-4355.
Regardless of weather, guests may choose to watch the ceremony via closed-circuit television in either Brown Hall Auditorium or Edison Theatre.
National Science Foundation (NSF) Director Rita R. Colwell, Ph.D., will deliver the Commencement address. During the ceremony, she also will receive an honorary doctor of science degree. Colwell was appointed NSF director in 1998 and is the first woman to hold that post. She leads the agency's emphasis on K-12 science and mathematics education, graduate-level training in science and engineering, increasing women and minority participation in science and engineering, and establishing support for major priority areas, including nanotechnology, biocomplexity, information technology and the 21st-century work force.
Other honorary degree recipients are University senior professor of computer science Jerome R. Cox Jr., Ph.D., doctor of science degree; Nobel Prize winner and former School of Medicine professor Robert F. Furchgott, Ph.D., doctor of science; community volunteer and longtime friend of the University Lucy Mayer Lopata, doctor of humanities; MacArthur Foundation Fellowship Prize recipient and nationally recognized public interest lawyer Bryan A. Stevenson, doctor of humanities; chairman and founder of Enterprise Rent-A-Car and civic leader Jack C. Taylor, doctor of humanities; and chairman of one of the country's leading law firms William M. Van Cleve, doctor of laws.
Commencement begins with the traditional academic procession into Brookings Quadrangle. Leading students into the quad are grand marshal Edward N. Wilson, Ph.D., professor of mathematics and chair of the Commencement Committee, and honorary grand marshal William H. Gass, the David May Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Humanities, both in Arts & Sciences.
About 110 members of the Class of 1951, celebrating their 50th reunion this weekend, will don caps and gowns to march in the procession.
The program will begin with music by the Mighty Mississippi Concert Band of St. Louis, directed by Dan Presgrave, director of instrumental ensembles and lecturer in the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences. Klaus Georg, summa cum laude, and Kendra Ford, cum laude, both bachelor of arts degree candidates, will sing "America the Beautiful."
Following the music, John F. McDonnell, chairman of the Board of Trustees, will welcome the graduates, and Wrighton will introduce Colwell for the Commencement address. After her speech, Wrighton, assisted by the trustees, will confer the honorary degrees.
Richard M. Souvenir, senior class president, will give the student Commencement greeting. (See story.)
Conferral of academic degrees follows, with the deans of each of the schools and Edward S. Macias, Ph.D., executive vice chancellor and dean of Arts & Sciences, assisting Wrighton. Then Wrighton will deliver his message to the Class of 2001. Sabina L. Feiler, a bachelor of arts degree candidate, will conclude the ceremony by singing the Alma Mater.
After the ceremony, the University's schools will hold receptions for graduates and their guests.
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