The University of Rochester will hold its 153rd Commencement for graduates in the College of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering at 9 a.m. Sunday, May 18, on the Eastman Quadrangle on the River Campus.
The ceremony will include the presentation of honorary degrees to Kenneth Olden, director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, and novelist John A. Williams. Myles Brand, president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, will receive the Hutchison Medal, the University's highest award for alumni. Each of the honorees will speak to the graduates.
Separate commencement ceremonies are scheduled that day for students receiving their bachelor's and master's degrees from the Eastman School of Music and the School of Nursing and their master's degrees from the Margaret Warner Graduate School of Education and Human Development.
The School of Nursing ceremony is scheduled for 11 a.m. in the River Road Auditorium (the former St. Agnes High School on East River Road). Deborah A. Henretta, president of the global baby care division at Procter & Gamble, will speak.
The Eastman School ceremony will be held at 11:30 a.m. in the Eastman Theatre, where composer and lyricist Charles Strouse will receive the School's Alumni Achievement Award and will speak.
The ceremony for students in the Warner School will be held at 11:15 a.m. in the Interfaith Chapel on the River Campus. Graduating doctoral student Natalie Alford will speak.
Earlier that weekend, the commencement ceremony for doctoral candidates from all divisions will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday, May 17, in the Eastman Theatre. Martin Gorovsky, Rush Rhees Professor of Biology, will receive the University Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching, and Jack Crow, founding director of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory at Florida State University, will receive the Distinguished Scholar Medal.
Prior to the weekend, the School of Medicine and Dentistry will hold its commencement ceremony for master's degree candidates at 4 p.m. Thursday, May 15, in Adolph Auditorium at the University of Rochester Medical Center, with Distinguished University Professor Robert Joynt speaking. The ceremony for M.D. graduates, where Duke University health affairs chancellor Ralph Snyderman will receive the Eastman Medal, will take place at 4 p.m. Friday, May 16, in the Eastman Theatre.
The William E. Simon Graduate School of Business Administration's Commencement is scheduled for 10 a.m. on Sunday, June 15, in the Eastman Theatre.
Total degrees to be awarded in all schools: 2,468 bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees
Highlights by Ceremony:
College Commencement
When: 9 a.m. Sunday, May 18 Where: Eastman Quadrangle, River Campus
Kenneth Olden, the first African American to serve as director of one of the 19 institutes of the National Institutes of Health, will receive an honorary Doctor of Science Degree. A cell biologist and biochemist by training, he was elected to membership in the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Science for his research contributions to cell and cancer biology. Olden also is director of the National Toxicology Program and oversaw the development of the Environmental Genome Project, which studies the relationship between genetics, environmental factors, and diseases. He has earned many awards, including the Presidential Distinguished Executive Rank Award and the NIH Quality of Life Award.
A prolific novelist, essayist, journalist, and poet, John A. Williams has been described as the finest African-American novelist of his generation and will receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree. His 1967 best-selling novel, The Man Who Cried I Am, is considered a contemporary classic, and his non-fiction work includes books on Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and Africa. Williams was a correspondent for Ebony, Jet, and Newsweek magazines. He also taught at Boston University, the University of Houston, and Rutgers University, from which he retired in 1994 as the Paul Robeson Professor of English. Williams' personal and professional papers are in the collections of the University of Rochester Libraries.
The Hutchison Medal will be presented to Myles Brand, the first University president to head the NCAA. During his tenure as president of Indiana University, he initiated the Strategic Directions Project to make the university more efficient and accountable; oversaw the consolidation of the Indiana University Medical Center Hospitals and Methodist Hospital; and signed the first-of-its-kind licensing agreement with Microsoft Corporation, giving students, faculty, and staff free access to Microsoft products. He gained national attention in September 2000 for dismissing legendary basketball coach Bobby Knight for violating a zero-tolerance behavior code. Brand earned his doctorate in philosophy at Rochester in 1967.
Also at the College ceremony, Wendi Heinzelman, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, will receive the G. Graydon '58 and Jane W. Curtis Award for Excellence in Teaching by a Nontenured Member of the Faculty. Since joining the faculty two years ago, Heinzelman has created two courses in the specialized field of wireless communications and digital signal processing. She is the recipient of fellowships from the Eastman Kodak Company and the National Science Foundation.
There are 1,076 candidates for a bachelor's degree and 175 candidates for a master's degree in the College.
School of Nursing Commencement Ceremony
When: 11 a.m. Sunday, May 18 Where: River Road Auditorium
There will be 67 bachelor's degrees and 42 master's degrees presented during the School of Nursing commencement. The speaker is Deborah A. Henretta, president of global baby care at Proctor & Gamble, who was one of Fortune magazine's "50 Most Powerful Women in Business" for 2002.
Eastman School of Music Commencement Ceremony
When: 11:30 a.m. Sunday, May 18 Where: Eastman Theatre
Composer and lyricist Charles Strouse, who received his bachelor's degree from Eastman School in 1947, will address the graduating class. Strouse won Tony Awards for the Broadway musicals Annie, Applause, and Bye Bye Birdie. He is also the recipient of an Emmy Award for outstanding individual achievement in music and lyrics and the ASCAP Richard Rodgers Award for achievement in musical theater. He will be presented with the Eastman School's Alumni Achievement Award.
John Beck, professor of percussion, will receive the Edward Peck Curtis Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. A teacher of international reputation in his field, Beck has guided students who have gone on to careers in the recording industry, in teaching at the college level, and with major orchestras. He was a member of the U.S. Marine Band and recently retired after 40 years as timpanist with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. The author of numerous articles and the book Concepts for Timpani, Beck also has recorded on such labels as CRI and Turnabout Records.
There are 117 candidates for a bachelor's degree and 103 candidates for a master's degree from the Eastman School.
Margaret Warner Graduate School of Education and Human Development Commencement Ceremony
When: 11:15 a.m. Sunday, May 18 Where: Interfaith Chapel, River Campus
A total of 78 candidates will receive their master's degrees from the Warner School. Natalie Alford, who will receive her Ed.D. in counseling and human development in the doctoral ceremonies on Saturday, will speak to the graduates. Alford is an ordained itinerant elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and was a senior vice president at the Urban League of Rochester and chief executive officer of the Girl Scouts of Genesee Valley.
Doctoral Degree Ceremony for all divisions
When: 10 a.m. Saturday, May 17 Where: Eastman Theatre
There will be 182 doctoral degrees awarded at the Saturday morning ceremony. The ceremony includes presentation of the graduate teaching award and the Rochester Distinguished Scholar Award, given to doctoral graduates who have gone on to a distinguished career in academia, industry, or government.
Martin Gorovsky, Rush Rhees Professor of Biology, will receive the University Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching. A member of the faculty since 1970, he has mentored 23 doctoral students who have gone on to careers in classrooms, labs, and research centers around the country. His areas of research have centered on cell and molecular biology, and his work on the role small RNAs play in DNA rearrangements was named part of the 2002 Breakthrough of the Year by Science.
The Distinguished Scholar Award will be presented to Jack Crow, who earned his doctorate in physics from the University in 1967 and is known internationally for his research on magnetism and the electronic properties of materials. After joining Florida State University in 1990, he spearheaded the relocation of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory from Massachusetts Institute of Technology to Florida and was its director from 1992 until January of this year. During his tenure, the lab achieved a world-class reputation, attracting top scientists from around the world and developing educational programs for kindergarten through high school.
School of Medicine and Dentistry Master's Degree Commencement When: 4 p.m. Thursday, May 15 Where: Adolph Auditorium, Room 1-7619, Medical Center
There are 95 candidates for master's degrees from the medical school. Robert J. Joynt, former vice president and vice provost for health affairs at the University, will speak. He is also former dean of the School of Medicine and Dentistry, past chair of the Department of Neurology, and presently professor of neurology and neurobiology and anatomy. In May of 1997, the Board of the Trustees of the University named Joynt Distinguished University Professor, a title conferred on those individuals who have made substantial and varied contributions to their own scholarly field and to the University over the course of many years.
School of Medicine and Dentistry M.D. Commencement Ceremony
When: 4 p.m. Friday, May 16 Where: Eastman Theatre
There will be 83 M.D. degrees awarded by the School of Medicine and Dentistry. Ralph Snyderman will receive the Eastman Medal, which recognizes individuals who, through their outstanding achievement and dedicated service, embody the high ideals for which the University stands.
As chancellor of health affairs and chief executive officer of Duke University Health System since 1989, Snyder instituted several major initiatives that brought the medical center international recognition for academic medicine, clinical research, genetics, and the neurosciences. He has gained national prominence as an advocate for new models of patient care, especially prospective health care, which focuses on the prevention of disease. Early in his career, Snyderman was a public health officer doing research in immunology at the National Institutes of Health before accepting his first faculty appointment at Duke in 1972. He also spent two years as a vice president for at the biotech firm Genentech Inc., where he led the development and licensing of several new therapies.
William E. Simon Graduate School of Business Administration Commencement
When: 10 a.m. Sunday, June 15 Where: Eastman Theatre
The Simon School's commencement ceremony is traditionally held in June.