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Lafayette will grant 558 degrees to 541 graduating seniors at the College’s 169th Commencement Saturday, May 22.
The event will feature an address by Edward G. Rendell, Governor of Pennsylvania, and will include the awarding of four honorary degrees. The processional will begin at 2:15 p.m. and the program at 2:30 p.m.
Commencement will be televised live beginning at 2:15 p.m. All households within a 50-mile radius of campus can watch on RCN and WBPH-TV. The telecast will be carried statewide on PCN, Pennsylvania Cable Network. The telecast will be available nationally via satellite (KU Band, AMC 9, Transponder K 03, Downlink Frequency 11760 Vertical). It can be viewed by those who have a satellite receiver capable of dialing into the coordinates or have access to a venue such as a restaurant that has these capabilities.
Also scheduled for Saturday is a Baccalaureate service at 10:30 a.m. with an address by Ali A. Mazrui, director of the Institute of Global Cultural Studies at Binghamton University, State University of New York.
Both the Baccalaureate and Commencement ceremonies will be held on the Quad. In case of rain, they will be held in Allan P. Kirby Sports Center. Click here for information for parents on Commencement.
President Arthur J. Rothkopf ’55 will award honorary doctorates to Rendell (Doctor of Laws); Mazrui (Doctor of Divinity); Shelley Brown, executive director of the State Theatre Center for the Arts, Easton (Doctor of the Performing Arts); and LaSalle D. Leffall Jr., Charles R. Drew Professor of Surgery at Howard University College of Medicine (Doctor of Science).
Christine Bender will deliver farewell remarks for the class of 2004. She is the recipient of the George Wharton Pepper Prize, awarded to the senior who “most closely represents the Lafayette Ideal.” Bender, of Gibsonia, Pa., is graduating with two degrees, a bachelor of science (B.S.) in neuroscience and bachelor of arts (A.B.) with a major in economics and business.
Remembered will be Hanne Tischler, a member of the class of 2004 who lost her life May 6, 2001, as the result of an accidental fall from a third-story residence hall window.
The first student to receive her diploma will be Angela Guarino, who has the highest cumulative grade-point average in the class of 2004. Guarino, of Springfield, Pa., will receive an A.B. with majors in government & law and Spanish.
Alex Karapetian, Pamela Predmore, and Meghan Ramsey, cochairs of the Class of 2004 Gift Committee, will present the class gift. Karapetian, of Easton, is graduating with an A.B. with a major in mathematics. Predmore, of Dingmans Ferry, Pa., is receiving an A.B. with a major in philosophy. Ramsey, originally from Malvern, Pa., and now residing in Lakeville, Minn., is receiving a B.S. in neuroscience.
Two retiring members of the faculty who have been elected to emeritus status will be recognized by Rothkopf, Joseph J. Martin, associate professor of English, and Thomas W. Norton ’59, professor of sociology.
Three trustees elected to emeritus status will be recognized by Alan R. Griffith ’64, chair of the Board of Trustees. They are Roger B. Hansen ’65; Thomas F. McGrail ’55; and Thomas J. Neff ’59.
Rothkopf will confer degrees upon the graduates and will deliver farewell remarks. Diplomas will be presented by Gladstone A. Hutchinson, dean of studies, and James Woolley, Smith Professor of English and clerk of the faculty.
B. Vincent Viscomi, Simon Cameron Long Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, the senior member of the faculty, will lead the academic procession as Bearer of the Mace. James F. Krivoski, vice president for student affairs and dean of students, will marshal the Class of 2004.
Provost June Schlueter will march at the head of the faculty. Trustee emeritus Edward A. Jesser ’39 will lead the trustees and the platform party.
Gary R. Miller, College chaplain, will deliver the invocation, and Mazrui will give the benediction. Nina Gilbert, Lafayette’s director of choral activities, will lead the singing of “America the Beautiful.” Members of the Lafayette Choir, led by Gilbert, will lead the singing of “The Alma Mater.”