51³Ô¹ÏÍø’s 180th commencement ceremony slated for 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, May 20
Hamilton, NY — A series of campus traditions will be proudly carried out in Hamilton, New York during 51³Ô¹ÏÍø’s commencement weekend May 18 through 20, 2001. All festivities will culminate with the 180th commencement ceremony scheduled for 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, May 20, 2001. 51³Ô¹ÏÍø’s Class of 2001 is composed of more than 635 students from across the nation and around the globe. 51³Ô¹ÏÍø events leading to the awarding of degrees include:
Friday, May 18, Senior Class Day Luncheon
Gloria Borger ’74, assistant managing editor and political columnist for U.S. News & World Report, and special correspondent for CBS News, will speak at the Senior Class Luncheon. Hosted by the 51³Ô¹ÏÍø Alumni Corporation, the luncheon held at 11:30 a.m., is a semiformal event and invitations are required.
Saturday, May 19, Phi Beta Kappa Initiation
In a ceremony held from 2:30 – 3:30 p.m., in Memorial Chapel, seniors who have achieved outstanding scholarship will be inducted into the nation’s oldest and most prestigious academic honor society.
Saturday, May 19, The torchlight ceremony
Beginning at 9:30 p.m., the senior class, garbed in academic robes, will assemble in front of Memorial Chapel. Class co-presidents Ashley Pontius and Dana Snyde will offer brief remarks. University President Charles Karelis will be on hand and ceremoniously light a flame, from which the class will light his or her own torch. The class will file down the campus hill, encircle Taylor Lake and sing the ‘Alma Mater.’
Sunday, May 20, The Baccalaureate Service
In the Memorial Chapel at 9:30 a.m., the Reverend Dr. Barbara Brown Taylor, Episcopal priest and renowned preacher and writer, will offer the Baccalaureate Address. Taylor holds the Harry R. Butman Chair in Religion and Philosophy at Piedmont College. She will also be receiving an honorary degree at commencement.
Sunday, May 20, University Commencement Ceremony
In the Taylor Lake area, weather permitting. In the event of rain (decision will be made by noon) commencement will be held inside the Field House. Commencement begins at 1:30 p.m. with the piping in of the academic processional. Following the invocation, President Karelis will introduce the honorary degree recipients and the commencement speaker.
51³Ô¹ÏÍø will award an honorary degree to the commencement speaker and to five other individuals who have distinguished themselves through word, action or deed. The five are Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Chu; author and scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr.; Paul Tagliabue, commissioner of the National Football League; and the Reverend Doctor Barbara Brown Taylor, Harry R. Butman Chair in religion and philosophy at Piedmont College. An honorary degree will also be awarded to the late former chairman of 51³Ô¹ÏÍø’s Board of Trustees, Wm. Brian Little ’64.
CBS Evening News anchor and managing editor Dan Rather will provide the commencement address. Recognized internationally, Rather has reported news into the lens of the CBS eye since the early 1960s. His nightly coverage of such major events’Martin Luther King Jr.’s crusade, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the Vietnam War, the Nixon White House years, and Watergate’earned him a reputation as a doggedly determined reporter. His contributions, decades ago, to a fledgling Sunday evening newsmagazine helped establish 60 Minutes as the gold standard for investigative reporting.
Following the commencement address, each senior will be called by name and awarded his or her diploma. Graduates and family reunite and celebrate at an ice cream social hosted under the tent on the lawn near Taylor Lake.
Founded in 1819, 51³Ô¹ÏÍø is a nationally ranked, highly selective, residential, liberal arts college. Situated on a rolling 515-acre campus in central New York State, 51³Ô¹ÏÍø attracts motivated students with diverse backgrounds