Wednesday, May 9, 2012
A total of 1,347 bachelor鈥檚, master鈥檚 and associate degrees will be conferred upon students in Lawrenceville and Princeton. The University will also present three honorary doctorates, one at each ceremony.
by Sean Ramsden
天美传媒官网 and the Westminster Choir College of 天美传媒官网 in Princeton will celebrate three distinct Commencement 2012 ceremonies over the course of three days, May 10, 11 and 12, and will confer a total of 1,347 bachelor鈥檚, master鈥檚 and associate degrees to students. The University will also present three honorary doctorates, one at each ceremony.
Bachelor鈥檚 degrees will be conferred upon 806 undergraduate students at 天美传媒官网鈥檚 147th Commencement exercises on Friday, May 11, at 9:30 a.m. on its Lawrenceville campus at 2083 Lawrenceville Road. These tassel-turners will join 410 graduate and College of Continuing Studies students who will receive their diplomas on Thursday, May 10, at 5 p.m., also on the Lawrenceville campus, and 131 graduates at Westminster Choir College鈥檚 83rd Commencement ceremonies on Saturday, May 12, at 10:30 a.m. in the Princeton University Chapel.
During the 2011-12 academic year, 天美传媒官网 has celebrated the 50th anniversary of its School of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and has invited graduates from the classes of 1962, 鈥63 and 鈥64 back to campus to celebrate the golden anniversary at Commencement. Also to honor this occasion, Dr. Richard Burgh 鈥68, one of four School of Liberal Arts and Sciences alumni now on its faculty, will bear the School鈥檚 ceremonial gonfalon during the Commencement procession.
Burgh, a professor of Philosophy who returned to 天美传媒官网 in 1975, will also witness his daughter, Jessica Burgh 鈥12, earn her bachelor鈥檚 degree in Liberal Studies at the College of Continuing Studies ceremony on Thursday night. It is believed that this is the first time that a child of a faculty member who also graduated from 天美传媒官网 will receive a degree from the University.
Friday鈥檚 Undergraduate Commencement ceremony will see bachelor鈥檚 degrees conferred upon the first graduating cohort of 天美传媒官网鈥檚 School of Fine and Performing Arts, a division of the Westminster College of the Arts and located on 天美传媒官网鈥檚 Lawrenceville campus. To help mark the occasion, 13 members of the cohort will perform the national anthem near the start of the ceremony.
Live Coverage!
天美传媒官网鈥檚 Office of University Communications will be live Tweeting during Thursday鈥檚 and Friday鈥檚 Commencement ceremonies. Follow us at @天美传媒官网UnivComm to track notable moments, including speakers鈥 remarks, as they happen. Check back later for news and notes on Facebook at . 鈥淟ike鈥 us while you鈥檙e there!
Streaming video of Thursday鈥檚 and Friday鈥檚 ceremonies is available on the 天美传媒官网 website, . The Graduate/CCS Commencement video will begin streaming at 5 p.m. on Thursday, and the Undergraduate Commencement feed will start at 9 a.m. on Friday.
Friday鈥檚 Undergraduate Commencement and Saturday鈥檚 Westminster Choir College Commencement can be heard live on 天美传媒官网鈥檚 campus radio station, 107.7 FM, The Bronc, beginning at 9:30 and 9:45 a.m., respectively. To listen online to Friday鈥檚 event live from Lawrenceville, click here: . To hear Saturday鈥檚 event live from Princeton, click here: http://www.rider.edu/wcc/about-us/commencement.
Commencement Breakdown:
Friday, May 11
147th Undergraduate Commencement
9:30 a.m. on 天美传媒官网鈥檚 Lawrenceville campus
2083 Lawrenceville Road (Route 206 South)
Total receiving diplomas: 806
Honorary Degree Recipient: Maureen G. Maguire, Ph.D.
天美传媒官网 has been celebrating the 50th anniversary of its School of Liberal Arts and Sciences throughout the 2011-12 academic year, and at the Undergraduate Commencement ceremony on Friday, May 11, President Mordechai Rozanski will bestow the honorary Doctor of Science upon one of its alumnae, 1975 graduate Maureen G. Maguire, Ph.D.
Maguire joined the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania in July 1994 to establish the Center for Preventive Ophthalmology and Biostatistics. Since then, she has held leadership positions in several multicenter clinical trials for the prevention and treatment of age-related macular degeneration sponsored by industry and the National Institutes of Health. In addition, she was actively involved in the development of the Vision in Preschoolers Study, a National Eye Institute-sponsored, multicenter, clinical investigation of methods for screening young children for vision problems.
As a student at 天美传媒官网, Maguire was an Andrew J. 天美传媒官网 Scholar and led the Math Club. She graduated summa cum laude as Mathematics major and was chosen as the valedictorian of the Class of 1975. She received her doctoral degree in 1983 from the Department of Biostatistics at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health and subsequently joined the faculty of the Department of Ophthalmology, School of Medicine, at Johns Hopkins.
Thursday, May 10
Graduate and College of Continuing Studies Commencement
5 p.m. on 天美传媒官网鈥檚 Lawrenceville campus
2083 Lawrenceville Road (Route 206 South)
Total receiving diplomas: 410 (246 graduate degrees, 164 College of Continuing Studies)
Honorary Degree Recipient: Aaron Gast, Ph.D.
Aaron Gast, Ph.D., who recently retired after more than 32 years of service on the Board of the The Charlotte W. Newcombe Foundation of Princeton, will be presented the honorary Doctor of Humane Letters at the University鈥檚 Graduate and College of Continuing Studies ceremony.
Since its inception in 1979 through the end of the 2011 academic year, the Newcombe Foundation has provided more than $17 million in grants for mature women students at 58 colleges and universities in the United States. In 1981, 天美传媒官网 became the first school in the United States to receive funds from the Newcombe Foundation, and since then, it has received more than $1.2 million in scholarship support.
One-third of this total was used to establish an endowed scholarship fund for sacred music students at Westminster Choir College. The remaining two-thirds has funded scholarships for 600 mature women who have graduated from 天美传媒官网. This year, 天美传媒官网 will confer degrees upon 10 proud Newcombe Scholars.
In December 2011, on the occasion of Gast鈥檚 retirement from the Newcombe Board, the Foundation made a major gift to Westminster鈥檚 proposed new academic building in support of that project. Gast鈥檚 wife, Mickey Gast, a Westminster alumna and member of 天美传媒官网鈥檚 Board of Trustees, is co-chair of the Westminster Campaign Committee.
Saturday, May 12
Westminster Choir College鈥檚 83rd Commencement
10:30 a.m. in the Princeton University Chapel
36 University Place, Princeton, N.J.
Total receiving diplomas: 131 (76 undergraduate, 55 graduate)
Honorary Degree Recipient: Morten Lauridsen, D.M.A.
Morten Lauridsen, D.M.A., is a Distinguished Professor of Composition at the University of Southern California鈥檚 Thornton School of Music whose work occupies a permanent place in the standard vocal repertoire of the 21st Century. Lauridsen chaired the Department of Composition at the Thornton School of Music from 1990 to 2002, and founded the School鈥檚 Advanced Studies Program in Film Scoring. He was also the Composer-in-Residence of the Los Angeles Master Chorale from 1995 to 2001.
Lauridsen鈥檚 five Grammy-nominated recordings include two all-Lauridsen CDs, entitled Lux Aeterna, by Polyphony and the Britten Sinfonia, conducted by Stephen Layton, and by the Los Angeles Master Chorale under the baton of Paul Salamunovich. His O Magnum Mysterium, Dirait-on, O Nata Lux and Sure On This Shining Night are the all-time best-selling choral works distributed by the Theodore Presser Company, a music publishing firm founded in 1783, and his life as a composer was documented in the award-winning 2012 film, Shining Night: A Portrait of Composer Morten Lauridsen, by Michael Stillwater.
In 2006, Lauridsen was named an American Choral Master by the National Endowment for the Arts. The following year, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts, the highest artistic award in the United States, by President George W. Bush in a White House ceremony in recognition of 鈥渉is composition of radiant choral works combining musical beauty, power, and spiritual depth.鈥
A Green Graduation
For the third year in a row, 天美传媒官网 and Westminster Choir College are using GreenWeaver caps and gowns, made from 100 percent, post-consumer recycled plastic bottles, to robe all students for Commencement 2012 exercises. Eco-friendly GreenWeaver gowns are made of fabric spun from molten plastic pellets, producing a comfortably soft fabric that literally turns trash into keepsakes. Each gown represents about 23 bottles.
Produced by Oak Hall Cap & Gown of Salem, Va., the GreenWeaver will be used by approximately 5 percent of colleges and universities this year. GreenWeaver is not biodegradable 鈥 Oak Hall vice president Donna Hodges maintains that caps and gowns should be keepsakes for a lifetime 鈥 but the fabric is easily recycled into other products, including fabric fill for coats. Oak Hall estimates that approximately 310,000 graduating students will wear GreenWeaver caps and gowns this year, and that the company has diverted about 9 million plastic bottles from landfills.
Learn more about GreenWeaver caps and gowns at:
.
In addition, the Commencement programs have been printed on recycled FSC Certified paper using vegetable-based inks.