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Commencement ceremonies take place May 13 at Illinois
Jeff Unger,
News Bureau 217-333-1085
Released
4/27/07
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. —
The 136th commencement of the University of Illinois will be held in two ceremonies May 13
(Sunday) at the Assembly Hall, 1800 S. First St., Champaign.
The speaker at both ceremonies will be alumnus Jawed Karim, a co-founder
of YouTube, a popular video-sharing Web site.
At the 10:30 a.m. ceremony, candidates in the colleges of Applied Health
Sciences, Communications, Law, Liberal Arts and Sciences, and Veterinary
Medicine; the Institute of Aviation; the Institute of Labor and Industrial
Relations; the School of Social Work; and the Graduate School of Library
and Information Science will receive degrees.
Candidates in the colleges of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental
Sciences; Business; Education; Engineering; and Fine and Applied Arts
will receive their degrees at the 2 p.m. ceremony.
Doors will open at 9:30 a.m. for the morning ceremony and at 1 p.m.
for the afternoon ceremony. After all students and their guests are
seated, the remaining seats will be available to the public. Shuttle
buses also will stop at various locations on campus, including Assembly
Hall, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
All students who have earned bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral
and professional degrees and advanced certificates during the preceding
year are honored at the annual commencement.
Karim will be the first recipient of the Chancellor’s No Boundaries
Award. This distinction will be conferred upon alumni younger than 40
whose accomplishments reflect the Illinois heritage of excellence, service
and global reach.
Karim attended Illinois from 1997 until 2000, when he joined PayPal
to become one of its first developers. He completed his remaining credits
at Illinois by correspondence and earned a bachelor’s degree in
computer science in 2004.
In 2005, Karim co-founded YouTube with two friends, co-developing the
concept and product. He subsequently acted as an adviser to the company
and now is a graduate student in computer science at Stanford University.
He is also an investor in early stage startups through Youniversity
Ventures, an advisory venture fund he founded.
Those who will receive honorary degrees during the 2 p.m. ceremony:
• William D. Nix, Lee Otterson Professor of Engineering at Stanford
University, is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a
fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the
National Academy of Sciences, and has received several awards over
the course of his career. He will receive an honorary Doctor of Engineering.
Nix has studied the mechanical properties of materials for more than
40 years. His work has led to the development of many techniques used
to study thin film mechanical properties. He and his students also
research the growth, characterization and modeling of thin film microstructures,
especially as they relate to the development of intrinsic stresses.
Nix received his doctorate from Stanford in 1963.
• Genshitsu Sen, Former Grandmaster of the Urasenke Tradition
of Tea, is widely known as a global-minded promoter of the culture
embraced by the Way of Tea and World Peace. He has introduced the Way
of Tea to royalty and leaders around the world. He will receive an
honorary Doctor of Fine Arts.
The recipient of the Chancellor’s Medallion, given in recognition
of life’s work, will be Timothy J. Nugent, professor and director
emeritus of the Division of
Rehabilitation-Education Services at Illinois. During his 37-year
career at the U. of I., Nugent developed functional rehabilitation and
training programs that are now common to virtually all rehabilitation
programs today.
The alumni association will present four awards at the commencement
ceremonies:
Receiving the Alumni Achievement Award:
Philip L. Francis, president and chief executive officer of the retail
chain PETsMART Inc. Under his leadership, the company has grown to more
than 900 stores nationwide and expanded its services to offer in-store
veterinary care, boarding, training, grooming and placement of lost
and abandoned animals on behalf of animal rescue groups. Francis began
his career in Champaign through an internship with the grocery retailer
Jewel, eventually rising to become the company’s executive vice
president. He has also held top posts with Cardinal Foods and Shaw’s
Supermarkets. In 1998, while a member of PETsMART’s board of directors,
Francis decided to take on his present job while involved in a search
for the right executive to fill the position. A leader in the United
Way, he is active in civic affairs in the Phoenix area, where he lives.
Francis graduated from Illinois in 1968 with a bachelor’s degree
in agricultural sciences from the College
of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences.
Robert Eden Martin, a former chairman and partner at Sidley Austin LLP,
continues to serve the Chicago law firm in “of counsel”
status. He is known for outstanding regulatory and appellate work.
He has appeared before the supreme courts of Illinois and the United
States and in appellate and federal circuit courts around the state
and nation. In addition to his professional work, he has devoted considerable
time to charitable and civic leadership positions, including serving
as the current president of the Commercial Club of Chicago, which addresses
the city’s social and economic issues. A longtime board member
of the U. of I. Foundation, Martin is involved in leadership roles in
a range of organizations and companies, such as the Chicago Board Options
Exchange, Nicor, Aon, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Chicago
Historical Society. In addition to serving the needs of one of the nation’s
largest cities, he remains involved with his small hometown of Sullivan
and the history of the surrounding area. Martin received a bachelor’s
degree in science and letters from the College
of Liberal Arts and Sciences in 1962.
Dr. Arnyce R. Pock, the medical director for the Air Force Medical Corps,
has advanced the cause of military health worldwide. She led development
of the U.S. International Health Specialist Program and serves as chief
of medical force management for the U.S. Air Force Medical Service.
Pock has cultivated relationships and alliances on behalf of the Air
Force in England, Gambia, Iraq, Ireland, Russia and South Africa and
with NATO’s medical reserve force. The recipient of five Meritorious
Service medals and commendation and achievement medals from the Air
Force, Pock has been involved in such military operations as Desert
Shield and Desert Storm and in the support of a space shuttle mission.
She is a fellow of the American College of Physicians and is board-certified
as an internal medicine specialist. A member of ROTC as a student, Pock
earned a bachelor of science degree in biology in 1981 from LAS.
Receiving the Distinguished Service Award:
Thanks to a gift from Lila Jeanne “Shorty” Eichelberger
and her late husband, Paul, the U. of I.’s softball team has its
own “field of dreams” – Eichelberger Field. The stadium,
dedicated in his memory in 2001, hosts a state-of-the-art, 1,500-seat
facility considered to be one of the premier softball complexes in the
nation. In addition to her unwavering support of softball, Eichelberger
was a charter member of the support clubs for UI baseball, women’s
basketball, soccer and volleyball and remains a fan of football and
men’s basketball as well. Eichelberger, a former teacher, actively
volunteers in the community and has given generously to the UI Foundation,
the Division of Intercollegiate Athletics, 4-H and the College of ACES.
She received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in home
economics in 1949 and 1952, respectively, and an advanced certificate
in education in 1968.
Receiving the Alumni Humanitarian Award:
Kenneth and Colleen Braid used a tragedy in their own lives to educate
young people about the harmful effects of steroid use – which
took the life of their 16-year-old son in 1994. The Braids channeled
their grief into starting the J. Kyle Braid Leadership Foundation in
Villa Grove, Colo., an organization that offers summer leadership training
to upcoming high school juniors in the hope that these role models may
help make a
life-saving difference to their peers in need. Since the foundation’s
inception, the Braids have hosted more than 1,300 students from all
over the nation, as well as conducted seminars to help coaches better
understand their student-athletes. More than 70 graduates of the J.
Kyle Braid Leadership Foundation have enrolled as students at Illinois.
The Braids received their UI bachelor’s degrees in physical education
in 1974.
All graduating students
and their guests are invited to a reception hosted by university President
B. Joseph White and Richard Herman, the chancellor of the Urbana campus,
from 8 to 9:30 a.m. May 13 in the gardens of the president’s house,
711 W. Florida Ave., Urbana. Academic attire is encouraged.
The first floor of the main library will be open from 1 to 4 p.m. May
12 and May 13 for visitors and students to view the University
Honors Bronze Tablets.
For information on additional commencement ceremonies of individual
U. of I. units, visit: http://www.admin.uiuc.edu/commencement/spring07.htm.
