CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – The 140th commencement of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will be held in two ceremonies May 15 (Sunday) at Assembly Hall, 1800 S. First St., Champaign.
The speaker at the 10:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. ceremonies will be William M. Daley, the White House chief of staff.
Daley has been the chief of staff since January, when he was appointed by President Barack Obama. Previously, Daley served as vice chair, chairman of the Midwest region, and head of the Office of Corporate Responsibility for JPMorgan Chase & Co. Daley served as president of SBC Communications from 2001 to 2004.
Gary R. List, a retired consultant for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, has been chosen to receive an honorary doctor of science degree at the 2 p.m. ceremony. List, of Washington, Ill., has made many distinguished contributions in the field of edible oils – food products consumed by millions of people every day. His methods have been standardized and adopted worldwide in the 30 years since their development.
At the morning ceremony, candidates in the colleges of Applied Health Sciences; Law; Liberal Arts and Sciences; Media; Veterinary Medicine; the Institute of Aviation; the School of Labor and Employment 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 degrees at the afternoon 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 campus locations, including the Assembly Hall, from 9 a.m. to 4:30 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.
All graduating students and their guests are invited to a reception hosted by university President Michael Hogan and Robert Easter, interim vice president and chancellor of the Urbana campus, from 8 to 9:30 a.m. May 15 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 14 and 15 for visitors and students to view the University Honors Bronze Tablets.
Many individual U. of I. units have scheduled additional commencement ceremonies.
More information is available online.
