CHAMPAIGN, Ill. The 130th Commencement of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will be held in two ceremonies May 13 at the Assembly Hall, 1800 S. First St., Champaign.
The speaker at both ceremonies will be Stanley O. Ikenberry, the president of the American Council on Education and president emeritus of the UI. Six guests at the ceremonies will receive honorary degrees.
At the 10:30 a.m. ceremony, candidates in the colleges of Applied Life Studies, Communications, Law, Liberal Arts and Sciences, and Veterinary Medicine; the institutes of Aviation and 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; Commerce and Business Administration; 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, remaining seats will be available to the public. Shuttle buses will stop at various locations on campus, including Assembly Hall, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
All students who have earned bachelors, masters, doctoral and professional degrees and advanced certificates during the preceding year are honored at the UIs annual commencement.
Ikenberry, the 14th president of the UI, plans to return to the UI faculty in June after five years as president of the American Council on Education, the nations principal higher education association. A professor of education and in the UI Institute of Government and Public Affairs, he plans to teach, write and consult.
Ikenberry assumed the UI presidency on Sept. 1, 1979.
Accomplishments under his leadership include consolidation of the Chicago Circle and Medical Center campuses into the UI at Chicago; and the addition of a Springfield campus; establishment of state-of-the-art facilities such as the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications; the creation of a more diverse student, faculty and staff population; and greatly expanded financial support. Ikenberrys tenure ended Aug. 1, 1995.
During his tenure at the ACE, Ikenberry helped lead the development and passage of the Clinton administrations Hope Scholarship and Lifetime Learning tax credits. He also led the effort to develop a strong policy position in preparation for the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act in 1998.
Student aid and research funding also increased sharply during Ikenberrys tenure at the ACE, spearheaded by efforts such as The Student Aid Alliance. The ACE also led efforts on several legal issues in the federal courts, and worked to relieve institutions from burdensome regulations.
The honorary degree recipients:
Robben Fleming, who will receive an Honorary Degree of Doctor of University Administration, is a retired education and university administrator. Fleming served as director of the UI Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations from 1952-58 as well as a professor of law from 1957-64 during which time he earned widespread recognition for his writings on labor law and labor arbitration. He went on to serve as chancellor of the University of Wisconsin at Madison from 1964-68 and then as president of the University of Michigan from 1968-79. His most visible role began in 1979 when he left Michigan to become the president of the Corporation of Public Broadcasting.
Lukas Foss, a professor of music theory and composition at Boston University, will receive an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Music. Foss, a distinguished American composer, conductor, pianist and pedagogue, has been a major influence on musical life in America for more than 50 years. He attended the Curtis Institute after auditioning for conductor Fritz Reiner, graduating with honors and diplomas in composition, conducting and piano at the age of 17. By the age of 20, he had won a Pulitzer Scholarship; at 22, was honored with the New York Critics Circle Award for "The Prairie"; and at 23, was the youngest composer ever to receive a Guggenheim Fellowship. He has appeared as a solo pianist with such orchestras as the New York Philharmonic and the Pittsburgh Symphony, with which he made his conducting debut.
Ekaterina Genieva, the director general of the Library for Foreign Literature, Moscow, will receive an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters. Genievas contributions to the dissemination of knowledge in Russia and her efforts to build and support open society in her country are monumental. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Genieva emerged as director of the most active library in Russia, and as a leader of cultural reform in the country. She is the president of the Soros Foundation in Russia. Under her leadership it has distributed hundreds of millions of dollars to support science, education, the arts and culture, and civil society initiatives. She also has served as first vice president of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. She has a strong UI connection through her collaboration with professor Marianna Tax Choldin, the director of the Mortenson Center for International Library Programs.
Vartan Gregorian, the president of the Carnegie Corp., will receive an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Humane Letters. Gregorian is a former president of Brown University and has been president of the New York Public Library. His leadership of the library was seen as visionary, and his fund-raising brought the library to a significant new stage of operations. He has held numerous academic appointments, teaching fellowships and professional affiliations. His background is in Armenian history and culture. He is the recipient of an Eleanor Roosevelt Val-Kill Medal (1999); his international decorations include the Grand Oficial da Ordem do Infante D. Henrique (Portugal, 1995), the Officier de lOrdre des Arts et Lettres (France, 1986), and the Cavaliere Ufficiale dellOrdine Al Meriot della Repubbica (Italy, 1986), among others. Gregorian is a member of the editorial boards of a number of publishing houses and journals.
Judith Heumann, assistant secretary for the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services in the U.S. Department of Education, will receive the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Public Administration. Heumann helped found several important disability organizations, including the World Institute on Disability and the Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities, and has worked to develop international linkages in disability research and advocacy. She pioneered modern legislation recognizing that the Constitution guarantees equality of access and opportunity to persons with disabilities. As legislative assistant to the chairperson of the Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare in 1974, she helped develop legislation that became the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act. President Clinton appointed her as a U.S. delegation member to the Fourth United Nations World Conference on Women in Beijing.
Orion Samuelson, the director of agricultural services for WGN radio and television in Chicago, will receive an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters. Samuelson, who was referred to as a "farm broadcasting institution" in 1996 when he was inducted into the Chicago Journalism Hall of Fame, has distinguished himself as the premier agricultural broadcaster in the nation and in the food agriculture system, and served as an effective communicator on behalf of agriculture to the non-farm audience. He has been invited to participate in official government missions on both the state and federal level. He has served as the director of the Chicago Board of Trade, as a trustee of the Farm Foundation and as the president of the National Association of Farm Broadcasters. He started his broadcast career in Sparta, Wis., in 1952 and moved to Chicago in 1960. In 1975, Samuelson was elected a vice president of WGN.
Among other planned activities in honor of the graduating class, the UI Symphonic Band will give a free concert for graduates, candidates and their guests at 8 p.m. May 12 in the Great Hall of the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, 500 S. Goodwin Ave., Urbana. Tickets are not required.
All graduating students and their guests are invited to a reception hosted by UI President and Mrs. James J. Stukel and Chancellor Michael Aiken from 8 to 9:30 a.m.
May 13 in the gardens of the presidents house, 711 W. Florida Ave., Urbana. Academic attire is encouraged.
Additional commencement ceremonies have been scheduled by many individual UI units. All take place on May 13, except as noted:
COLLEGES
Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences for undergraduate degrees, 9:30 a.m., Great Hall, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts; for graduate degrees, 10 a.m., Recital Hall, Smith Memorial Hall, 805 S. Mathews Ave., Urbana.
Applied Life Studies 4 p.m., 100 George Huff Hall, 1206 S. Fourth St., Champaign.
Commerce and Business Administration Departments of accountancy and business administration, 4:15 p.m. May 12, 100 George Huff Hall; MBAs and Executive MBAs, 2:30 p.m., May 12, Great Hall, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts; departments of economics and finance, 12:30 p.m., May 12, 100 George Huff Hall.
Communications 2 p.m., Foellinger Auditorium, 709 S. Mathews Ave., Urbana.
Education 10 a.m., 100 George Huff Hall.
Engineering 4:30 p.m., Assembly Hall.
Law 11 a.m. May 12, Great Hall, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.
Veterinary Medicine 1:30 p.m., Great Hall, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.
SCHOOLS
Architecture 10 a.m., Foellinger Auditorium.
Art and Design 10 a.m., Tryon Festival Theater, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.
Graduate School of Library and Information Science 1:30 p.m., Recital Hall, Smith Memorial Hall.
Life Sciences 1:30 p.m., 100 George Huff Hall.
Music 5:30 p.m., Recital Hall, Smith Memorial Hall.
Social Work 4 p.m., Illini Rooms, Illini Union, 1401 W. Green St., Urbana.
DEPARTMENTS
Chemical Engineering 1:30 p.m., 100 Noyes Laboratory, 505 S. Mathews Ave., Urbana.
Chemistry 1:30 p.m., Tryon Festival Theater, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.
Economics (LAS) and Finance (LAS) 11 a.m. May 12, Foellinger Auditorium.
Humanities I 1:30 p.m. May 13, Foellinger Auditorium.
Humanities II 4 p.m. May 13, Foellinger Auditorium.
Landscape Architecture 10:30 a.m., Sunken Garden, Allerton Park, Route 2, Monticello; in case of rain, Miller School Gymnasium, 100 W. Jefferson St., Monticello.
Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science (LAS) 4 p.m., Tryon Festival Theater, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.
Physics and Astronomy 2 p.m. May 12, 151 Loomis Laboratory of Physics, 1110 W. Green St., Urbana.
Psychology 4:30 p.m., Great Hall, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.
Social Sciences 9 a.m. May 12, 100 George Huff Hall.
Theater 10 a.m., Colwell Playhouse, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.
Urban and Regional Planning 10 a.m., Levis Faculty Center, 919 W. Illinois St., Urbana.
INSTITUTE
Labor and Industrial Relations 3 p.m. May 12, 141 Wohlers Hall, 1206 S. Sixth St., Champaign.
CONGRATULATORY PROGRAMS
African-American Cultural Program 7:30 p.m. May 12, 100 George Huff Hall.
La Casa Cultural Latina 7 p.m. May 12, Foellinger Auditorium.
INITIATION PROGRAM
Phi Beta Kappa 7:30 p.m., May 11, Illini Union Ballroom.
COMMISSIONING PROGRAM
All-Service ROTC Commissioning Ceremony 1 p.m. May 14, Foellinger Auditorium