Emory Report homepage  

May 9, 2005
Celebrating Emory’s 160th graduating class

BY Katherine Baust

The tightly packed slate of Commencement activities celebrating Emory’s 160th graduating class spans five days and promises a range of activities for every facet of the Emory community.

Commencement events—which begin Thursday, May 12, and run through the main ceremony and individual school ceremonies across campus on May 16—will blend old Emory traditions, such as Sunday’s Baccalaureate Service, with new programs undertaken in partnership with the Association of Emory Alumni (AEA).

The University enjoyed a large turnout last year for the renamed Emory Weekend, which for the first time combined Commencement with Alumni Weekend. “We had larger attendance last year than ever before—three times the amount in previous years,” said Gerry Lowrey, AEA senior director of campus relations.

This year also marks the first time Oxford College will combine Commencement with its annual alumni celebration, as Oxford Weekend will be held concurrently with Emory Weekend. “We hope these combining efforts will give alumni and friends a greater opportunity to participate in events on both campuses,” said
Marvlyn Kirk, Oxford assistant director of college relations.

The 2005 Commencement schedule will kick off May 12 with a golf scramble for graduating students and their families, alumni, faculty and staff at the Stone Mountain Golf Course beginning at 8:30 a.m.

One of the celebration’s many highlights will be the dedication of the newly renovated P.E. Center and a block party on McDonough Field, followed by concerts by Tinsley Ellis and Shawn Mullins, to be held Saturday, May 14, from 12:30– 5 p.m.

Programs and departments across campus have developed discipline-specific activities for alumni from their areas, and many celebrations and receptions honoring the graduates are scheduled all over campus.

The involvement of all members of the 50th reunion class, as well as any alumni who graduated earlier than 1954, in an alumni group called Corpus Cordis Aureum (Latin for “The Golden Corps of the Heart”) is a recent addition to the Commencement tradition. They will be invited to brunch on Sunday at Miller-Ward Alumni House and will march the next morning along with the graduates clad in academic regalia onto the Quadrangle.

Tom Brokaw, renowned journalist and bestselling author, will deliver the main Commencement ceremony’s keynote address. Brokaw has won every major award in broadcast journalism, including a Peabody Award, two DuPonts and several Emmys.

Four other individuals will be recognized with honorary degrees: Oxford University administrator Robin Butler; Atlanta developer Tom Cousins, nursing scholar Sue Hegyvary (‘66N); and former Emory Law School dean Ben Johnson Jr.

The full Commencement schedule can be found at: www.emory.edu/COMMENCEMENT/ schedule.html.

TOP