Release date: May 10, 2002
Contact: Deb Hammacher, Associate Director, Media Relations,
at 404-727-0644 or dhammac@emory.edu

Commencement May 13 For 3,300+ Graduates

Following the lead of last year's innovation, Emory University graduates will hear brief speeches from all the honorary degree recipients at commencement on Monday, May 13. The keynote speaker and honorary degree recipient at the 8 a.m. ceremony will be Alfred Uhry, Pulitzer Prize- and Academy Award-winning author of "Driving Miss Daisy" and a native of Druid Hills. The central ceremony will be followed by individual college and school diploma ceremonies. The ceremony will be broadcast live and then archived via the Internet. To view, visit here.

Emory President William M. Chace will preside at the 90-minute ceremony, which will take place on the Emory quadrangle for approximately 3,323 graduating students and their families.

The academic procession under the direction of Chief Marshal Ray DuVarney, professor of physics, will be led across the university's historic quadrangle by the kilt-clad Atlanta Pipe Band. Dressed in full Scottish Highland attire, the bagpipe ensemble will march to "Emory and Old St. Andrews March," written by Emory alumnus Henry D. Frantz Jr. in honor of Emory's sister university, the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. The Atlanta Symphony Brass Quintet will alternate with the pipe band.

Members of the procession will be dressed in the academic regalia of caps, gowns and hoods adopted by the class of 1902. Depending on their field of study, the hoods of graduates will be scarlet, gold, purple, salmon, sapphire, apricot, white, green or dark blue.

Honorary degrees will be conferred upon four individuals in addition to Uhry in recognition of outstanding contributions to their respective arenas. They are: Benoit Mandelbrot, called "the Einstein of mathematics" for his work on geometric "fractal sets"; Mamphela Ramphele, managing director of the World Bank and former vice chancellor of the University of Cape Town (the first black woman to hold the latter post); and Hugh Thompson and Larry Colburn, heroes of the 1968 My Lai massacre.

The Thomas Jefferson Award, the university's premier faculty/administrative officer award for significant service to the institution, and the University Scholar/Teacher Award, given on behalf of the United Methodist Church Board of Higher Education and Ministry, will be presented. The Marion Luther Brittain Award, the most prestigious student award for service to the university, also will be presented.

Following the central ceremony, students will report to various locations on campus to receive diplomas from their individual schools. The diploma ceremony for Emory College (the undergraduate arts and sciences school) will be held on the quadrangle.

NOTE TO EDITORS: Please contact Deb Hammacher at 404-727-0644 for information regarding press registration, parking and rain plans if you are planning to cover Emory's commencement and have not already received the media guidelines earlier this week.

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