WHAT:
Washington University’s 143rd Commencement. The university will bestow degrees on 2,589 undergraduate, graduate and professional students. The university also will bestow honorary degrees on six individuals.
WHERE:
Brookings Quadrangle, which is directly west of Brookings Hall, the university’s main administration building that sits on hill overlooking Forest Park.
WHEN:
8:30 a.m. Friday, May 21, 2004
HIGHLIGHTS:
• Thomas L. Friedman, a three-time Pulitzer Prize-winner, best-selling author and foreign-affairs columnist for The New York Times, will deliver the Commencement address, titled “Imagination.”
• During the ceremony, Friedman also will receive an honorary doctor of laws degree. Washington University’s five other honorary degree recipients and their degrees are: Joe Edwards, the driving force behind the revitalization of The Loop in University City, doctor of laws; David M. Kipnis, M.D., the Distinguished University Professor of Medicine and of Molecular Biology and Pharmacology at Washington University, doctor of science; Theodore McMillian, a judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit, doctor of humanities; the late Robert M. Walker, Ph.D., former professor of physics in Arts & Sciences and faculty fellow of the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences at Washington University, doctor of science; and Edith Wolff, a generous University supporter and St. Louis philanthropist and volunteer, doctor of science.
• Lee M. Liberman, chairman emeritus of Laclede Gas Company and life trustee at Washington University, will receive a doctor of philosophy in interdisciplinary studies from the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. At 82 — he’ll be 83 in July — Liberman will be the oldest person to receive an academic degree at this year’s graduation. (It is believed that he is the oldest person to receive a doctorate from the university.)
MEDIA SEATING:
News organizations sending a reporter to Commencement should call Sue Killenberg McGinn by 5 p.m. May 20 to make arrangements for a reserved seating ticket.
RESERVED MEDIA PARKING:
Reserved media parking is available at the south end of Brookings Hall. Take Forsyth to Hoyt Drive; take Hoyt to south leg of the circle drive that leads up to Brookings Hall, where a parking attendant will direct you. Please show attendant a media ID.
VIOLENT WEATHER PLAN:
Commencement will be held outside rain or shine. However, in case of violent weather, Commencement for undergraduates will be held in the Athletic Complex’s Field House, still beginning at 8:30 a.m. If the violent weather schedule is necessary, media will be notified by 7:30 a.m. Friday.
For more information the morning of Commencement, page Sue Killenberg McGinn at (314) 836-7357.