WHAT: Washington University’s 151st Commencement. The university will award 2,878 degrees to 2,760 undergraduate, graduate and professional students. The university also will bestow honorary degrees on six individuals.
WHO: Mike Peters, the 1981 Pulitzer Prize winner for editorial cartooning and creator of the award-winning cartoon strip Mother Goose & Grimm, will deliver the 2012 Commencement address.
During the ceremony, Peters, who is a native of St. Louis and a Washington University alum, also will receive an honorary doctor of humane letters degree. Washington University’s five other honorary degree recipients and their degrees are: David M. Becker, JD, the Joseph H. Zumbalen Professor Emeritus of the Law of Property and associate dean for external relations at WUSTL’s School of Law, doctor of humane letters; C. Ronald Kahn, MD, an internationally recognized expert in diabetes and obesity research and chief academic officer at the Joslin Diabetes Center, the world’s largest diabetes clinical and research organization, doctor of science; Richard J. Mahoney, retired chair and CEO of Monsanto, currently serves as distinguished executive in residence at WUSTL’s Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy and executive in residence at Olin Business School, doctor of science; Gloria M. Steinem, a pioneering feminist, award-winning journalist and best-selling author, doctor of humane letters; and Donald M. Suggs, DDS, oral surgeon, publisher and executive director of The St. Louis American, patron of the arts and distinguished community leader, doctor of humane letters.
WHERE: Brookings Quadrangle, which is directly west of Brookings Hall, the university’s main administration building that sits on the hill overlooking Forest Park.
WHEN: 8:30 a.m. Friday, May 18, 2012
MEDIA RESERVED SEATING: News organizations sending a reporter to Commencement need to call Sue Killenberg McGinn by 5 p.m. Thursday, May 17, to make arrangements for a reserved-seating ticket. Mult boxes will be available at the seats and near the Beaumont Pavilion stage. The reserved media seats are in the Chancellor’s section, which is at the north end of the Quad on the right-hand side of Beaumont Pavilion.
MEDIA PARKING: Reserved media parking is available near the south end of Brookings Hall. Take Forsyth Boulevard or Forest Park Parkway 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.
LIVE TV BROADCASTS: To reserve live TV parking close to the stage, trucks must be in place by 6 a.m. Friday; otherwise live trucks will have to park at the opposite end of the Quad. TV stations who plan to shoot live from Brookings Quad need to make arrangements with Liam Otten. Please call (314) 935-8494 on May 17 or (314) 324-2076 on May 18.
For more information the morning of Commencement, call Sue Killenberg McGinn at (314) 603-6008.
HIGHLIGHTS: To view WUSTL’s Gallery of Outstanding Graduates, go to http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/23792.aspx.