(From Julieta Gonzolez, 520-621-1877; [email protected])
University of Arizona students who have completed graduation requirements as of May 2001 will receive degrees Saturday, May 12 at McKale Center. UA President Peter Likins will confer degrees upon 3,538 undergraduate, 673 master's and 185 doctoral candidatess. Additionally, 131 law degrees, 105 medical degrees and 60 pharmacy degrees will be conferred. The procession of degree candidates begins at 9 a.m. for the morning ceremony and 1:30 p.m. for the afternoon session.
Press photographers should note: Platforms will be located on the floor of McKale to facilitate video and still photographers. You may photograph from anywhere inside McKale until the ceremonies begin. Photographers shall then clear the floor aisles and use the platforms or remain in the corners.
The scheduled speaker for both ceremonies is UA head basketball coach, Lute Olson. Beginning in 1983, Olson took over the reigns of the UA basketball program after having coached nine successful seasons at Iowa. Olson quickly turned around the UA program and led it to the national championship in 1997 and four Final Four appearances. Olson's career has produced many major achievements and has created and inspired a strong tradition at the UA that has brought him national acclaim.
Honorary degrees and awards:
Bruce Alberts will be presented for the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science. Alberts has had a highly distinguished career in biophysics. A graduate of Harvard University, Alberts is dedicated to science education for students throughout the educational spectrum-from kindergarten through graduate school. He is the lead author on the best-selling biochemistry book world wide, "The Molecular Biology of the Cell." Alberts is a member of the editorial board of "Current Opinion in Biological Sciences" and "Molecular Biology of the Cell." He served as the Waddell Lecturer in the Arizona Cancer Center six years ago and this year as the featured speaker and faculty member for the campus-wide "Biology Day."
Betsey Bayless will be presented for the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Humane Letters. Arizona Secretary of State, Betsey Bayless, is a third generation Arizonan with a long and distinguished record of service. A graduate of the UA and ASU, Bayless drew national attention in 1998 as one of the "Arizona Five," a term that refers to the fact that Arizona's top five elected officials are women. She has served as chair of the Maricopa Board of Supervisors; as acting director of the Arizona Department of Revenue and as director of the Arizona Board of Corrections. Her community activities include membership of the Arizona Center for the Book Board of Directors, Honorary Chairmanship of the Arizona Friends of Small Business, and as a member of the Governor's Commission on Violence Against Women. Bayless presently serves on the National Board of Advisors of the Eller College of Business and Public Administration.
John H. Bryant will be presented for the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science. Bryant has long-time roots in southern Arizona. After serving as a Naval pilot in World War II, he enrolled at the UA and graduated in 1949. In 1953, he received his medical degree from Columbia University and has been engaged in issues of international public health since that time. He has served at the National Institutes of Health; the Max Planck Institute; Washington University and on the Rockefeller Foundation with an emphasis on issues related to Southeast Asia. Bryant has also served as Dean of the Columbia University School of Public Health and as Director of the Office of International Health under former Secretary of Health Education and Welfare, Joseph Calafano. Most recently he was Chairman of the Aga Khan University Department of Community Health Sciences in Pakistan. Bryant represented the United States at numerous world health conferences as well and in 1989 he was awarded the Surgeon General's Medallion by C. Everett Koop, then Surgeon General of the United States. He is president of the Council of the International Organizations for Medical Sciences which has been asked by the World Health Organization (WHO) to collaborate on special concerns for the ethical content of a global health charter.
Nicolas Kanellos will be presented for the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Humane Letters. Kanellos has been in the forefront of shaping the discipline of U.S. Latino studies since the 1970s. As a scholar, he has lectured around the world and published more than 50 articles and 26 books, anthologies and editions of works of U.S. Latino writers. Kanellos has distinguished himself as an editor and is currently the publisher of Arte Publico Press, the oldest and largest publisher of U.S. Hispanic literature and scholarship. The Press releases approximately 30 titles yearly. He also edits "The Americas Review." He serves as director of a research project titled "Recovering the Hispanic Literary Heritage of the United States." The goal of this $20 million, ten-year project is to locate, study, index and commit to print and electronic media the whole of U.S. Hispanic literature from Colonial times to 1960. A graduate of Farleigh Dickinson University and the University of Texas, Kanellos is currently the Brown Foundation Professor of Hispanic Literature at the University of Houston.
Delbert R. Lewis will be presented for the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science. A UA graduate from the College of Engineering and Mines, Lewis and his wife, Jewell McFarland Lewis, also a UA graduate, have been at the helm of what is now KTVK-TV, Channel 3 in Phoenix since the 1950s. At that time, fledgling television station was in its infancy and the holding company they formed eventually grew to include numerous television and radio stations and print publications. The couple remained at the helm of the holding company until 1999. As the Lewis' built their media company, they raised a family and served the community extensively. They've lobbied for greater financial support for Arizona's three public universities and have remained loyal supporters of the UA. Lewis has served on the Alumni Association's National Board of Directors; the Campaign Arizona Steering Committee, the College of Engineering and Mines Campaign Leadership Team and the Sarver Heart Center Board of Advisors.
Jewell McFarland Lewis will be presented for the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Humane Letters. A UA, George Washington University and ASU graduate, she married Delbert in 1951. Lewis' commitment to public education has been a life-long endeavor for her. She's taught elementary and special reading classes in Florence and served in the Coolidge Public Schools as a reading specialist and reading director. Lewis has belonged and contributed to the Right to Read State Advisory Council, the Center for Excellence in Education, and the Senior Volunteer Program Board. She and her husband have championed the cause of education state-wide and especially at the UA.
Harry H. Wasserman will be presented for the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science. A member of the National Academy of Sciences, Wasserman won the American Chemical Society Award for Creative Work in Synthetic Organic Chemistry in 1987. He is recognized internationally for his involvement during the past 40 years in the publication of chemical literature. Presently, Wasserman serves as chairman of the executive board of editors for Tetrahedron Publications, a division of Pergamon Press. Wasserman has visited the UA as a Distinguished Visiting Professor on a regular basis. With the Dean of Science and several chemistry department heads over the years, Wasserman has helped in the formulation of strategies to strengthen the department. He has engaged senior faculty as guest editors for editions of "Tetrahedron Symposia in Print" and has befriended and offered professional advice to faculty, graduate students and post-doctoral students. A Harvard graduate, he has served on the faculty of Yale University since 1948 and since then, has served as chair of the Department of Chemistry and director of the Division of Physical Sciences.
The Alumni Achievement Award will be presented to Henry Koffler and to Roman W. DeSanctis. Barely escaping the Holocaust, Koffler arrived in the US from Vienna, Austria on Thanksgiving in 1939 at the age of 17. He enrolled at the UA in 1940 and received a bachelor's degree in agriculture. At the University of Wisconsin at Madison, he earned his master's and doctorate degrees. At the age of 24, he joined the faculty of Purdue University. In 1959, he became head of the biological sciences department at Purdue. In 1982, Koffler returned to the UA as president. He holds the unique position of having been the first alumnus president of the UA. Under his administration, the Office for Minority Student Affairs was established as was the Academic Preparation for Excellence (APEX). APEX is a cooperative initiative which involves members of the university and the community to serve as mentors to financially disadvantaged youth. He began the restructuring of undergraduate education and radically re-shaped the life sciences to make it possible for those areas to leap to their present research capacities.
DeSanctis, an internationally recognized cardiologist, graduated from the UA in 1951. He graduated from Harvard Medical School with the highest honors and has served on the staff of Massachusetts General Hospital and on the Harvard Medical School faculty. Described by colleagues as "truly the cardiologist's cardiologist," he has held visiting professorships at Baylor, USC, Dartmouth, the University of Vermont and the UA. DeSantis is a fellow of the American College of Physicisans and the American College of Cardiology. He is the author of more than 100 scholarly papers and numerous review articles along with one book and editor of two others.
Student Awards: The Robie Medal will be presented to Sundeep Singh Suchdev and to Kaleen Love. Suchdev will receive a bachelor's degree in sociology in Latin American studies. Suchdeve spent much of his undergraduate time educating people about the issues of prejudice and discrimination. An organization he participated in is Beyond Tolerance, a group that emphasizes diversity education and advocates against racism within the university community. He's also been active in Students Against Sweatshops, the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Student Advisory Council and in "Turban Jones," a ska/swing band he started. Love will receive her undergraduate degree in political science and economic. She co-funded a student group called Project S.H.I.N.E. which stands for Students Helping in the Need for Education. The group helps place university students in local elementary schools for volunteer work. Love has served on the Associated Students' Presidential Cabinet, volunteered as a board member for Project Volunteer, and has volunteered at the Park Villa Convalescent Center. Love has been inducted and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa in recognition of her scholarship.
Nugent Award recipients are Ben Graff and Jean Yates. Graff will receive a bachelor's degree in psychology. He's been involved in many campus activities, including Kappa Sigma fraternity, the Associated Students' voter registration drive and has been elected to the student senate, as executive vice president and student body president. As president, Graff oversaw the implementation of online elections and created the Academic Advising Task Force to improve advising services for students. He's also a self-proclaimed guitar player and song-writer. Yates will receive a bachelor of arts and a bachelor of science in Management Information Systems from the Eller College of Business and Public Administration. She helped found Women in the Digital Economy, a group which creates and implements programs that will attract women to the filed of management information systems. Also, the group began a speakers series and a community network to bring students and business leaders together. Yates also co-founded Students Consulting for Non-profit Organizations (SCNO). This group of 100 students works to apply their practical busness skills and problem solving abilities to non-profit groups in the Tucson community.
The Freeman Medal Award winners are Bosun Hau and Katie Larson. Hau will receive three degrees in the departments of Psychology; Molecular and Cellular Biology and Physiology from the Colleges of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Science and Health Professions. Hau has been active in student affairs in the president's cabinet of the Associated Students and has been a student representative on the Faculty Senate. He's won many academic awards, including induction into Phi Beta Kappa and has volunteered at University Medical Center and Kino Community Hospital. Larson will graduate with a bachelor of arts degree in creative writing and a bachelor of science degree in ecology and evolutionary biology. She volunteers on a regular basis at Casa de Los Ni--os crisis nursery and with a hospice care program. Larson has performed volunteer work in Mexico, Eastern Europe and Uganda with the sick and dying of those nations. She's also been active in Outdoor Adventure, a climbing and hiking club.
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