FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 30, 2003
CONGRESSWOMAN ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON TO SPEAK AT MILLS COLLEGE'S 115TH COMMENCEMENT, SATURDAY, MAY 17, 2003
Oakland, CA -- Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) will give the commencement address at the Mills College 115th graduation ceremony on Saturday, May 17, 2003. She is currently serving in her seventh term as representative of the District of Columbia. Lifetime Mills trustee Dr. Earl "Budd" Cheit, will receive an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws at the event.
Commencement will begin on the campus' Toyon Meadow at 9:45 a.m. with a student procession, followed by a welcome from Mills President Janet L. Holmgren. Two hundred and twenty-seven undergraduate women, and 171 graduate women and men will receive their degrees, in addition to 74 students who will receive their teaching credentials, and pre-medical and computer science certificates.
"We honor Congresswoman Norton for her valiant, lifelong leadership in advancing universal human rights and her significant achievements in politics and law," said President Janet L. Holmgren. "She is a devoted civil rights activist and powerful voice on behalf of all women in the effort to improve society through peace and empowerment. Our students will benefit from her model of extraordinary commitment and integrity."
Representative Norton served as the first woman chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission under the Carter Administration. She came to Congress as a national figure who had been a civil rights and feminist leader, a tenured professor of law, and a board member of three Fortune 500 companies. Norton also has been named one of the 100 most important American women and one of the most powerful women in Washington D.C. She earned her BA from Antioch College (Ohio) and her law degree (combined with an MA in American Studies) from Yale University. She continues to teach law at Georgetown University.Budd Cheit is the Edgar F. Kaiser Professor of Business and Public Policy Emeritus and Dean Emeritus at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business. He is receiving the honorary Doctor of Laws for his outstanding record of service to Mills, as well as his contributions to numerous Bay Area institutions of higher education and non-profit organizations.
Mills College provides undergraduate women and graduate women and men a multicultural, contemporary liberal arts education within a diverse, urban setting. The oldest women's college west of the Rockies, Mills celebrated its sesquicentennial in 2003 and is one of only ten U.S. women's colleges to mark the 150th milestone.
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