Wednesday, April 28, 1999
WRITER:
Sharron Hannon, 706/542-1024, [email protected]
CONTACTS:
Gary Bertsch, 706/542-2985, [email protected]
Betty Jean Craige, 706/542-3966,[email protected]
PRESIDENT CARTER HONORED FOR 'WAGING PEACE'
Mrs. Carter, Carter Center also share inaugural Delta Prize for Global Understanding
ATHENS, Ga. -- Former President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn were honored April 27 in Atlanta for their efforts to "wage peace," even as the House of Representatives prepares to vote on the U.S. military role in the Balkan conflict.
The two were presented the inaugural Delta Prize for Global Understanding, a new award created by the University of Georgia with a grant from the Delta Air Lines Foundation. The award recognizes groups or individuals for globally significant efforts that provide opportunities for greater understanding among nations and cultures. The Atlanta-based Carter Center also was included in the inaugural award presentation.
"It is very difficult to wage peace," Carter said in accepting the award. "It is slow, tedious, frustrating, often unsuccessful and rarely publicized. War is very successful and very popular -- disturbingly so. That is particularly true if the only casualties are among other people."
Nominations for the Delta Prize, which will be presented annually, are solicited worldwide. The award includes a $10,000 cash prize and an original work of art. The award was conceived by two University of Georgia faculty members: Gary Bertsch, director of the Center for International Trade and Security, and Betty Jean Craige, director of the Center for Humanities and Arts.
"At a time of international turmoil, we take pride in recognizing the work of the Carters," said UGA President Michael F. Adams. "If ever there was a time to focus on world peace, it's now."
Maurice Worth, chief operating officer of Delta Air Lines, praised the Carters for "leading principled lives" and for their "powerful and ennobling vision, guided and focused by their deep faith." Worth noted that an international selection committee chose the Carters. "In retrospect, it almost seems like the award was created with them in mind," he said.
"This award is very significant," Carter said, "because peace and global understanding are two subjects that don't get enough attention."
In his acceptance remarks, Carter said many of the world's problems are caused by an inability of people to communicate with each other in a respectful way. "Conflicts between two nations have the same basic cause as conflicts within nations and conflicts between students, between husbands and wives, and parent and child," he said. "That's the belief on both sides that 'I'm right, they're wrong.'"
"My hope is that these words -- peace and global understanding -- can be more widely and prevalently absorbed as part of our consciousness," he added.
Prior to the award ceremony, Kent C. (Oz) Nelson, retired chairman and CEO of United Parcel Service and a member of the board of trustees of the Carter Center, spoke about the work done by the Carters and the Carter Center to champion human rights, promote democracy and alleviate human suffering in neglected areas of the world, including several African nations.
He was joined by a panel that included CNN anchor and senior correspondent Judy Woodruff; John Hardman and Ambassador Gordon Streeb, both with the Carter Center; and University of Georgia student Bronson Lee, who was involved with other students in the Delta Prize selection process. The event opened with Lee and three fellow students sharing an African welcome song in Swahili, which they learned in travels to Tanzania last summer.
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NOTE: Photos from the award ceremony and preceding symposium can be retrieved electronically from ftp://ftp.alumni.uga.edu/pub/Photo/news%20releases. For other assistance, call Peter Frey (706/542-8086) or Rick O'Quinn (706/542-8085).
Additional information about the Delta Prize for Global Understanding can be found on the Delta Prize Web site: http://www.uga.edu/news/deltaprize.
Tuesday, April 27, 1999
WRITER: Larry B. Dendy, 706/542-8078
CONTACT: Victor Wilson, 706/542-9167
UGA TO HOLD SPRING COMMENCEMENT MAY 8
Graduating University of Georgia seniors will step into the future with advice from one the nation's most famous entrepreneurs when Atlanta cable pioneer R. E. (Ted) Turner speaks at spring semester commencement May 8.
Turner--vice chairman of Time Warner, Inc. and the mind behind CNN, TBS and other major cable television operations -- will speak at the 197th ceremony for undergraduates at 9:30 a.m. in Sanford Stadium and will receive an honorary doctor of laws degree. In case of rain, the ceremony will be held in Stegeman Coliseum in two sessions, at 9:30 and 11:30 a.m.
An estimated total of nearly 5,000 students is eligible to receive degrees during the ceremonies, which are for students who complete degree requirements at the end of spring semester.
Commencement for candidates for master's, specialist and doctoral degrees will be at 2:30 p.m. in Stegeman Coliseum. William McFeely, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and retired UGA faculty member, will speak.
UGA Registrar Gary Moore estimates that 3,739 students will be eligible to receive bachelor's and professional degrees, and 1,250 will be eligible to receive graduate degrees. The actual number who complete requirements for degrees won't be known until the end of spring semester final exams, which will be held the week before commencement.
This will be UGA's first spring commencement since converting from the quarter system to a semester calendar. Under quarters, the spring term usually ended the first week in June and commencement was the second weekend in June. UGA graduates have always been a month behind their semester school counterparts in job searches and post-school activities.
Under semesters, the spring term usually ends the first week in May, and eliminating that gap is cited as one of the advantages of the semester system.
This will not be UGA's first commencement under the semester system, however; a ceremony was held last December for students who completed degree requirements at the end of summer quarter 1998 and fall semester 1998.
The university will continue to hold two commencement exercises in each academic year--a December ceremony for students who complete requirements in the summer and fall semesters, and a May ceremony for those who finish at the end of spring semester.
Turner, founder of CNN, TBS and other major cable networks, is vice chairman of Time Warner Inc., the world's largest media company. In addition to speaking, he will receive an honorary doctor of laws degree, UGA's highest recognition after the earned doctorate.
Twenty-four First Honor Graduates--students who have maintained perfect 4.0 grade point averages while at UGA--will be recognized during the undergraduate ceremony. Among them are Beth Shapiro of Lindale, chosen this year as a Rhodes Scholar, and Charles Mathis of Watkinsville, a 17-year-old who entered UGA early and will also graduate in May from Oconee High School.
Shapiro is the 18th Rhodes Scholar in UGA history and the third UGA student in the last four years to win the prestigious award. Mathis is Oconee County High's valedictorian and a STAR student who scored a perfect 1600 on the SAT.
McFeely, the graduate commencement speaker, is an authority on the Civil War, and American race relations and the civil rights movement. He won the 1982 Pulitzer Prize in history for a biography of Ulysses S. Grant, and was a finalist for the 1991 Pulitzer for a biography of Frederick Douglass. He was on the UGA history faculty from 1986 until his retirement in 1997.
All of this year's graduates will be welcomed into UGA's National Alumni Association by the organization's new president, Hilton Young, an Athens insurance executive.
The College of Veterinary Medicine and School of Law will hold separate commencement ceremonies. The veterinary medicine exercises will be May 9 at 2:30 p.m. in the Performing Arts Center. The law school ceremony will be May 15 on the quadrangle in front of the school, with former Gov. Zell Miller as the speaker.
Some of the other schools and colleges will also hold graduation ceremonies for their students but will participate in the university exercises. Other units will hold receptions in conjunction with commencement. Following is a schedule of these activities.
April 30: College of Journalism and Mass Communication graduation ceremony, 2:30 p.m., the Classic Center
May 7: College of Education, graduation ceremonies at 1 and 4 p.m., Performing Arts Center; Terry College of Business, graduation for MBA students, 7 p.m., Performing Arts Center;
May 8: Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, reception for undergraduate students, immediately following commencement, Presidents Club Garden on North Campus; Terry College of Business, reception for undergraduate students, immediately following commencement, in front of Brooks Hall; School of Environmental Design, reception for undergraduates, immediately following commencement, Founders' Memorial Garden
College of Pharmacy, graduation ceremony, 11 a.m., Ramsey Student Center; College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, graduation for undergraduates, 11:30 a.m., Performing Arts Center; Warnell School of Forest Resources, graduation for undergraduates, 11:30 a.m., forest resources auditorium
College of Family and Consumer Sciences, graduation for undergraduates, noon, Classic Center (9 a.m. in case of rain); School of Social Work, hooding ceremony for master's and doctoral graduates, 4:30 p.m., Performing Arts Center.
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