FOR RELEASE: May 3, 1999
Contact: Linda Grace-Kobas
Office: (607) 255-4206
E-Mail: [email protected]
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell University President Hunter Rawlings will preside over the university's 131st Commencement on Sunday, May 30, at 11 a.m. in Schoellkopf Field.
Rawlings will confer degrees on more than 6,000 eligible candidates, capping two days of celebratory activities that include Senior Convocation on Saturday, May 29, with an address by National Security Adviser Samuel R. Berger, a 1967 Cornell graduate. Distinguished Yale humanities scholar Harold Bloom, a 1951 graduate of Cornell, will present the Baccalaureate Service address Sunday, May 30.
Senior convocation will be held in Barton Hall at noon for graduates and their families and guests. Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger, who will present the convocation speech, was appointed national security adviser by President Bill Clinton in 1996. Since then, he has been engaged in advancing American interests in resolving such conflicts as those in Kosovo and the Middle East.
A friend of Clinton's for more than 20 years, Berger served as the president's senior foreign policy adviser during the 1992 presidential campaign and as deputy national security adviser throughout Clinton's first term. In the Carter administration, Berger served as deputy director of policy planning for the State Department.
After graduating from Cornell, where he served as president of the Interfraternity Council and was a member of two honor societies, Berger received his law degree from Harvard University. In 1973, he joined the Washington law firm of Hogan & Hartson, where for many years he was an international trade attorney.
Another distinguished alumnus, Harold Bloom, will present the Baccalaureate Service address Sunday, May 30, at 8:30 a.m. in Bailey Hall. This interfaith service honors all graduating students and retiring faculty members. His topic will be "Completing the Work."
Bloom, the Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University, is a prominent scholar and defender of the Western literary canon. His most recent book, Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human, has received wide acclaim.
Other Commencement weekend events include:
Saturday, May 29:
President's Parent Reception: President Rawlings and the Cornell Board of Trustees will host a reception for degree candidates, their families and guests from 2:30 to 4 p.m. on the Arts Quad.
D.V.M. Hooding Ceremony: New doctors of veterinary medicine will take the Veterinarian's Oath and receive their hoods in Alice Statler Auditorium at 2 p.m.
ROTC Commissioning: The Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) Brigade will commission officers into the Army, Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force during a ceremony in David L. Call Alumni Auditorium, Kennedy Hall, at 2 p.m.
Ph.D. Recognition Ceremony: Recipients of doctoral degrees will be individually recognized for their significant academic achievements in Barton Hall at 5 p.m. Rawlings and Walter I. Cohen, Graduate School dean, will congratulate each recipient. Degrees will be conferred during the general Commencement ceremony on Sunday.
Other special events for graduates and their families on Saturday include tours of Cornell Plantations from 9:30 to 11 a.m., a Cornell Wind Ensemble concert on the Arts Quad at 3 p.m. and the Senior Week Concert by the Glee Club and Chorus in Bailey Hall at 8 p.m.
Sunday, May 30
The Commencement procession will assemble on the Arts Quad at 9:30 a.m.
The ceremony will be broadcast live on cable television Channel 54 in Tompkins County beginning at 10 a.m.
From noon to 3 p.m. individual colleges and schools will hold receptions at locations throughout the campus.
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