WRITER: Larry B. Dendy, 706/542-8078, [email protected]
CONTACT: Carol Winthrop, 706/542-0415, [email protected]
COVERDELL TO SPEAK AT UGA SPRING COMMENCEMENT MAY 13
ATHENS, Ga. -- Georgia's senior U.S. senator, Paul Coverdell, will speak at the University of Georgia's spring semester commencement May 13.
Coverdell, a strong advocate in the senate for educational reform and a national leader in the fight against drugs, will speak at the ceremony for undergraduates at 9:30 a. m. in Sanford Stadium. In case of rain, the ceremony will be held in Stegeman Coliseum in two sessions, at 9:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.
Commencement for students receiving graduate degrees will be at 2:30 p.m. in Stegeman Coliseum. The speaker will be announced later.
The May ceremonies are for students who complete degree requirements at the end of spring semester. Officials estimate that about 3,500 students will be eligible to receive bachelor's and professional degrees in the undergraduate ceremony, and about 700 will be eligible to receive graduate degrees. Final numbers won't be available until spring semester final exams are over just prior to commencement.
This will be the second of two commencements UGA is holding in the current academic year. A ceremony was held last December for students who completed degree requirements at the end of the 1999 summer and fall semesters.
It will also be the first of three commencements the university will hold during 2000. Ceremonies are scheduled Aug. 15 for students who complete degree requirements at the end of summer semester, and Dec. 16 for students who complete requirements at the end of fall semester.
Coverdell was elected to the senate in 1992 and in 1998 became the first Republican to win re-election to the senate from Georgia. Prior to his election, he had served 19 years in the Georgia State Senate, including 15 years as senate minority leader.
He is chair of the Senate Republican Task Force on Education and was author of a law that would have created tax-free savings accounts to help pay educational expenses from kindergarten through 12th grade. He developed tax-relief proposals for college education that became law this year, and he has worked to provide schools with tools to fight drugs and violence.
Coverdell chairs the subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that oversees international narcotics and terrorism. He has worked for more money to bolster law enforcement along U.S. borders, and he established drug-free workplace programs for small businesses.
As chair of the agriculture subcommittee on marketing, inspection and product promotion, Coverdell has worked to strengthen Georgia's agriculture industry by protecting the peanut program. He helped obtain $5.9 billion for weather-related crop damage and disaster relief and for livestock assistance, and he was author of a bill that increases research on food safety.
A member of the Senate Small Business Committee, Coverdell has supported tax relief and tax code reforms. He won passage of a bill that restricts Internal Revenue Service access to private tax files. He was also author of the Volunteer Protection Act, which helps protect volunteers from lawsuits involving charitable and non-profit activities.
Coverdell was director of the Peace Corps from 1989-1992 and focused the agency on the needs of Eastern European countries emerging from communist rule.
A graduate of the University of Missouri journalism school, Coverdell served in the U.S. Army in Okinawa, Korea and China. He was president of Coverdell & Co., a national financial product marketing firm in Atlanta, before becoming Peace Corps director.
His work on behalf of taxpayers and small business has won him numerous honors including the Taxpayer Appreciation Award and Spirit of Enterprise Award from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Guardian of Small Business Award from the National Federation of Independent Businesses, and the Friends of the Taxpayer Award from Americans for Tax Reform.
# # #
RSS