FOR RELEASE: WEDNESDAY, APRIL 25, 2001
CONTACT: Rebecca Wood, or Jay Nickel, University Relations(501) 575-5555, [email protected], [email protected]
NOTE: For a photo and complete biography of Queen Noor of Jordan, visit http://pigtrail.uark.edu/news/2001/Apr01/noorcommence.html.
QUEEN NOOR OF JORDAN TO SPEAK AT 2001 UA COMMENCEMENT -- 2,400 STUDENTS TO GRADUATE
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. -- Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan will be the guest speaker at the University of Arkansas' 2001 All-University commencement ceremony at 8:45 a.m Saturday, May 12, in Bud Walton Arena. She will also receive the honorary degree of Doctor of Arts and Humane Letters in recognition of her internationally significant achievements in social welfare, education, culture, women's development, environmental protection, architecture, planning and international understanding.
Just over 2,400 undergraduate, graduate and law students will receive diplomas from the University this academic year. Details pertaining to the commencement ceremonies for the individual colleges are listed below.
Queen Noor of Jordan was born Lisa Najeeb Halaby to a distinguished Arab-American family and received her bachelor's degree in architecture and urban planning from Princeton University in 1974. Gifted with language, Queen Noor speaks Arabic, English and French.
Queen Noor is internationally recognized as a relentless promoter of education and the arts, a highly respected advocate of women's causes and an indefatigable champion for the well-being of children. Queen Noor is one of the Middle East's leading activists for human rights as well as a protector of the global environment.
Queen Noor is a director on the global board of The Hunger Project, an honorary member of the General Assembly of the SOS-Kinderdorf International and a member of the International Council of the Near East Foundation. She is also a trustee of the Mentor Foundation, working in collaboration with organizations involved in the prevention of substance abuse among youth at the grassroots level.
She is an active patron or president of several national institutions which serve the Jordanian community, including -- the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature, the Petra National Trust, the Royal Society of Fine Arts, the National Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs, the National Committee for the Protection of the Environment, the SOS Children's Village Association, the Queen Noor Technical College for Civil Aviation, the Cerebral Palsy Foundation, the Jordanian Physiotherapy Society, the Jordan Tennis Federation and the Women's Sports Club.
In recognition of her efforts to advance regional and international development, democracy and peace, Queen Noor has been awarded numerous honorary doctorates in international relations, law and humane letters, as well as international awards.
Queen Noor helped establish the Noor Al Hussein Foundation (NHF) to consolidate the administration of the Queen's diverse and expanding development initiatives. The foundation initiates and supports national, regional and international projects in the fields of integrated community development, education, culture, children's welfare, family health, women and enterprise development.
Queen Noor is the president of the United World Colleges, a network of ten equal-opportunity international colleges around the world fostering cross-cultural understanding and global peace. She is chair of the advisory board of the Center for the Global South at American University, which examines critical issues affecting the poorer developing countries of the world. She chairs the international advisory committee for the United Nations University International Leadership Academy, the first global leadership training facility, as well as the first UN institution to be initiated and established in the Middle East.
With regard to the University of Arkansas, Queen Noor's support has been instrumental in enabling the institution to strengthen its commitment to international relations and world service.
With Queen Noor's support, the University of Arkansas has forged a solid relationship with Jordan and the Middle East, and for the last several years Jordan has graciously hosted large delegations of faculty members and students.
The academic and public outreach activities of the Middle East Studies program at the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences and other University of Arkansas programs bring the mission of Queen Noor -- in the areas of social welfare, education, culture, women's development, environmental protection, architecture, planning and international understanding -- closer to reality.
The relationship of the University of Arkansas with Jordan and other Middle Eastern countries has grown stronger over the past few years. Jordan has graciously hosted large delegations of faculty members and students every year since 1994.
One of the University's many connections with the Middle East is its King Fahd Middle East Studies program, which conducts faculty-student exchanges with Jordan.
The University of Arkansas provides generous assistantships and scholarships to numerous outstanding Jordanian students. Outside of obvious academic opportunities, this gives both American and Jordanian students opportunities to interact personally and promotes collegiate access to a different culture.
Middle East Studies brings together an interdisciplinary unit that offers studies in cultures, geography, history, politics, as well as Arabic language and literature including translation, poetry, women and gender, minorities and contemporary issues.
INDIVIDUAL COLLEGE AND SCHOOL CEREMONIES
May 12, 2001
Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life SciencesTime: 12:30 p.m.Place: Randall Tyson Track CenterSpeaker: 2001 Graduate Paul C. Bryant, Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness
Paul C. Bryant, of Carlisle, Ark., completed his degree requirements in December as an agribusiness major and is working on a master's degree in agricultural economics. He has been an officer in the Agribusiness Club, was a Presidential Scholar as a junior, received the Gamma Sigma Delta Senior Award and was an Arkansas Alumni Association Scholar.
Bryant's parents are both Arkansas alumni. Gen. Galen Bryant has B.S.A. in agricultural education and M.S. in dairy genetics, and is chief of staff of the Arkansas Air National Guard. Lois Ann Bryant has a bachelor's degree in home economics.
School of ArchitectureTime: 12:30 p.m.Place: Front Lawn of Old MainSpeaker: Edward L. Blake
Edward Blake is a master landscape architect who makes Hattiesburg, Mo. his home base of operation.
Blake balances his time spent in his business, The Landscape Studio, with teaching assignments across the country. Blake is currently a visiting design critic at the University of Arkansas, a position he has also held other schools such as Harvard's Graduate School of Design and Auburn University.
Blake serves on the Eudora Welty Garden Advisory Committee, is a board member of the Society of Ecological Restoration, the Gallaway Gardens Horticultural Advisory Board member, the Crosby Arboretum board member.
He has won numerous awards for his work in landscape design, including his plan and design of the Arkansas River Corridor in Wichita, Kan. which had been recognized by the American Society of Landscape Architects.
Blake is a graduate of Mississippi State University where he received his degree in landscape architecture in 1970.
J. William Fulbright College of Arts and SciencesTime: 1:00 p.m.Place: Bud Walton ArenaSpeaker: Student to be determined
Sam M. Walton College of Business Time: 3:30 p.m.Place: Barnhill ArenaSpeaker: Joe Ford, Chairman and CEO of ALLTEL Corporation
Joe T. Ford graduated from the University of Arkansas in 1959 with a bachelor's in business administration. The University's Walton College recognized his many contributions to the state by inducting him into the Arkansas Business Hall of Fame in 2000.
As chairman and chief executive officer of ALLTEL Corporation, Ford has successfully led ALLTEL through one of the most intense eras of change in the telecommunications and information technology industries, including deregulation of the telephone industry and the growth of wireless communications.
Ford joined Allied Telephone Company in 1959 as a Yellow Pages salesman. He then advanced through a number of management positions, including those with responsibilities for marketing, rate case activities and acquisitions.
In 1977, Ford was named Allied president, a position he held until 1983, when Allied Telephone and Mid-Continent Telephone Corporation of Hudson, Ohio, merged to form ALLTEL. He then became president of the new company, and in 1987, he assumed the additional duties of chief executive office. In 1991, he was named chairman.
During his business career, Ford has also been active in government and civic affairs. From 1967 to 1982, he was a member of the Arkansas State Senate.
College of Education and Health ProfessionsTime: 4:00 p.m.Place: Bud Walton ArenaSpeaker: Dr. Benny Gooden, Superinendent, Fort Smith Public Schools
The award-winning superintendent of Fort Smith Public Schools, Dr. Benny L. Gooden, will speak at commencement ceremonies for the College of Education and Health Profession.
Gooden was named Administrator of the Year by the Arkansas PTA in 1995, and in 1999 received the Phoebe Apperson Hearst Outstanding Educator award from the National PTA. Executive Educator magazine selected him as one of the 100 Outstanding School Administrators in North America in 1993. In 1992, the American Association of School Administrators named him Arkansas Superintendent of the Year.
A school superintendent for over 25 years in both Missouri and Arkansas, Gooden began his career as a music teacher. He plays with the Western Arkansas Wind Symphony and is director of the "Singing Superintendents" of the American Association of School Administrators.
He is an outspoken proponent of public education who emphasizes the importance of educational opportunities that will raise student performance standards for all. Gooden received his bachelor's in music education from Harding University in Searcy, Ark.; his M.Ed from the University of Arkansas; and his Ed.D. in educational administration from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He serves as a visiting assistant professor in educational leadership at the University of Arkansas.
College of EngineeringTime: 12:30 p.m. Place: Barnhill ArenaSpeaker: J. Cliff Eason, President and CEO (Retired) of Southwestern Bell
Prior to his retirement in January 2001, J. Cliff Eason was president and CEO of Southwesten Bell Telephone Company.
Eason, a native of Ashdown, Ark., earned his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the U of A in 1970.
He began his career with Southwestern Bell in 1970 in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, as an installation foreman. He worked his way up through a number of management positions and became president and chief executive officer of Southwestern Bell Communications, Inc. in 1995. He currently serves as a director of Reinsurance Group of American and the American Foundation for the blind, as well as president of the Alamo Area Council Boy Scouts of America. In addition, he is a member of the University of Arkansas College of Engineering Advisory Council.
May 19, 2001
School of LawTime: 1:30 p.m.Place: Walton Arts CenterSpeaker: The Honorable Mark Pryor, Attorney General of Arkansas
Mark Lunsford Pryor became Arkansas' Attorney General in January of 1999. At 38, he is currently the youngest attorney general in America.
Five generations of public service have made the Pryor name synonymous with Arkanas politics. Susie Neton Pryor, Mark's grandmother, was the state's first woman to seek public office after being granted the right to vote. He also counts three sheriffs of Ouachita County as his ancestors.
Pryor was born in Fayetteville and grew up in Camden, Little Rock and the Washington D.C. area. He attended public schools from first grade through law school. Mark was elected president of the student body at the Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Md.., where he graduated in 1981. He then attended the University of Arkansas, receiving a bachelor's in history before going on to earn his law degree from the U of A in 1988.
From 1988 through 1996, Pryor engaged in private practice at Wright, Lindsey & Jennings in Little Rock. He spent 1996 through 1998 in solo practice in Little Rock. In 1990, he was elected to the Arkansas House of Representatives, where he served two terms. There he was chosen Chairman of the Freshman Caucus and served on the Judiciary Committee, the State Agencies Committee, and the Committee on Aging and Legislative Affairs. During his terms in the Legislature, more than 50 pieces of legislation that he sponsored became law.# # #
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