The University is preparing for a record number of graduates in its 2014 spring commencement exercises on Sunday, May 4, set for 1:30 p.m. , in the Chiles Center. University president Rev. E. William Beauchamp, C.S.C., will confer an anticipated 818 bachelor’s degrees on Sunday. Also participating will be 111 students who expect to be awarded bachelor’s degrees at the end of the summer, for an all-time record 929 undergraduate students. Anne Thompson, NBC News’ Chief Environmental Affairs correspondent, will deliver the commencement address and receive an honorary doctorate.
The University will hold a separate commencement ceremony for an anticipated 212 graduate students on Saturday, May 3, at 12:30 p.m., in the Chiles Center. Fr. Beauchamp will be the commencement speaker. No tickets are required for graduate commencement.
Tickets are required for all undergraduate commencement events. Please visit this site (http://tinyurl.com/axmryjw) for ticket information. For those unable to attend, the University will be providing a free live web stream of both Saturday’s and Sunday’s ceremonies at www.up.edu/commencement/video.
Receiving the University’s highest honor, the Christus Magister Medal, is Carolyn Woo, president and CEO of Catholic Relief Services (CRS), which reaches some 130 million people in nearly 100 countries annually with its relief and development work. Before joining CRS in 2012, Woo was dean and professor at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza School of Business, and a vice president and professor at Purdue University.
Receiving honorary doctorates at the University’s May 4 commencement: Anne Thompson, NBC environmental affairs correspondent since 2007. She has traveled the world in that capacity, reporting on pollution, alternative fuels, global warming, land usage and new technologies, among many other topics. She began her broadcasting career at WNDU-TV in Indiana after her graduation from the University of Notre Dame.
John Beckman, of the Class of 1942, was instrumental in the invention of the photo-finish camera. Beckman, along with his wife Patricia, is a noted philanthropist to musical, historical, communal and educational causes in Oregon. He and Patricia are the founders of the University’s Humor Project, a multi-disciplinary effort to study and foment humor as a “spiritual and revolutionary energy in every field of endeavor, from business to politics to the arts and beyond.”
James Popham, of the Class of 1953, is a professor of education emeritus at UCLA, an internationally renowned scholar on testing methods and efficacy, and the author of many books. UCLA has honored him as one of its best 20 professors of the 20th century. Popham has been president of the American Educational Research Association, is the founding editor of the journal Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, and is a popular speaker who is often in demand for his humor as much as for his expertise in educational evaluation and measurement.
Ed Ray, president of Oregon State University since 2003, has directed a remarkable era at one of the state’s largest public universities. During his tenure, the school has raised more than $1 billion for students and faculty, developed a national reputation for research in science, opened and expanded the Oregon State U/Cascades campus in Bend, and successfully grappled with declining public funding.
Most Reverend Alexander Sample, the eleventh Archbishop of Portland in Oregon, was twice appointed a bishop by Pope Benedict XVI – first to the Diocese of Marquette, Michigan, in 2005, and then to Portland in 2013, succeeding Most Reverend John Vlazny.
For more information contact university events at 7523 or events@up.edu.