Thousands of PSU students to get degrees this weekend
From CDT staff reports
This weekend, Penn State will award baccalaureate degrees to 6,670 students at its University Park campus, with another 955 students expected to receive master’s and doctoral degrees.
Here’s a look at the schedule of commencement services, and the speakers who will be featured at each:
Friday
8 p.m., College of Earth and Mineral Science, Eisenhower Auditorium. Lakshman S. Yapa, professor of geography at Penn State, will speak.
8 p.m., College of Engineering, Bryce Jordan Center. Amitabh Srivastava, corporate vice president and technical fellow for Microsoft Corp., is the speaker. Srivastava plays a major role in developing the engineering processes for the Windows Vista computer operating system.
Saturday
9 a.m., College of Agricultural Sciences, Eisenhower Auditorium. Kerry Golden, executive director of the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, is the speaker.
9 a.m., Eberly College of Science, Bryce Jordan Center. Philip A. Sharp, professor and head of biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is the speaker and will receive an honorary degree. Sharp, whose research has centered on the molecular biology of gene expression relevant to cancer, received the Novel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1993 for his discovery of RNA splicing.
Noon, College of Arts and Architecture, Eisenhower Auditorium. Don M. Randel, president of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and former president of the University of Chicago, will speak.
Noon, College of Communications, Bryce Jordan Center. William Friedkin, movie producer and screenwriter and director of such films as “The Exorcist” and “The French Connection” is the speaker and honorary degree recipient.
3 p.m., College of Health and Human Development, Bryce Jordan Center. Sherry Lansing, former CEO of Paramount Pictures, will speak. Lansing is founder and chairwoman of the Sherry Lansing Foundation, which does fundraising for education, health care and cancer research, and co-founded Stop Cancer with the late industrialist Armand Hammer. She will be awarded an honorary degree.
3 p.m., College of Information Sciences and Technology, Eisenhower Auditorium. Derek Smith, CEO and chairman of ChoicePoint, will speak. ChoicePoint, headquartered in Georgia, is an information, analytics and technology provider for public, private and nonprofit organizations.
6 p.m., College of Education, Eisenhower Auditorium. Lee S. Shulman, president of The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, is the speaker. Shulman, renowned for his research on the quality of teaching and teacher education, will be awarded an honorary degree.
6 p.m., College of Liberal Arts, Bryce Jordan Center. Kenneth C. Frazier, executive vice president and president of Global Human Health, Merck & Co. Inc., will speak.
Sunday
1:30 p.m., Smeal College of Business, Bryce Jordan Center. Frederick W. Smith, chairman and CEO of Federal Express Co., is the speaker and will receive an honorary degree.
5 p.m., The Graduate School, Bryce Jordan Center. Susan Avery, president of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, is the speaker. Avery is the first woman to head the institute dedicated to marine research, engineering and higher education.