UNIVERSITY PARK – Penn State will hold its 2007 summer commencement ceremonies at University Park on Saturday for 1,815 total graduating students.
An estimated four associate and 1,102 baccalaureate degree students will be recognized at the ceremony, over which Penn State President Graham B. Spanier will preside. Executive Vice President and Provost Rodney Erickson will oversee the graduate ceremony for about 709 graduate students.
The associate and baccalaureate ceremony will begin at 10 a.m. in the Bryce Jordan Center, and The Graduate School ceremony will begin at 2:30 p.m., also in the Bryce Jordan Center.
Throughout the Penn State system, an estimated 192 will graduate with associate degrees, 1,375 with baccalaureate degrees and 922 with graduate degrees, for a systemwide total of 2,489 summer graduates.
Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and author Anna Quindlen will receive an honorary doctorate and will speak at the undergraduate ceremony. Quindlen writes a biweekly column for Newsweek and is the first writer to ever have books on the New York Time’s fiction, nonfiction and self-help best-seller lists.
One of Quindlen’s novels, “One True Thing,” was made into a major motion picture starring Meryl Streep, while two of her other novels, “Black and White” and “Blessings,” were produced for movies for television. She is the author of several children’s books and four nonfiction books. She won a Pulitzer Prize in 1992 for her column “Public and Private.”
Barbara Korner, who was recently named dean of Penn State’s College of Arts and Architecture following seven years as associate dean for academic and student affairs in the College of Fine Arts at the University of Florida in Gainesville, will address students at the graduate ceremonies.
Spanier will provide the welcome remarks and Erickson will provide special and closing remarks and present student awards, assisted by Christian M.M. Brady, dean of the Schreyer Honors College.
In addition to the main commencement ceremonies, the Schreyer Honors College will recognize about 58 graduating seniors during its medals ceremony at 5 p.m. Friday at The Penn Stater.
For complete information about summer commencement, visit the commencement site online.