Commencement 2007 — SU’s 153rd Commencement exercises May 13

Commencement 2007 — SU’s 153rd Commencement exercises May 13May 11, 2007SU News ServicesSUnews@syr.edu

In its 153rd Commencement on May 13, Syracuse University will celebrate the graduation of 2,729 bachelor’s, 1,576 master’s and 219 doctoral degree candidates. In addition, 167 certificates of advanced study will be awarded. The SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, in its 110th Commencement exercises, will confer 230 bachelor’s degrees, 85 master’s degrees and 30 doctoral degrees.

Commencement exercises will begin at 9:30 a.m., with class, school and college marshals leading degree candidates into the Carrier Dome.

The academic procession will follow at 10:10 a.m. Nancy Weatherly Sharp, professor of newspaper journalism in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, will head the procession that includes University Marshal Sandra N. Hurd, SU associate provost and professor of law and public policy in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management; Associate University Marshal Shiu-Kai Chin, interim dean and professor in the L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science; the newly named emeriti faculty; current faculty; administrators; academic deans; members of the Board of Trustees; and the ROTC Color Guard.

The Chancellor’s party will include SU Chancellor and President Nancy Cantor; SUNY-ESF President Cornelius B. Murphy Jr.; Commencement speaker Frank McCourt; the honorary degree recipients and their sponsors; Board of Trustees Chair John A. Couri; SUNY-ESF Board of Trustees Chair Daniel T. Fitts; and Neil A. Gold, president of the SU Alumni Association.

SU Vice Chancellor and Provost Eric F. Spina will preside. The Rev. Thomas V. Wolfe, dean of Hendricks Chapel, will deliver the invocation, and Malcolm Jay Merriweather, a graduating senior in the College of Visual and Performing Arts, will sing the national anthem. Cantor, Murphy and Gold will then offer remarks.

Cantor and Spina will confer honorary degrees upon McCourt, Thomas K. Gilhool, Austin Roy Kalish, Irma Ginsberg Kalish ’45, Martin A. Pomerantz ’37 and Lily Yeh. Syracuse University Scholar Maria V. DeFazio will speak on behalf of the group, and McCourt’s address will follow.

Cantor and Murphy will then confer doctoral degrees upon SU and SUNY-ESF candidates, followed by the conferral of master’s degrees and certificates of advanced study.

Spina will recognize SU Class of 2007 Marshals Christopher L. Cummings and Erin M. McLaughlin, 12 University Scholars and three ESF Scholars.

Cantor and Murphy will then confer associate and baccalaureate degrees.

Diane D. Schaming, a graduating senior from the College of Visual and Performing Arts, will conclude the ceremony with the singing of the alma mater. The SU Brass Ensemble, under the direction of James T. Spencer, professor of chemistry in The College of Arts and Sciences, will provide processional music.

The SU College of Law will hold a separate ceremony Sunday, May 20, at 1 p.m. at the Carrier Dome, celebrating the conferral of 207 juris doctor degrees. The Hon. James E. Graves Jr. L’80, G’81, Mississippi Supreme Court justice, will deliver the Commencement address to law graduates and their guests.

Class marshals

The two Class of 2007 Marshals — seniors Cummings, a computer science major in the L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science, and McLaughlin, a history major in The College of Arts and Sciences — will lead the procession of graduates. To be selected a class marshal is among the most prestigious honors at SU, awarded on the basis of academic achievement, involvement in student organizations, and campus and community service.

McLaughlin, of Moffat, Scotland, was named a Lockerbie Scholar in 2003-04. Each year, two students from the Lockerbie Academy in Lockerbie, Scotland, spend their first year of college studying at Syracuse University — McLaughlin is the first to stay all four years at SU to earn a bachelor’s degree. During her SU experience, McLaughlin has been active with numerous campus organizations and taken on several leadership roles, including serving as a mentor resident advisor, leading the Association for Student Elderly Connection as its president, and helping welcome new SU students to campus as a 2006 orientation leader. For three years, she has been a member of the Office of Residence Life’s Diversity Committee and is also a member of the Cabaret Performance Troupe, Phi Alpha Theta History Honors Society and Phi Beta Delta International Scholar Society.

Among her college honors, she was awarded General Honors from the Renee Crown Honors Program in 2004. She was also named a 2006-07 Remembrance Scholar, an Arts & Sciences College Ambassador and 2007 Student Employee of the Year for work done in the Office of Undergraduate Studies.

McLaughlin’s post-graduation plans include working toward a master of arts degree in higher education administration at New York University, with a part-time internship as a residence director at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.

“It is such a great honor to be chosen as a representative of my class,” McLaughlin says. “I have been afforded so many wonderful experiences at SU, and it is great to be a part of such a tradition. I particularly enjoyed chairing the Commencement Speaker Selection Committee and am very excited to meet Frank McCourt, who I am sure will send the Class of 2007 off with a bit of humor!”

Cummings, of Stamford, Conn., has also embraced several campus leadership roles, beginning in his freshman year as a member of SU’s African American Male Congress, where he has served as both the senior vice president and parliamentarian. Cummings also served on the executive board of the OrangeSeeds First-Year Empowerment Program, for which he founded the training and operating position and served as executive director during his junior year. Cummings has also served as the telecommunications chair for the National Society of Black Engineers.

In his studies at the L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science, Cummings has achieved academic success that has led to his being selected to the National Deans List, college dean’s list and ECS’ Circle of Honors. He was also named an IBM Corporate Scholar and is the recipient of the Xerox Technical Minority Scholarship.

In a mentoring role, Cummings has given his time to help area school children embrace the fundamentals of reading and writing though the SU Literacy Corps, serving on its Corps Council. He also is the co-founder and coordinator of the Syracuse Research Corp./ECS Engineering Mentor Program, which engages and mentors middle school students in engineering disciplines. The program introduces students to engineering by performing related experiments and teaches students early on about engineering methods and practices.

To help prepare for a career in computer science, Cummings spent a summer working at IBM in its Pre-Professional Programmer Program in 2005 and interned with General Electric last summer, serving as an Information Management Leadership Program (IMLP) intern. Following graduation, Cummings will begin working full time with GE in the IMLP Program and in the future hopes to obtain an M.B.A.

“Being selected as a Class Marshal is a great way to end my undergraduate college career and I am honored,” Cummings says. “I wouldn’t say that I am a completely different person since high school, but I feel that I have grown and accomplished a lot. I associate this award to the achievements I have made over the past few years. It also gives my mother a reason to be proud of me. With this award I have become a part of SU tradition.”

School/College Marshals

Marshals for each of the University’s schools and colleges have also been selected to lead the procession of graduates from each school or college into the Commencement ceremony. They are:

Graduate School — Angela K. Herrald of Fairport, N.Y., a doctoral student in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs;

School of Architecture — Nicholas Carr Hunt of Pomfret Center, Conn.; and Douglas S. Jack of Wenham, Mass.;

The College of Arts and Sciences — Iwana’ N. Duck of Altamonte Springs, Fla., a policy studies and psychology major; Patricia A. Duprey of Victor, N.Y., a psychology major; and Stephanie G. Tornatore of Sherrill, N.Y., a psychology major;

School of Education — Amy K. Hall of Avon, Conn., an exercise science major; and Chelsea Page Tracy-Bronson of Lisle, N.Y., an inclusive elementary and special education and sociology major;

L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science — Shannon Elena Tronick of Parker, Colo., an aerospace engineering major; and April Wallden of Williamsville, N.Y., a bioengineering major;

College of Human Services and Health Professions — Bridgette E. Ames of Black River, N.Y., a social work major; and Hilary Donahue of Needham Heights, Mass., a nutrition major;

School of Information Studies — Menotti Minutillo Jr. of Farmingdale, N.Y., an information management and technology major; and Ashish Mittal of Lower Gwynedd, Pa., a finance and information management and technology major;

College of Law — Heather Marie Schroder of Valley Stream, N.Y.;

Martin J. Whitman School of Management — Joseph R. Iannace Jr. of Lagrangeville, N.Y., accounting and finance major; and Angelo Roefaro of Utica, N.Y., a marketing and management major, entrepreneurship and emerging enterprises major, and political science major;

Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs — Dominic Randazzo of Woodstock, Ill., a master’s student in public administration and international relations;

S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications — Jilian M. Jancuska of Wilmington, Del., a television-radio-film major; and Winnie Wu Chia-Yin of Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia, a public relations major;

University College — Deborah L. Scott of Marcellus, N.Y., a professional studies major;

College of Visual and Performing Arts — Audrey M. Leczinsky of Delmar, N.Y., an art photography major; and Lara Margie of Union City, Pa., a communications and rhetorical studies major;

SUNY-ESF — Nicole V. Formoso of Monroe, N.Y., a landscape architecture major; and Stephen M. Fox of Grand Rapids, Mich., a natural history and interpretation major.