Clinton will join Fuchs as convocation speaker

President Bill Clinton will join faculty member Elaine Fuchs, the Amgen Professor in Molecular Genetics & Cell Biology and Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, in speaking at the University’s College convocation ceremony.

Fuchs, who will speak at all four convocation exercises at the University on Friday, June 11, Saturday, June 12, and Sunday, June 13, will deliver a speech titled “Entering a New Millennium: Lessons of the Past for Science and Education.”

Clinton will speak only at the convocation for the undergraduate College on Saturday. According to the White House, Clinton “will speak to the American people about the changing economy and the challenges we face in the post-Cold-War era.”

The ceremonies are scheduled to take place outdoors in Harper Quadrangle, which is named for the University’s first president.

The University holds convocation ceremonies four times each year, one session at the conclusion of the summer, fall and winter quarters, and four sessions in the spring. The convocation speaker is always a member of the University faculty.

According to tradition, the president of the University personally presents each degree candidate with his or her diploma. The ceremony is directed by the University Marshals, a group of faculty members and students appointed by the president for their excellent scholarship and leadership in the University community.

The University awards honorary degrees at its convocation exercises, but without exception awards them only for scholarship of the highest order.

Few non-University faculty members have addressed the University’s convocation audiences in recent years. Exceptions include alumna Katharine Graham, chairman of the Washington Post Company, who joined faculty member Cass Sunstein in 1996, and alumnus Ramsey Clark, who joined Dean of the College Roger Henry Hildebrand in 1970.