Olopade, Rajan to speak at Convocation

The University will confer about 3,000 degrees on students from the College, graduate divisions and professional schools at its 498th Convocation ceremonies.

Sessions will be held Friday, June 12, Saturday, June 13 and Sunday, June 14 in Harper Quadrangle, rain or shine.

Olufunmilayo Olopade, the Walter L. Palmer Distinguished Service Professor of Medicine and Associate Dean for Global Health, will deliver the Convocation address at Sessions I, II and III. Her talk is titled “Democratizing Education to Eradicate Poverty and Improve Global Health.”

Raghuram Rajan, the Eric J. Gleacher Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at Chicago Booth, will deliver the Convocation address at Session IV, when degrees will be conferred on candidates in the Chicago Booth School of Business. Rajan’s talk is titled “Politics, Finance and the Crisis.”

During Session I, degrees will be conferred on candidates in the Law School, the Irving B. Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies and the School of Social Service Administration. The ceremony will begin at 9:30 a.m. Friday, June 12.

During Session II, degrees will be conferred upon candidates in the William B. and Catherine V. Graham School of General Studies, the Division of the Biological Sciences and the Pritzker School of Medicine, the Division of the Humanities, the Division of the Physical Sciences, the Division of Social Sciences and the Divinity School. The Honorary Degree recipient Anthony M. Snodgrass (see related story) will be presented, as will the recipients of the Faculty Awards for Excellence in Graduate Teaching (see stories on Pages 5-8). This year’s Faculty Awards for Excellence in Graduate Teaching will go to Jennifer Cole, Associate Professor in Comparative Human Development; Martha Feldman, Professor in Music and the College; Edward Laumann, the George Herbert Mead Distinguished Service Professor in Sociology; and Moishe Postone, Professor in History.

The ceremony will take place at 2:30 p.m. Friday, June 12.

Session III will be for students in the College and will begin at 10 a.m. Saturday, June 13. The Llewellyn John and Harriet Manchester Quantrell Awards for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching also will be conferred at this session. Awards will be given to Edwin Ferguson, Professor in Molecular Genetics & Cell Biology; Jonathan Hall, the Phyllis F. Horton Professor in Classics, History and the College; Stuart Kurtz, Professor in Computer Science and the College; Amy Dru Stanley, Associate Professor in History and the College; and Malynne Sternstein, Associate Professor in Slavic Languages & Literature and the College.

Student speakers at Session III are Aruj Chaudhry, Zain Gowani and Nicholas Nardini.

  During Session IV, degrees will be conferred upon candidates of the Chicago Booth School of Business at 1 p.m. Sunday, June 14. Joseph Eazor (M.B.A.,’90), Senior Vice President and General Manager of Electronic Data Systems, will provide remarks at Session IV as well.