During the 2001 Commencement ceremony, on Saturday, May 12, USM will recognize with an honorary doctorate the achievements and impact of education reformer John Goodlad, who began his career in 1939 in a one-room schoolhouse and became one of the most influential educators in the U.S. in the last half of the 20th century.
Also to be honored during USM’s 121st Commencement with the Distinguished Achievement Award are Dorothy Schwartz, director of the Maine Humanities Council; Joseph Kreisler, professor emeritus of Social work at USM; and artist and USM alumnus Alan Bray.
A record number of students will be graduating from USM this year: nearly 1500 are eligible for graduation. Of these, more than 900 graduates are expected to participate in Commencement ceremonies, to be held at 9 a.m., Saturday, May 12, in the Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland.
Sixteen members of the Class of 1951 also will be marching and will be recognized.
Twelve faculty members who are retiring or have retired in the last year will be recognized with emeritus status (see story in this issue). Among retiring faculty is Phil Jagolinzer, professor of accounting, who has served as a Commencement Marshall since 1985 and Senior Marshall since 1999.
Student Commencement speaker Matthew Mower, a political science major from Greene, ME, will speak on the importance of being involved as a student on or off campus. Mower practiced what he professed as a member of the Student Senate, Phi Sigma Pi National Honor Fraternity, the College Republicans, the Board of Student Organizations, the Accounting Society and the Androscoggin County Republican Committee. He held internships in the Portland office of Senator Susan Collins and in President-Pro-Tem Richard Bennett’s staff office, as well as others. Mower also studied accounting and maintained a high GPA. He transferred to USM from Nichols College in Mass.
Goodlad, who is co-director of the Center for Educational Renewal at the University of Washington and president of the independent Institute for Educational Inquiry, will deliver the Commencement address to graduates. Goodlad began teaching in British Columbia, then earned his doctorate from the University of Chicago in 1949 and entered academic life. During 25 years at the University of California at Los Angeles, he served for 16 years as Dean of the College of Education. He has received 19 honorary doctoral degrees and was the recipient in 1999 of the prestigious Harold W. McGraw Jr. Prize in Education. The author of 30 books and 300 articles, he recommended new approaches to schooling based on his study of 1,000 classrooms in 38 schools across the country in his book published in the early 1980s, “A Place Called School.”
USM will present Goodlad with the Doctorate of Humane Letters not only to recognize his role in American education, but even more for his contributions to this university. When Goodlad formed the National Network for Educational Renewal in the 1980s, USM’s Southern Maine Partnership became one of the first university/K-12 collaboratives to join the network. Through his visits to southern Maine over the last 15 years, his meetings with university faculty and students, and public school teachers and administrators, and through his writings, he inspired the success of the Southern Maine Partnership and USM’s nationally recognized post-baccalaureate teacher preparation program (ETEP).
Artist Alan Bray’s work increasingly has won national recognition and stature. Born in Waterville and raised in Monson, he now lives in Sangerville. His work continues to focus on the countryside in central Maine where he grew up. Described by art critics as luminous, haunting, ghostly, and surrealistic, Bray’s paintings present moody and enigmatic landscapes that raise questions about nature, history, and humanity. When he left central Maine, Alan Bray first studied at the Art Institute of Boston and then transferred to USM, graduating in 1971. He then went to Florence, Italy for graduate study. His landscapes have appeared in museum and gallery exhibitions in New York, Colorado, Florida, Michigan, New Jersey, Virginia and Texas, and internationally in Florence, Paris and Santiago. Meanwhile, Bray serves his community on the local planning board and in the volunteer fire department, and contributes his talents as a teacher of art in classes all across the state, at every level of education.
As executive director since 1985, Schwartz has developed the Maine Humanities
Council from a small grants-making agency to a multi-faceted organization that
each year brings programs in literature and literacy, cultural heritage, and
contemporary issues to Maine citizens. The Maine Council has been the recipient
of numerous Exemplary Awards from the National Endowment for the Humanities
and has been honored by the American Association of State and Local History
and the Federation of State Humanities Councils. The Council was awarded six
major NEH grants for “back to college” programs for Maine teachers.
Recently, Schwartz inaugurated the Maine Center for the Book, with a grant from
the Tabitha and Stephen King Foundation, as an umbrella for all of the Council’s
literature and literacy programs. A number of Maine’s innovative humanities
programs, such as “Literature & Medicine” and the “Philanthropy
Seminars,” have been replicated at other humanities councils in the country.
Schwartz also has compiled an impressive record of engagement in civic and cultural
affairs. She is currently a member of the Maine State Cultural Affairs Council,
the State Task Force on Cultural Tourism, and the Governor’s Task Force
on Early Care and Education. In addition, she serves on the board of the Maine
Philanthropy Center and on the board of the Federation of State Humanities Councils.
She still finds time to pursue her own art as a printmaker.
An advocate for the poor for 60 years, Joe Kreisler fought on behalf of social
justice as a social activist, a professor of social work, and as founder of
the Preble Street Resource Center. Kreisler practiced service learning long
before the concept became current. His students interned in social service agencies
throughout southern Maine and influenced the delivery of services to low-income
people. Before coming to USM in 1972, Kreisler had worked in New York City’s
South Bronx and Lower East Side. He ran Mobilization for Youth, a low-barrier,
neighborhood-based center developed during the War on Poverty era. In addition,
he made it his mission to remind City Hall and the welfare department, where
he had worked previously, that poor people have the right to be treated with
respect and dignity. He fought for decent housing, health care, employment,
and education for the poor. After coming to Portland, Kreisler started the High
Street Resource Center in 1976 with student work interns. High Street was the
precursor of the Preble Street Resource Center, which opened in 1985. Today
Preble Street is a broad coalition of social service agencies serving 300 low-income
and homeless women, men, teens, and children.
Also to be recognized are this year's recipients of the distinguished service
awards for staff. The recipient of the Distinguished Professional Staff Award
is Ira Hymoff, senior clinical psychologist and for 28 years director of USM’s
Counseling Services. His dedication to the mental health and well-being of USM
students and his compassion and sensitivity to students’ needs has been
noted by students and colleagues. Hymoff, who holds a Ph.D. in clinical psychology
from the University of Maine, was a psychologist in Maine Medical Center’s
outpatient division before coming to USM in 1972. In addition to his service
through the Counseling Center, Hymoff teaches in the graduate program in Human
Resource Development and developed a successful program that uses graduate students
in USM’s counselor education program as interns in the Counseling Center.
He also is a consultant to the residency program of Maine Medical Center’s
Department of Psychiatry. George Pattershall, electrician coordinator for Facilities
Management, received the Distinguished Classified Staff Award. Besides his duties
as an electrician at USM, Pattershall has been a lecturer for the Mathematics
Department since 1985, serves on the Classified Staff Senate, the Parking/Transportation
Committee, the Joint Health Options Committee and USM’s Safety Council.
Off-campus, he is a major organizer of the March of Dimes Walk-a-Thon, a 30-year
member of the Lions club, and in the Air National Guard.
Ceremonies also will be held in some of USM’s schools, recognizing the
achievements of their graduates. The College of Nursing and Health Professions
is holding their convocation from 2:30 to 5 p.m. on Commencement day, Saturday,
May 12 in the Sullivan Gym. Penny DeRaps and Susan Sepples, both assistant professors
of nursing, will speak about the nursing profession.
A convocation ceremony for graduates of the University of Maine School of Law will be held at 2 p.m. on Saturday, May 26 at Merrill Auditorium. James E. Tierney, former Attorney General of Maine, will give the charge to graduates. Tierney, a member of the Law School’s Class of 1974, has been advising AG offices across the country on tobacco litigation and anti-trust cases.
The Law School also will recognize at their Convocation Steven A. Hammond,
Class of 1977, who served as the first American President of The Union Internationale
des Avocats (the International Bar Association). A native of Farmington and
partner in the New York law firm of Hughes, Hubbard and Reed, Hammond will receive
the L. Kinvin Wroth Distinguished Alumni Award. Jarvis Parsons, a member of
the Class of 2001, will deliver the student address. He is a native of Louisiana.
Parking for faculty and staff participating in Commencement is in the BAMICO
lot across Spring St. from the Civic Center. Since parking is limited downtown,
buses will be available at the Woodbury Campus Center in Portland to shuttle
all who wish to park on campus to the Civic Center between 7 and 8:30 a.m.,
returning to campus at noon. Faculty and staff participating in the Commencement
procession should be at the Civic Center for robing by 8:15 a.m.
For more information on USM's Commencement, please call 780-5106.
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