USM Commencement 2001: Record Number Graduating

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, will receive an honorary doctorate at the 2001 Commencement of the University of Southern Maine, scheduled for 9 a.m., Saturday, May 12, in the Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland. Goodlad also will deliver the Commencement address.
Also to be honored during USM’s 121st Commencement with Distinguished Achievement Awards 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 -- nearly 1500 -- are eligible to graduate from USM this year. Of these, more than 900 graduates are expected to participate. Sixteen members of the Class of 1951 also will be marching, and 12 faculty members who are retiring will be honored with emeritus status. All but three of these retiring faculty have taught at USM for 30 years or more.

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, has led an important reform movement in teacher training. He is the author of the influential book, “A Place Called School,” published in the early 1980s, which presented his study of 1,000 classrooms across the country. 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 is the author of 30 books and 300 articles.

USM will present Goodlad with the Doctorate of Humane Letters to recognize his role in American education, but even more for his contributions to USM’s College of Education and Human Development. 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 and his writings, he inspired the success of the Southern Maine Partnership and USM’s nationally recognized post-baccalaureate teacher preparation program (ETEP).

A few years after joining the USM faculty in the Department of Social Work in 1972, Kreisler founded the precursor to the Preble Street Resource Center, which will celebrate its 25th anniversary this June. An advocate for the poor for 60 years, Kreisler began his career as a social worker in New York City’s South Bronx and Lower East Side. When he came to USM, he involved his students in social service agencies throughout southern Maine as interns. In 1976, he started the High Street Resource Center in Portland, which in 1985 became the Preble Street Resource Center. Kreisler is a resident of Portland.
Artist Alan Bray’s work increasingly has won national recognition. Born in Waterville, raised in Monson, and now a resident of Sangerville, Bray’s work continues to focus on the countryside in central Maine where he grew up. Described by art critics as luminous and haunting, Bray’s paintings present moody and enigmatic landscapes. Bray first studied at the Art Institute of Boston and then transferred to USM, graduating in 1971. He 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 he contributes his talents as a teacher of art in classes all across the state, at every level of education.

As executive director of the Maine Humanities Council since 1985, Schwartz has developed the 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 (NEH) 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. 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, who is a resident of South Freeport, also serves the community as 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.

Student Commencement speaker Matthew Mower, a political science major from Greene, 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, who also studied accounting, is graduating with honors. He transferred to USM from Nichols College in Mass.
USM’s College of Nursing and Health Professions will hold a ceremony to recognize the achievements of their graduates later on Commencement day, from 2:30 to 5 p.m., Saturday, May 12 in USM’s Sullivan Gym, Portland. Penny DeRaps and Susan Sepples, both assistant professors of nursing, will speak about the nursing profession.
A 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 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.

Due to limited parking in downtown Portland, buses will be available at USM’s Woodbury Campus Center, Bedford St., Portland, to shuttle all who wish to park on campus to the Civic Center. Buses depart between 7 and 8 a.m. and return to campus at 12 noon from the Civic Center. For more information on USM's Commencement, please call 780-5106.