Commencement 2000
On Saturday, May 13, at 9:00 a.m., the Cumberland County Civic Center will be the happy scene for hundreds of graduating students at USM's 120th commencement ceremony.
Approximately 1450 students are eligible to graduate this year, with about 900 participating in the exercises.
More than 20 members of the class of 1950 will also march in the ceremonies as part of their 50-year celebration.
Faculty and staff may park in the Bamico Lot, on Spring St., directly across from the Civic Center. Shuttle buses also will be available at USM's Woodbury Campus Center, Portland. Buses depart between 7:00 and 8:00 a.m. and return to campus at noon from the Civic Center.
For more information, call 780-5106.
Honors
USM will award diplomas and present honors to several community leaders and retired faculty at the ceremony.
Civic leaders Sally Vamvakias, Phyllis Austin, and Lucien Gosselin will receive Distinguished Service Awards. Duane "Buzz" Fitzgerald will receive a Distinguished Achievement Award.
Commencement Speaker
John Wallach, former foreign editor of the Hearst Newspapers and founder of Seeds of Peace, will receive an honorary degree in recognition of his distinguished career as a journalist and his passionate commitment to world peace and will give the keynote address.
Wallach will receive an honorary doctor of humane letters. He left a 25-year career as the foreign editor for Hearst Newspapers to found Seeds of Peace, a unique conflict resolution program, in 1993. This program brings teenagers from war-torn regions of the world to the Seeds of Peace International Camp in Otisfield, Maine, where they work together in an environment free from prejudice, anger, and fear. Wallach has received two Overseas Press Club awards, the Edward Weintal Prize, and the Edwin Hood Award - the highest honor presented by the National Press Club - for his work in uncovering the Iran-Contra affair. In 1979, President Carter presented him with the Congressional Committee of Correspondents Award for his coverage of the Egyptian-Israeli Camp David Summit. In 1991, President Mikhail Gorbachev awarded him the highest civilian honor: the Medal of Friendship. In 1997, Wallach received the Jordanian Legion of Honor from King Hussein.
Emeritus Faculty
Six retired faculty members will receive emeritus status for exemplary scholarship and public service: Irving D. Fisher, professor of political science; Dorothy Woods Smith, associate professor of nursing; Franklin D. Hodges, associate professor of geography; William A. Brown, associate professor of mathematics; Julia C. Tiffany, associate professor of nursing; and Martha M. Skoner, associate professor of nursing. (see biographies, p.3)
Student Speaker
Cary A. Shay of Raymond, Maine, a classical studies major, will give the student commencement speech. Shay has been a member of the University's honors program for the past three years. She has written for and served as associate editor of The Maine Scholar, won the honors public speaking book award, and is currently a finalist for the Senator George Mitchell Peace Scholarship. In 1998-99, Shay was president of the Honors Student Association and this past academic year was student representative to the Honors Faculty Board. For the past two academic years, she has been recipient of the University Presidential Scholarship.
Awards
Sally Vamvakias, a native of Bath, Maine, and a graduate of the University of Maine, serves as chair of the board of directors of the Maine Community Foundation, as trustee of the Maine Medical Center, as an overseer of the Maine Bar and member of their grievance commission, and as a corporator of the Hurricane Island Outward Bound Schools. She also served on the Maine Compensation Commission and is a member of the International Women's Forum. She served 10 years as a trustee of the University of Maine System, and was chair of the Board of Trustees in 1995. Vamvakias is credited with leadership that strengthened and improved internal and external relationships, and gave the System a clear sense of direction.
Phyllis Austin, with a career in journalism and investigative reporting spanning from the 60s to the 90s, began her career in North Carolina. She then became a political writer for the Associated Press, covering the civil rights movement. She came to Maine in 1969 to cover the State House. In 1972, she was named AP's first environmental writer for New England. Since 1974, she has been a reporter and senior writer for the Maine Times. Her emphasis on natural resources and the environment has provided a voice for thoughtful public policies and management practices. Austin has been awarded two John S. Knight Journalism fellowships, a Japan Press Association fellowship, and an Alicia Patterson Journalism fellowship. She received the Maine Conservation Award in 1989 from the Natural Resources Council of Maine.
Lucien Gosselin has recently been accepted into the first class of USM's first doctoral program, a Ph.D. program in public policy and management at the Muskie School. His service and advocacy in the Lewiston-Auburn community have been described as "legendary." He was instrumental in the creation of Lewiston-Auburn's Economic Growth Council, of which he is now president, and the Maine Economic Growth Council. He was a major factor in the development of USM's Lewiston-Auburn College and he also teaches there. He has served on USM's Council of Visitors and on the Central Maine Technical College Advisory Council. He has served as a director of the Androscoggin County Chamber of Commerce and of Androscoggin Home Health Services, and as a corporator of the Androscoggin Savings Bank and of Central Maine Medical Center. He is a life member of the Maine Town & City Management Association.
Duane "Buzz" Fitzgerald, a Maine native, was president and COO of Bath Iron Works. (Full biographical details were not available at press time but will appear in the commencement program.)
School of Law
Ceremonies for the University of Maine School of Law will be held at 2:00 p.m.
on Saturday, May 27 at Merrill Auditorium in Portland. Caroline Glassman will
be the Law School commencement speaker. Glassman is a retired justice of the
Maine Supreme Judicial Court.
Back to Currents