Norman takes center stage at spring commencement
Soprano Jessye Norman, one of the country’s
most celebrated performing artists, will present the 2008 commencement address
on May 11.
Chancellor James
Moeser will preside at the ceremony, set for 9:30 a.m. in Kenan Stadium.
NORMAN |
The chancellor selected Norman after
consultation with the commencement speaker selection committee, composed of an
equal number of students and faculty and chaired by Steve Allred, executive
associate provost.
Moeser met Norman last fall when they both were inducted as fellows into the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
“Jessye Norman is one of the world’s greatest
voices,” Moeser said. “The perspective she will bring about the role of the
arts in our world
today is a very important one for our graduates to consider as they leave
Carolina.”
Norman was born into a musical family in Augusta, Ga., and
learned to play the piano when she could barely walk. She is known for bringing
a joy of singing and passion to
audiences around the world.
She has received numerous awards and honors.
In 1997, she was selected to become the youngest recipient of the highest award
in U.S.
performing arts, the Kennedy Center Honor.
In addition to being named an honorary ambassador to the
United Nations by former U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar,
Norman was recognized with the Lifetime Achievement Award for classical music,
one of only four opera/classical music singers to receive the honor.
She is an honorary fellow at Harvard and Cambridge
universities and was awarded the Eleanor Roosevelt Val-Kill Medal in 2000 to
recognize her humanitarian and
civic contributions.
Norman pursued formal musical studies at Howard University
and later at the Peabody Conservatory and the University of Michigan before
making her operatic debut in the 1969 production of Tannhaeuser at the Deutsche
Oper in Berlin.
She will receive an honorary doctor of
music degree.
Carolina Covenant Scholars
Among the University’s more than 5,000 graduates are those
in the first class of Carolina
Covenant Scholars. The groundbreaking Covenant, which was announced in 2003,
allows qualified low-income students to
graduate debt-free.
Through last fall, seniors in the program had posted a 90.6
percent retention rate. The University will not know how many from the first
class will have completed their undergraduate degrees in four years until late
this summer, after some students have completed summer school and when records
are complete. But of the first 223 Carolina Covenant Scholars who enrolled as
first-year students in fall 2004, 202 were still enrolled or had graduated
through last fall.
Before the Covenant, only Princeton
University had a no-loans program. The
Covenant was the first low-income initiative
by a public university and the first to add
support measures to foster academic success by the scholars. It has been the
model for some 80 other programs at public and private
institutions around the country.
Since Moeser announced the Covenant, it has sparked nearly
$10 million in private
contributions. Donors’ support allowed Carolina
to expand eligibility for the program and add services to help the scholars
adapt to campus life and address any financial, social and cultural barriers
they faced.
In spring 2005, the University began
recruiting faculty and professional staff mentors to help first-year Covenant
Scholars integrate into college life and facilitate academic advising
and counseling.
Veteran Portuguese Professor Fred Clark
created the mentoring program. As the face of the program to nearly 1,400
Covenant Scholars,
he continually reminds students that the
program “needs to be more than just money,” hosting them for lunch, checking on
their grades and enhancing their academic success.
In addition, the Office of Student Affairs underwrites the
cost of summer orientation
for Covenant Scholars and parents, and
University Career Services teaches the scholars
about the demeanor that will be expected of them in their careers. The office
plans to
include courses on public speaking this fall.
Other campus units involved include
Carolina Performing Arts, which contributes tickets for many world-class
performances.
This year, UNC medical faculty members began a monthly
mentoring class for Covenant Scholars interested in health-care careers. The
doctors also allow the scholars to shadow them in clinics.
Honorary degree recipients
In addition to Norman, other recipients of honorary degrees
include a Nobel Prize
winner in chemistry, a genome scientist, a
psychiatric epidemiologist and a North
Carolina state senator.
AGRE
GREEN
MUNROE-BLUM
RAND
|
Agre
Peter Courtland Agre, 2003 co-recipient of the Nobel Prize
in chemistry, vice
chancellor for science
and technology and professor of cell
biology and medicine at Duke University, will receive a doctor of science
degree.
Agre, who has been at Duke since 2005, was elected to the
National Academy of Sciences in 2000. He was also elected to the American
Academy of Arts in 2003.
He shared the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 2003 for his revelation
concerning the molecular basis for the movement of water into and out of cells
through the discovery of the first water-channel protein, called an aquaporin.
After earning a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Augsburg
College, Agre earned his medical degree from Johns Hopkins University
and did his internship and residency in
medicine at Case Western Reserve University.
Agre pursued his postdoctoral training at UNC in hematology and continues to
have strong ties with the University.
Green
Philip Palmer Green III, professor of
genome sciences at the University of Washington, will receive a doctor of
science degree. He is also an investigator for the Howard Hughes Medical
Institute.
Accredited with key algorithms and software tools that made
possible the systematic analysis of complex genomes, Green received his
undergraduate degree from Harvard and his Ph.D. from the University of
California
at Berkeley.
Nobel Prize winner James D. Watson stated
that, “without his (Green) Phred and Prap computation tools, the assembly of
the human genome would have moved ahead much more hesitantly, if not
chaotically.”
Green became a postdoctoral fellow in the biostatistics
department of Carolina’s School of Public Health, and worked on the Lipids
Research Clinic Project and joined the
Washington faculty in 1994.
Munroe-Blum
Heather Munroe-Blum, principal and vice chancellor of McGill
University in Montreal and Carolina alumna, will receive a doctor of science
degree.
Born in Montreal and raised in Ontario,
Munroe-Blum earned her undergraduate
degree at McMaster University and her Ph.D. from Carolina’s School of Public
Health in 1983.
A specialist in psychiatric epidemiology, Munroe-Blum has
held faculty positions at the University of Toronto and York University. She
has led large-scale epidemiological investigations of the distribution,
prevention, course and treatment of major psychiatric disorders.
She was selected as one of Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top
100, and continues to promote the development of effective public policy in
support of innovation through science. She is a fellow of the Academy of
Science of the Royal Society of Canada and past winner of the School of Public
Health’s Outstanding Alumna Award.
Rand
Anthony Eden Rand, a Fayetteville attorney, Carolina alumnus
and N.C. senator for the 19th district, will receive a doctor of laws degree.
Currently the Senate
Majority Leader and chair of the Rules Committee, Rand has long been a constant
in the North Carolina Senate having been re-elected 10 times since 1981. He
earned his A.B. in political science in 1961 and in his J.D. in 1964, both from
Carolina.
Rand has co-chaired the Joint Selection
Committee on Higher Education Facilities Needs and is currently treasurer and a
member of the board of directors of the General Alumni Association, where he
has served previously as chair. He also served on the Carolina First Campaign
Steering Committee and on the University’s Board of Visitors.
Rand’s previous honors at Carolina include induction into
the Order of the Golden Fleece in 1961, the William R. Davie Award in 1995, and
the General Alumni Association’s Distinguished Service Medal in 1998. He
received the 2000 Legislative Leadership Award from the N.C. Council of
Community Programs and holds an honorary degree and Chancellor’s
Medallion from Fayetteville State University.
Severe weather information
In the case of severe weather — heavy rain accompanied
by high winds, thunder and lightning — the commencement ceremony will be
moved to the Dean E. Smith Center. The event time will remain 9:30 a.m., and
the University will announce any change early that morning. All shuttle
services will be redirected to the Smith Center.
Announcements will be posted and air on the UNC Web site at www.unc.edu, the University
Travelers Information System Radio (1610 AM), WCHL-AM (1360), WUNC-FM (91.5),
the University Access Channel (Chapel Hill Time Warner Cable Channel 4) and
other local TV or radio stations.
Because of limited seating capacity in the Smith Center, the
University uses a ticketing system for the event. Each eligible graduating
student is limited to five severe weather admission tickets — one for the
graduate’s entrance and four for guests. Both graduates and guests must have
the tickets for admission. Students cleared to graduate must secure their
tickets online in advance at www.unc.edu/commencement. Tickets are available
through May 9 .
For more information, visit the UNC homepage, www.unc.edu,
or the commencement page, www.unc.edu/commencement/MayCommencement2008.htm.
