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The last graduating class of the 1900s will join the ranks of Carolina alumni
May 16 at Spring Commencement.
Acting Chancellor William O. McCoy will preside over the ceremony, slated to
start at 9:30 a.m. in Kenan Stadium. Bill Bradley, a former United States
senator and now a presidential candidate, will deliver the Commencement
address.
Serving New Jersey in the Senate for 18 years, Bradley advocated economic
growth, family stability, protecting the environment, promoting community
involvement in government and society, and strengthening America's role abroad.
Bradley was known in the Senate for helping to pass such legislation as Megan's
Law, a law that requires sex offenders to report where they live.
After leaving the Senate in 1997, Bradley chaired the National Civic League,
an advocacy group which promotes collective decision making in local community
building, and taught as a visiting professor at the University of Maryland, and
Stanford and Notre Dame universities.
Bradley played professional basketball for the New York Knicks from 1967 to
1977. As the starting forward, he helped the Knicks win National Basketball
Association championships in 1970 and 1973.
Bradley graduated from Princeton University in 1965 with an honors degree in
American history. A scholar-athlete, Bradley was a three-time basketball
All-American at Princeton and won the Sullivan Award as the country's top
amateur athlete. Bradley captained the gold-medal winning U.S. men's basketball
team at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
After Princeton, Bradley earned a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford University,
where he received a graduate degree after studying politics, philosophy and
economics.
Honorary degrees awarded
Along with delivering the Commencement address, Bradley will be one of
four people receiving honorary degrees. The others are:
* N.C. Sen. President Pro Tempore Marc Basnight of Manteo, receiving a doctor
of laws degree;
* U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Damon J. Keith of Detroit, doctor of laws
degree; and
* Medical librarian Nina Woo Matheson of Chevy Chase, Md., doctor of science
degree.
Basnight is serving his eighth term in the N.C. Senate. In 1993, he was first
elected president pro tempore of the body and now is the longest-serving
president pro tempore in N.C. Senate history.
Although Basnight never had an opportunity to attend college, he has worked
during his years in office to champion the cause of education.
In 1995, he received a William R. Davie Award, the highest honor given by
Carolina trustees, in recognition of "extraordinary service to the university
or to society." Last year, Basnight received the N.C. Cooperative Extension 4-H
Lifetime Achievement Award.
Keith is a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. During
his career, Keith has issued many landmark rulings, including the "Keith
decision" in the 1971 case United States vs. Sinclair. In that decision, Keith
rejected President Richard Nixon's claim that in some instances national
security interests could override the rights of American citizens. The decision
was unanimously affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Keith grew up in Detroit, received a bachelor's degree from West Virginia
State College in 1943, a law degree from Howard University Law School in 1949
and a master's of laws degree from Wayne State University in 1956.
Matheson is professor emerita of medical information at Johns Hopkins
University. She served as director of the Johns Hopkins' medical library from
1984 to 1994.
In 1982, Matheson revolutionized modern libraries with the "Matheson Report,"
which unveiled the integrated academic information management system to help
librarians organize and disseminate medical information.
Matheson has been president of the Medical Library Association and the
Association of Academic Health Sciences Library Directors. She earned a
bachelor's degree in 1957 and a master's degree of librarianship in 1958 from
the University of Washington at Seattle.
Each year, honorary-degree recipients are selected following nominations by
the University community to an elected faculty committee. That committee's
recommendations go to the Faculty Council and the Board of Trustees for final
approval.
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