99th Commencement ceremony scheduled for May 22
Sir Clive Gillinson
(photo by Don Perdue)
Three exceptional individuals will be recognized with honorary degrees at Skidmore College's 99 th Commencement ceremony on Saturday, May 22, at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. The ceremony will begin at 11 a.m. and is open to the public.
Following Skidmore tradition, the keynote address will be given by a faculty member chosen by the senior class. This year's faculty speaker is Winston Grady-Willis, director for intercultural studies and associate professor of American studies at Skidmore.
In addition, each of the honorary degree recipients (listed below) will give a brief talk to the approximately 625 members of the Class of 2010 and their guests.
Commencement will mark a return by Williams to the Skidmore campus. In the fall of 2006, as the Class of 2010 began at Skidmore, Williams led discussions on his Life on the Color Line, which had been required summer reading for the entering class. The book describes the turmoil Williams experienced in his adolescence as his presumptions of being white changed radically after a move from Virginia to Muncie, Ind., when he discovered that his father's family was black.Sir Clive Gillinson, executive and artistic director at Carnegie Hall, and partner in The Academy Program?a collaboration with Carnegie Hall, the Juilliard School, and the Weill Music Institute. The program brings ensembles featuring some of the finest post-graduate musicians from around the country to Skidmore each year.
Gregory Howard Williams
(Photo courtesy of University
of Cincinnati)
Gwen Ifill, journalist, television newscaster, and author, who is managing editor and moderator for Washington Week and senior correspondent for The News Hour, both appearing on PBS.
Gregory Howard Williams, president of the University of Cincinnati and author of Life on the Color Line, the reading selection shared by the Class of 2010 in the summer prior to their first year on campus.
Gwen Ifill
(photo by Robert Severi)
Other speakers at the ceremony will be Skidmore President Philip A. Glotzbach; Janet Lucas Whitman '59, chair of Skidmore's board of trustees; and senior-class president Michael Cass-Antony.
