Greg Page, Carolyn Becraft will receive honorary degrees at Commencement May 14
The University will hold General Commencement at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, May 14, at the Alerus Center, where Interim President Edward Schafer will preside over his first and only spring ceremony before incoming President Mark Kennedy takes the helm later this summer.
The School of Law and the School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS) will hold separate ceremonies on Saturday, May 7 and Sunday, May 15, respectively, at the Chester Fritz Auditorium on the University of North Dakota main campus (see details below).
For General Commencement, there are 1,900 eligible undergraduate and graduate-degree candidates. In addition, there are 64 law students and 72 medical students eligible to graduate this spring; all eligible spring graduates and all eligible certificate recipients will total 2,129.
UND faculty and administrative staff are encouraged to march in the General Commencement Ceremony, and are asked to wear academic regalia.
Honorary degrees
UND also will honor two distinguished alumni with honorary degrees during the general commencement ceremony: Greg Page and Carolyn Becraft.
Since graduating from UND, Page has moved up the corporate ladder to his current spot as the CEO at Cargill Corporations. Page has continuously been a friend to the University, giving generously allowing the school to give numerous students scholarships to continue their education and make renovations on campus.
Becraft, North Dakota native, served the nation with distinction and has been recognized for her work in the U.S. Navy as Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Manpower and Reserve Affairs) from 1998-2001. She also has made a career of helping students attend student foreign affairs conferences. She continues to serve UND as a member of the College of Business and Public Administration Board and as Vice President of the Alumni Association.
Fritz professors
The University also will honor two outstanding faculty members with its highest academic honor – Chester Fritz Distinguished Professorships. This year’s recipients, who just found out about the honor on May 3 in separate surprise announcements – are Jack Russell Weinstein, professor of philosophy and director of the Institute for Philosophy in Public Life; and Brij Singh in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the SMHS.
Broadcast info
The ceremony will be broadcast live on Grand Forks Cable Channel 3 and rebroadcast on the same channel May 17-20 (Tuesday – Friday) at noon and 8 p.m.
UND also provides a live video stream of commencement to allow family and friends to participate in commencement, even if they cannot attend in person. This feed is provided in Adobe Flash Video format, so users may need to download the Free Flash Player athttp://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/
To enter the event, go to http://www.und.edu/dept/webcast .
If users have trouble seeing the video, they should contact UND tech support at http://techsupport.UND.edu and chat with a representative, or call 701.777.6305.
School of Law
The UND School of Law will hold its commencement ceremony at 10 a.m., Saturday, May 7, in the Chester Fritz Auditorium. With 64 candidates eligible, the ceremony will be officiated by UND School of Law Dean Kathryn R.L. Rand and President Schafer. Carla Pratt, Associate Justice for the Supreme Court of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in Fort Yates, N.D., will present the commencement address.
Pratt also is an associate dean for academic affairs and educational equity at Penn State’s Dickinson School of Law.
School of Medicine and Health Sciences
The SMHS Doctor of Medicine commencement is at 2:30 p.m., SUNDAY, May 15, in the Chester Fritz Auditorium. Patrick Carr, of the Department of Biomedical Sciences, will deliver the keynote address, titled “Everything You Need to Know You Learned in Anatomy.”
Carr was raised in western Manitoba, and he joined UND in 1998. He is currently the director of education resources and assistant dean for faculty development for the SMHS.
