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Larry B. Dendy
Former U.S. Attorney General Griffin Bell will be the speaker for the university’s fall commencement exercises Dec. 19.
 Bell will speak at the 196th ceremony for undergraduates at 9 a.m. in Stegeman Coliseum and will receive an honorary doctor of laws degree.
Karen Holbrook, UGA’s senior vice president for academic affairs and provost, will speak at 2:30 p.m. in the coliseum at exercises for graduate students.
The December ceremonies are for students who completed degree requirements at the end of summer quarter and those who will complete requirements at the end of fall semester. This will be UGA’s second graduation this year; commencement was held in June for students who had completed degree requirements since summer 1997.
 With the conversion to a semester system this year, UGA officials decided to resume holding two graduation ceremonies annually--a December ceremony for students who finish degree requirements at the end of fall semester and a May ceremony for those who complete requirements at the end of spring semester.
“We’re happy to give our fall graduates this timely recognition so they won’t have to return next spring for graduation,” says Victor Wilson, assistant to UGA President Michael Adams and chair of the commencement committee.
UGA used to hold two commencements annually--a large ceremony in June and a smaller exercise in August. The August ceremony was eliminated after 1974.
Because this is the first time for a fall ceremony, university officials are unsure how many students may participate. Typically, about half of those eligible have attended June commencement ceremonies. Based on the number of undergraduates who completed degree requirements for summer and fall quarters last year, officials estimate about 1,700 will be eligible to participate in the December ceremony.
Bell, now a senior partner in the King and Spalding law firm in Atlanta, will be the 73rd recipient of the honorary doctor of laws degree, the highest recognition UGA bestows after the earned doctorate. The degree recognizes exemplary and broad contributions to society and a record of lasting significance in such areas as scholarship, the creative arts, research, public service or business and industry.
A native of Americus and graduate of Georgia Southwestern College and Mercer University law school, Bell served as U.S. attorney general from 1977 to 1979 under President Jimmy Carter. Previously he had served almost 15 years on the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
While on the appeals court, Bell was a director of the Federal Judicial Center. He has also been president of the American College of Trial Lawyers and chairman of the American Bar Association’s Division of Judicial Administration.
He was vice chairman of President George Bush’s Commission on Federal Ethics Law Reform and was a board member and chairman of the Ethics Resource Center, Inc.
Bell served on an advisory committee on South Africa appointed by the U.S. secretary of state, and in 1980 he led the American delegation to the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe. He was co-chairman of the Attorney General’s National Task Force on Violent Crime and served as chairman of the Atlanta Commission on Crime and Juvenile Delinquency.
Holbrook, who will speak at the ceremony for recipients of master’s and doctoral degrees, joined UGA this summer in a position President Adams created as part of a reorganization of UGA’s top administrative structure. As provost and chief academic officer, she oversees all core institutional functions, including instruction, student affairs, research and public service and outreach.
Since 1993, Holbrook had been at the University of Florida, where she was vice president for research and dean of the Graduate School Office of Research, Technology and Graduate Education. Previously she spent 24 years at the University of Washington School of Medicine as a researcher, teacher and associate dean for scientific affairs.
Holbrook has extensive involvement in national and regional efforts to strengthen graduate education. She is on the board of directors of the Council of Graduate Schools and was chair of the Council of Research Policy and Graduate Education for the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges.
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