Tuesday, November 26, 2002

WRITER: Larry B. Dendy, 706/542-8078, ldendy@uga.edu
CONTACT: Trish Kalivoda, 706/542-3946, tlk@uga.edu

SPELMAN PRESIDENT, UGA PROFESSOR TO SPEAK AT UGA FALL COMMENCEMENT CEREMONIES

ATHENS, Ga. — Beverly D. Tatum, president of Spelman College in Atlanta, and Reginald McKnight, a University of Georgia professor and a noted writer, will be the speakers for UGA’s fall semester commencement ceremonies Saturday, Dec. 21, in Stegeman Coliseum

Tatum will speak at a 9:30 a.m. ceremony for students receiving bachelor’s degrees.
McKnight, a novelist and short story writer and the Hamilton Holmes Professor in UGA’s English department, will speak at a 2:30 p.m. ceremony for students receiving doctoral, master’s and specialist degrees.

The commencement is for students who complete degree requirements at the end of fall semester. The registrar’s office estimates about 1,700 students will be eligible to receive undergraduate degrees and about 550 candidates will be eligible for graduate degrees. Final numbers won’t be known until after final exams are over on Dec. 17. Typically, about half those eligible to participate in commencements actually attend the ceremonies.

This commencement will mark the first presentation of undergraduate degrees from UGA’s newest school, the School of Public and International Affairs. The school was established in 2001 by joining the political science, public administration and criminal justice programs with programs in international affairs, law and related areas.

At the undergraduate ceremony, Tom Lauth, the school’s first dean, will present candidates for bachelor of arts degrees in political science, criminal justice and public affairs. At the graduate ceremony, doctoral and master’s degrees in political science and public administration will be conferred.

Also at the undergraduate ceremony, an honorary doctor of laws degree will be awarded to legendary civil rights lawyer Donald L. Hollowell of Atlanta. Hollowell led the legal team that won admission for Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter as UGA’s first African American students in 1961. He was also involved in numerous other landmark civil rights cases in Georgia in the 1950s and 60s. He was the first director of the southeastern office of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and for 15 years was president of the Voter Education Project.

A member of the graduating class will speak at both the undergraduate and graduate ceremonies. John Haliburton of Kennesaw will speak at the undergraduate ceremony. He will receive a bachelor’s degree in speech communication. The speaker for the graduate ceremony will be George Daniels, who will receive a doctorate in mass communication.

Three graduating seniors will be recognized at the undergraduate ceremony as First Honor Graduates, a designation for students who maintain perfect 4.0 grade point averages throughout their college careers. They are John S. Allen of Alpharetta, who will receive a bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary studies and Latin; Robin L. Fuller of Savannah, who will receive a journalism degree with a concentration in magazines; and Holly M. Sharp of Roswell, who will receive a journalism degree with a concentration in advertising.

This will be the first commencement for Maureen Grasso, who became dean of UGA’s Graduate School earlier this year. Grasso will present the candidates for master’s and doctoral degrees.

Tatum, the speaker for the undergraduate ceremony, became Spelman’s ninth president earlier this year. She came to Spelman from Mount Holyoke College where she had been acting president and also served as dean of the college and vice president for student affairs.

The granddaughter of a Spelman graduate and a fourth-generation college professor, Tatum is a clinical psychologist who specializes in the psychology of racism. She has conducted research, published books and articles, and led workshops on such topics as racial identity in teens and race in the classroom.

Her 1997 book "Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?: And Other Conversations About Race" argues that an open examination of racial identity issues is essential to racial progress in America. The book was chosen Multicultural Book of the Year by the National Association of Multicultural Education and will be published in its fifth edition next year.

Tatum, who has received grants from the Mellon Foundation and Carnegie Corporation to support her research, has also taught at Westfield State College and the University of California at Santa Barbara. She earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Wesleyan University and a doctorate from the University of Michigan.

McKnight, the graduate ceremony speaker, joined UGA’s Creative Writing Program in the English department this year and is the first person to hold the Hamilton Holmes professorship. He came to UGA from the University of Michigan where he was a professor of English.

McKnight has written two novels and is author of three short story collections including "Moustapha’s Eclipse," which won the Drue Heinz Prize and a citation from the PEN/ Hemingway Foundation.

One of his short stories received the Pushcart Prize and the Kenyon Review Award; another story also won the Kenyon Review Award and the O’Henry Award, and is included in the
1989 edition of "The Best American Short Stories."

McKnight has been on the faculty at a number of other schools including the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University, Bennington College and the University of Maryland, and has taught at the Breadloaf Writer’s Conference and the American Cultural Center in Senegal.

He holds a bachelor’s degree from the Colorado College and a master’s from the University of Denver.

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