UB's 153rd commencement set for May 16

By MARY BETH SPINA
News Services Editor

Wolf Blitzer, CNN's senior White House correspondent and a 1970 UB graduate; Lucille Clifton, Western New York native, poet and author twice nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, and Clifton A. Poodry, UB alumnus and director of the Division of Minority Opportunities in Research at the National Institutes of Health, will receive honorary degrees at the university's 153rd commencement.

Blitzer and Clifton will be awarded an honorary SUNY Doctorate of Humane Letters. Poodry will receive an honorary SUNY Doctorate of Science.

Graduating seniors from the College of Arts and Sciences will receive degrees in the ceremony at 10 a.m. May 16 in Alumni Arena on the North Campus.

Eli Ruckenstein and Robert Creeley, UB faculty members honored this year with top national awards in their fields, will receive the Chancellor Charles P. Norton Medal, the university's highest tribute, during the ceremony (See above story).

Blitzer, who also hosts CNN's "Inside Politics Weekend," will speak at the ceremony, as will President William R. Greiner and Joshua W. Walker, a graduating senior and winner of the Division of Student Affairs Senior Leadership Award.

Degrees will be awarded by Greiner and Provost David J. Triggle.

Walker, Cynthia Rudin, Michael R. Tackett and Stephen J. Turkovich will receive the Chancellor's Award for Student Excellence.

Four graduates will receive the College of Arts and Sciences Dean's Outstanding Senior Awards: Jonathan W. Federick, for the arts; Thomas Varghese Kozhimannil, for the humanities; Alyssa Marie Johnson, for social and behavioral sciences, and Rudin, for science and mathematics.

Twenty-seven students also will be honored as outstanding graduates from the College of Arts and Sciences.

Student vocalist will be Dana Goldstein.

The general commencement ceremony will be one of 13 commencement ceremonies to be held at UB May 8-16.

Blitzer, who received a bachelor's degree in history from UB, began his journalism career in 1972 with the Reuters News Agency. He spent many years covering the nation's capital, including several as a Washington correspondent for The Jerusalem Post.

He joined CNN in 1990 and served for two years as the network's military affairs correspondent at the Pentagon.

Blitzer was a member of the CNN team that won the prestigious Golden CableACE award from the National Academy of Cable Programming for coverage of the Persian Gulf War.

Senior White House correspondent for CNN since 1992, Blitzer has covered the White House and President Clinton. In 1994, he and CNN won the Best in the Business Award from American Journalism Review for the network's coverage of the Clinton administration. In 1996, he won an Emmy for his coverage of the Oklahoma City bombing.

Clifton will receive a SUNY honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters for her outstanding accomplishments as a versatile and pro

lific writer and a voice for social change.

Born into a close-knit African-American family in Depew, she is a nationally renowned author and poet whose works have appeared in every major American and African-American literary anthology.

Recipient of three National Education Association Awards, she has twice been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.

A Distinguished Professor of Humanities since 1989 at St. Mary's College in Maryland, Clifton is a former Maryland state poet.

In 1969, she published her first collection of poetry, "Good Times," which was immediately cited by The New York Times as one of the year's 10 best books.

Clifton is a prolific writer of children's stories and author of more than 20 books, which have been highly praised by education experts.

She attended Howard University and SUNY College at Fredonia.

Poodry, director of NIH's Division of Minority Opportunities in Research, will receive a SUNY honorary Doctorate of Science as a leader in biological research and a major advocate for minority education in the sciences.

He was born in Buffalo and raised on the Tonawanda Seneca Indian reservation.

Poodry earned a bachelor's degree in 1965 and a master's degree in 1968, both from UB, and the doctoral degree in 1971 from Case Western Reserve University.

As an important voice on issues related to higher education in the sciences, an outstanding administrator and a distinguished university professor of biology, Poodry has won numerous grants for his research and teacher-training initiatives, including a $1 million grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Undergraduate Biological Sciences Program.

He joined the faculty at University of California at Santa Cruz and later became chair of the biology department. Poodry also served as acting dean of natural sciences and acting associate vice chancellor for undergraduate affairs.

During his career, Poodry has been devoted to improving educational opportunities for Native Americans and other minority students.

He served on the advisory board and faculty of the Headlands Indian Health Careers Program at the University of Oklahoma and is a past member of the minority science education advisory committee for the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

The School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences will hold the first of the 13 commencement ceremonies scheduled at UB May 8-16. D. Bruce John-stone, former SUNY chancellor and acting director of the Center for Comparative and Global Studies in the UB Graduate School of Education, will speak at 2 p.m. May 8 in the Center for the Arts on the North Campus. Greiner, Triggle and John R. Wright, dean of the medical school, will confer degrees.

Other ceremonies scheduled at UB, speakers and those who will confer degrees are:

- Graduate School, 2 p.m., May 14, Center for the Arts. Kerry S. Grant, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, will speak. Triggle will confer degrees.
- School of Health Related Professions, 9 a.m., May 15, Alumni Arena. Michael E. Bernardino, vice president for health affairs, will speak and confer degrees.
- School of Social Work, 9 a.m., May 15, Center for the Arts. The Hon. Margaret R. Anderson, Buffalo City Court judge, will speak. Kenneth J. Levy, senior vice provost, will confer degrees.
- School of Nursing, 9 a.m., May 15, Slee Concert Hall, North Campus. Linda D. Oakley, associate professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison School of Nursing, will speak. Triggle will confer degrees.
- School of Information and Library Studies, 10 a.m., May 15, Student Union Theatre, North Campus. Dean George S. Bobinski will speak. Greiner will confer degrees.
- Engineering and Applied Sciences, 1 p.m., May 15, Alumni Arena. Triggle and Dean Mark H. Karwan will speak. Triggle will confer degrees.
- Law School, 1 p.m., May 15, Center for the Arts. The Hon. Denise E. O'Donnell, U.S. attorney for the Western District of New York, will speak. Dean R. Nils Olsen, Jr., will confer degrees.
- School of Pharmacy, 1 p.m., May 15, Slee Concert Hall. Dean Wayne K. Anderson will speak. Greiner will confer degrees.
- School of Architecture and Planning, 3 p.m., May 15, lawn outside Hayes Hall, South Campus. Speaker will be Kent Kleinman of the Department of Architecture at the University of Michigan. Dean Bruno B. Freschi will confer degrees.
- School of Management, 5 p.m., May 15, Alumni Arena. Dean Lewis Mandell will speak. Triggle will confer degrees.
- Graduate School of Education, 5 p.m., May 15, Center for the Arts. Yolanda Moses, president of the City University of New York City College, will speak. Greiner will confer degrees.
- School of Dental Medicine, 2 p.m., May 16, Center for the Arts. Charles Bertolami, dean of dental medicine at the University of California at San Francisco, will speak. Bernardino will confer degrees.