UB to hold commencement ceremonies

Some 5,894 students are candidates to receive degrees and certifications during UB’s 2017 commencement ceremonies being held April 28 through May 24.

UB will no longer hold its traditional University Commencement, instead splitting the large ceremony honoring College of Arts and Sciences’ baccalaureate recipients into two separate ceremonies differentiated by departments.

University officials determined that Alumni Arena, the site of University Commencement, is no longer able to accommodate the growing numbers of graduates and their family members.

UB’s 2017 commencement seasons begins on April 28 with the ceremony for the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at 1:30 p.m. in the Center for the Arts, North Campus. Delivering remarks will be Steven A. Wartman, president and CEO, Association of Academic Health Centers. President Satish K. Tripathi will confer degrees.

Medical school faculty member Margarita Dubocovich, SUNY Distinguished Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, will receive the UB President’s Medal in recognition of her extraordinary service to the university.

The remainder of the commencement schedule:

• School of Dental Medicine: 3 p.m. May 5, Center for the Arts. The speaker will be George W. Tysowsky, senior vice president for technology and professional relations at Ivoclar Vivadent Inc. Tripathi will confer degrees.
• Graduate School of Education: 9 a.m. May 19, Center for the Arts. No speaker is planned. Provost Charles F. Zukoski will confer degrees.
• School of Nursing: 9 a.m. May 19, Alumni Arena, North Campus. Speaking will be Karen Ziemanski, vice president and chief nursing officer at Erie County Medical Center. Tripathi will confer degrees.
• College of Arts and Sciences (graduate): 1 p.m. May 19, Center for the Arts. No formal speaker is planned. SUNY honorary degrees will be awarded to Marc Edwards, BS ’86, the Virginia Tech civil engineering professor credited with uncovering water contamination in Flint, Michigan, and Seong-Kon Kim, president of the Literature Translation Institute of Korea. Tripathi will confer degrees.
• School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (graduate): 1 p.m. May 19, Alumni Arena. Sissy Nikolaou, a UB alum and principal for multi-hazards & geotechnical engineering, WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff, will speak. Zukoski will confer degrees.
• School of Architecture and Planning: 5 p.m. May 19, Center for the Arts. Diane Georgopulos, a retired architect with MassHousing in Boston and a graduate of the first class in the School of Architecture and Planning, will speak. Tripathi will offer greetings; Graham Hammill, vice provost for graduate education and dean of the Graduate School, will confer degrees.
• School of Management (graduate): 5 p.m. May 19, Alumni Arena. No speaker is planned. Zukoski will confer degrees.
• School of Social Work: 9 a.m. May 20, Center for the Arts. Amy Fleischauer, director of survivor support services for the International Institute of Buffalo, will speak. Zukoski will confer degrees.
• School of Management (undergraduate): 9 a.m. May 20, Alumni Arena. No speaker is planned. The Chancellor Charles P. Norton Medal, UB’s highest award, will be presented posthumously to Mark J. Czarnecki, former vice chair of the UB Council and president and COO of M&T Bank. Tripathi will confer degrees.
• School of Public Health and Health Professions: 1 p.m. May 20, Center for the Arts. The speaker will be Carlos Roberto Jaen, the Dr. and Mrs. James L. Holly Distinguished Chair, Patient-Centered Medical Home; professor and chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine; and professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. Zukoski will confer degrees.
• School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (undergraduate): 2:30 p.m. May 20, Alumni Arena. Ann Wegrzyn, chief information officer for National Fuel, will speak and receive the 2017 Dean’s Award. Tripathi will confer degrees.
• School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences: 5 p.m. May 20, Center for the Arts. Margaret Hempling McGlynn, BS ’82 & MBA ’83, founder of the Hempling Foundation for Homocystinuria Research, will speak and receive a SUNY honorary degree. Tripathi will confer degrees.
• Biomedical Sciences (undergraduate and graduate, including Roswell Park Graduate Division): 9:30 a.m. May 21, Center for the Arts. Candace S. Johnson, president and CEO of Roswell Park Cancer Institute, will speak. Zukoski will confer degrees.
• College of Arts and Sciences (undergraduate arts, natural sciences and mathematics, and interdisciplinary programs): 9:30 a.m. May 21, Alumni Arena. Speaking will be UB alum Peter J. Kadzik, former assistant attorney general for legislative affairs at the U.S. Department of Justice. Tripathi will confer degrees.
• College of Arts and Sciences (undergraduate humanities and social sciences): 3 p.m. May 21, Alumni Arena. Kadzik will speak. Zukoski will confer degrees.
• School of Law: 3 p.m. May 21, Center for the Arts. Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul will speak. The UB President’s Medal will be presented to Francis M. Letro, chair of the UB Foundation and founder and partner of Francis M. Letro Attorneys and Counselors at Law. Tripathi will confer degrees.
• Educational Opportunity Center: 7 p.m. May 24, Lippes Concert Hall in Slee Hall, North Campus. Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown will speak.