Schumer To Speak At UB’s 154th Commencement

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer will deliver the address at the University at Buffalo's 154th general commencement ceremony, to be held at 10 a.m. May 14 in Alumni Arena on the UB North (Amherst) Campus.

About 5,000 students are candidates to receive degrees during the general commencement ceremony and 13 other commencement ceremonies being held the weekend of May 12-14 and on May 19.

The Chancellor Charles P. Norton Medal, UB's highest award, will be presented at the general commencement ceremony to Philip B. Wels, a UB alumnus and respected surgeon long active in community and university affairs, and posthumously to the late Hon. M. Dolores Denman, a UB Law School graduate and noted jurist.

A State University of New York honorary Doctor of Laws degree will be conferred on the Hon. Thomas Buergenthal, a former member of the UB law faculty and U.S. representative on the International Court of Justice at the Hague, at the UB Law School commencement at 5 p.m. May 14 in the Center for the Arts on the North Campus.

UB pharmacy alumnus John N. Kapoor, president of the health-care conglomerate EJ Financial Enterprises and chief executive officer of Akorn, Inc., a pharmaceutical company, will receive the SUNY honorary Doctor of Science degree at the School of Pharmacy commencement at 1 p.m. May 13 in Slee Concert Hall on the North Campus.

Among the speakers at the university's other commencement ceremonies will be David Satcher, U.S. surgeon general and assistant secretary for health, who will address the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences commencement at 2 p.m. May 19 in the Center for the Arts. SUNY Provost Peter D. Salins will speak at the School of Architecture and Planning commencement at 2 p.m. May 13 on the Hayes Hall Lawn on the South (Main Street) Campus.

Joining Schumer as a speaker at the general commencement ceremony will be UB President William R. Greiner and Betty Voltaire, recipient of the Division of Student Affairs Senior Leadership Award. Greiner and Provost David J. Triggle will confer degrees.

Daniel J. Heims, Michael G. Patterson and Nicole Piotrowski will receive the Chancellor's Awards for Student Excellence.

Four graduates will receive the College of Arts and Sciences Dean's Outstanding Senior Awards: Jessica K. Cavano, for the arts; Shari A. Salisbury, for the humanities; Wing Leong Teo, for the social and behavioral sciences, and Srinivas Raghu, for physics and chemistry.

They are among 30 departmental outstanding graduates from the College of Arts and Sciences who will be honored.

Student vocalist will be Jennifer Kosack.

Schumer, 48, is in his first term representing New York State in the Senate after defeating Alfonse D'Amato in 1998 -- one of only two Democrats elected to the Senate that year. He serves as a member of the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, the Judiciary Committee and the Rules Committee.

Prior to his election to the Senate, Schumer served nine terms in the House of Representatives, representing the Ninth Congressional District in Brooklyn and Queens.

A native of New York City, he graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Law School. He was elected to the New York State Assembly at age 23 -- one of the youngest members since Theodore Roosevelt.

As a member of Congress, Schumer sponsored and helped pass the Brady Bill, which required a five-day waiting period for the purchase of a handgun. The following year, he helped pass the Assault Weapons Ban, which outlawed 19 automatic weapons.

That same year, he sponsored and helped pass the Omnibus Crime Bill of 1994, which put 100,000 new police officers on the street, enforced "three-strikes-and-you're-out" sentencing and created after-school programs for troubled teens.

Strongly pro-choice, Schumer authored and helped pass legislation making it a federal crime to infringe on a women's right to choose by blockading family-planning clinics. He also authored and helped pass the Violence Against Women Act, the first federal legislation protecting women from domestic abuse.

The Norton medal is presented annually in public recognition of a person who has, in Norton's words, "performed some great thing which is identified with Buffalo…a great civic or political act, a great book, a great work of art, a great scientific achievement, or any other thing which in itself is truly great and ennobling, and which dignifies the performer and Buffalo in the eyes of the world."

Wels has long served UB as one of the community's most visionary and dedicated benefactors of time, energy, ideas and key funding. Chair emeritus of the UB Council and professor emeritus of surgery, he is a university founder and trustee of the UB Foundation, Inc. He has been the recipient of many awards from UB, including a Distinguished Alumni Award, the Dean's Award in the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, the Medical Alumni Association Achievement Award, the Chancellor Capen Award and the President's Medal.

The first woman in state history to serve as a presiding justice of one of the state's four Appellate Divisions, Denman served as a role model for other women pursing legal careers. She rose through the ranks from assistant district attorney to Buffalo City Court judge and then to Supreme Court judge to the Appellate Division. Most recently, she had been the Fourth Department's presiding justice.

Recipient of the SUNY honorary Doctor of Laws degree, Buergenthal has been a primary force in the global human-rights movement and is the first American appointed as a judge on the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. A survivor of Auschwitz, he has fought tirelessly for the end of human-rights abuses and is the founder of several international human-rights program, including one at UB.

Kapoor, who will receive the SUNY honorary Doctor of Science degree, is a visionary leader and brilliant entrepreneur in the pharmaceutical industry. He came to the United States from Bombay, India, to pursue his doctoral studies in medicinal chemistry at UB. Nine years after earning his doctorate, he built LymphoMed, the first of a series of successful and innovative ventures, into a multi-million-dollar pharmaceutical company. A philanthropist, he is particularly committed to supporting pharmaceutical education at UB through the Kapoor Fellowship in Medicinal Chemistry. He received a UB Distinguished Alumni Award in 1987.

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

• Graduate School, 2 p.m., May 12, Center for the Arts. David M. Fogues and Anna L. Furguiele, president and vice president, respectively, of the Graduate Student Association, will speak. David Triggle will confer degrees.

• Health Related Professions, 9 a.m., May 13, Alumni Arena. J. Warren Perry, the school's founding dean and professor emeritus, will speak. Michael E. Bernardino, UB vice president for health affairs, will confer degrees.

• School of Social Work, 9 a.m., May 13, Center for the Arts. The Hon. E. Jeannette Ogden, Buffalo City Court judge, will speak. Greiner will confer degrees.

• School of Nursing, 9 a.m., May 13, Slee Concert Hall. Bernadette Melnyk, associate dean for research and associate professor at the University of Rochester, will speak. Triggle will confer degrees.

• School of Information Studies, 10 a.m., May 13, Student Union Theatre, North Campus. Gail Staines, executive director of the Western New York Library Resources Council, will speak. Kerry S. Grant, dean of the UB College of Arts and Sciences, will confer degrees.

• School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, 1 p.m., May 13, Alumni Arena. Triggle and Mark H. Karwan, dean of the school, will speak. Triggle will confer degrees.

• School of Pharmacy, 1 p.m., May 13, Slee Concert Hall. Wayne K. Anderson, dean of the school, will speak. Greiner will confer degrees.

• School of Architecture and Planning, 2 p.m., May 13, Hayes Hall Lawn, South Campus. Peter D. Salins, SUNY provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs, will speak. Kenneth J. Levy, UB senior vice provost, will confer degrees.

• School of Management, 5 p.m., May 13, Alumni Arena. Management Dean Lewis Mandell and Daniel Penberthy, who will receive the executive master's degree in business administration, will speak. Greiner will confer degrees.

• Graduate School of Education, 5 p.m., May 13, Center for the Arts. D. Bruce Johnstone, former SUNY Chancellor and UB professor of higher education and comparative education, will speak. Triggle will confer degrees.

• School of Dental Medicine, 2 p.m., May 14, Center for the Arts. Major Gen. Patrick D. Sculley, deputy surgeon general, U.S. Army Dental Corps and chief of staff of the U.S. Army Medical Command, will speak. Bernardino will confer degrees.

• Law School, 5 p.m., May 14, Center for the Arts. Dean R. Nils Olsen, Jr.; Greiner; law professor Elizabeth B. Mensch, and graduating student Anthony Pendergrass will speak. Greiner will confer degrees.

• School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, 2 p.m., May 19, Center for the Arts. David Satcher, the 16th U.S. surgeon general and assistant secretary for health, will speak. Triggle, Bernardino and John Wright, dean of the school, will confer degrees.