Media Advisory: 5,750 to receive degrees at UB's general commencement ceremony Sunday

The University at Buffalo will hold its 164th general commencement at 10 a.m. Sunday, May 9, in Alumni Arena on the North Campus.

Some 5,750 students are candidates to receive degrees at the ceremony, including Dan Bishop, a UB wrestler who suffered a life-threatening spinal injury March 6 while competing. The gritty wrestler has made a remarkable comeback from his injury, and will receive his diploma onstage during the commencement ceremony.

Dan, who has been walking on his own since mid-April, and his father Norm Bishop will be available for interviews at 9 a.m. Sunday in Classroom 88 in Alumni Arena. He will receive his diploma from UB President John B. Simpson at approximately 12 p.m.

In addition the students who will receive their diplomas, UB will award its highest honor, the Chancellor Charles P. Norton Medal, to Thomas Beecher Jr., chairman of the board of Barrantys LLC, and Esther Takeuchi, SUNY Distinguished Professor and Greatbatch Professor of Power Sources Research.

SUNY honorary degrees will be presented during the ceremony to UB alumni Barry Glick, chief executive officer of SmartRealm LLC, and Robert Vince, director of the Center for Drug Design at the University of Minnesota.

Robert Shibley, campus architect and professor of architecture and urban and regional planning, will receive the UB President's Medal.

Press arrangements: Charles Anzalone in the Office of UB Communications, onsite at 440-8824.