It’s time to celebrate all that you have achieved. Find out everything you need to know about Commencement 2018 to join in the memories of a lifetime.
Syracuse University’s 164th Commencement will take place Sunday, May 13, beginning with the degree candidates’ procession at 9:30 a.m.
Barrier-breaking athlete, author and activist Kathrine Switzer ’68, G’72 will deliver the Commencement address.
Syracuse University will confer 6,633 degrees, which are to the bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral and associate’s degree candidates. The College of Law will confer its candidates’ juris doctor and master of law degrees during a ceremony Friday, May 11. The College of Law’s speaker will be Preet Bharara, former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
During Commencement, Syracuse University Chancellor and President Kent Syverud and SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY ESF) President Quentin D. Wheeler will address the graduates. Syracuse Vice Chancellor and Provost Michele Wheatly will preside.
The University will award honorary degrees to Bishop Borys Gudziak ’80, bishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Saint Vladimir the Great of Paris, director of external relations for the Greek Catholic Church and president of the Ukrainian Catholic University in L’viv, Ukraine; Switzer, the first woman to officially enter and run the Boston Marathon, who has spent her life championing women in sports; and Kenneth M. Zeichner G’70, G’76, distinguished author and teaching scholar and the Boeing Professor of Teacher Education at the University of Washington.
The two Senior Class Marshals, Gerald A. Brown and Anjana Pati, will lead graduates during the ceremony. Brown, from the South Side of Chicago, is a senior in the College of Visual and Performing Arts, majoring in sculpture and minoring in entrepreneurship and emerging enterprises in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management. Pati, hailing from Millstone Township, New Jersey, is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences majoring in psychology and neuroscience on the pre-med track. She is also minoring in public communications, health and wellness, and biology.
Along with the all-University marshals, 23 student marshals will represent the 13 schools and colleges at Syracuse University; ESF is represented by two student marshals. They were chosen on the basis of leadership abilities, participation in extracurricular activities, service to the University and academic achievement. The marshals will lead the degree candidates of their respective schools or colleges.
Twelve seniors have been designated as Syracuse University Scholars and three as SUNY ESF Scholars. This is the highest academic award given to undergraduate students. Jacqueline Li Grace Page ’18 is this year’s student speaker.
John Palmer, Dean Emeritus of the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, will serve as mace bearer and lead the academic procession. The Rev. Brian E. Konkol, dean of Hendricks Chapel, will give the invocation.
The University Marshal is Shiu-Kai Chin, Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professor for Teaching Excellence and professor of electrical engineering and computer science in the College of Engineering and Computer Science. Associate University Marshal is Kelly Chandler-Olcott, Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professor for Teaching Excellence, professor of reading and language arts, and associate dean for research in the School of Education.
The Army and Air Force ROTC cadets will present the colors.
Also during the ceremony, retiring faculty members who have been recommended to receive the title of emeritus by the University Senate to the Syracuse University Board of Trustees will be recognized by Board of Trustees Chairman Steven W. Barnes ’82, who will also deliver a greeting.
Graduates will also receive an alumni welcome from Tracy Barash ’89, president of the Syracuse University Alumni Association.
The Syracuse University Brass Ensemble will perform under the direction of James Spencer, professor of chemistry in the College of Arts and Sciences. The national anthem will be sung by Elizabeth Weber ’18, and Imani Faggan ’18 will sing the alma mater.
A live video stream will be broadcast for school and college convocations as well as Sunday’s Commencement ceremony. Each ceremony’s stream will go live 10 minutes before the scheduled start time.
Celebrate Commencement on social media using the hashtag #SUGrad18.
More information about Commencement 2018 can be found at commencement.syr.edu.
The individual schools and colleges convocations’ speakers are the following:
