UNM SPRING COMMENCEMENT CEREMONY SET FOR MAY 15

Media Contact: Laurie Mellas Ramirez, 277-5915

May 3, 2004

UNM SPRING COMMENCEMENT CEREMONY SET FOR MAY 15
CHAVEZ, UDALL AND LEWIS TO RECEIVE HONORARY DEGREES

Denise Chávez, New Mexico author, actress, director and teacher, will receive an honorary doctor of letters degree and deliver the commencement address at the University of New Mexico spring 2004 commencement ceremony set for Saturday, May 15 at 9 a.m. in University Arena “The Pit.”

Edward Lewis, co-founder and CEO of Essence Communications Partners, will receive an honorary doctor of humane letters, and Stewart Udall, political figure, activist and scholar, will be honored with an honorary doctor of laws degree.

Convocation ceremonies will be held at the individual departments and colleges following the ceremony and throughout the preceding day. Gov. Bill Richardson is guest speaker for the UNM School of Law convocation on Saturday at 1 p.m.

At commencement, UNM President Louis Caldera will confer a projected total of 2,797 degrees upon UNM main campus graduates. Of the total, the breakdown is as follows: 1,907 bachelor's degrees, 561 master's degrees, 95 doctorates, 88 juris doctorates, three graduate certificates, 69 medical doctorates, 70 pharmacy doctorates and four education specialists.

UNM Regents Douglas Brown and Maria Griego-Raby will be among the dignitaries present and many UNM administrators, deans, faculty and staff have a role.

Richard W. Holder, deputy provost and professor of chemistry, is master of ceremonies, and Vivian Valencia, University Secretary, chief marshal.

The University Band, conducted by Eric Rombach-Kendall, will play a selection of music for the ceremony's prelude and processional. Graduate Jessica Bachicha, who majored in music and foreign languages, will sing the national anthem. Bachicha was a vocal soloist for UNM's recent Cello Extravaganza. She is working on a CD featuring Baroque and twentieth century music as well as one of her own compositions.

UNM's Air Force ROTC will do the Presentation of Colors.

UNM President Louis Caldera will then offer greetings. Provost Brian Foster will recognize honors graduates before awarding the Tom L. Popejoy Dissertation Prize to Francois Gelineau for his dissertation “Economic Voting in Volatile Contexts: National and Subnational Politics in Latin America.”

Caldera will award honorary degrees to Chavez, Udall and Lewis prior to Chavez delivering the commencement address. Caldera will then confer the degrees in course.

Bachicha will sing the alma mater followed by the recessional performed by Los Reyes de Albuquerque.

UNM's Alumni Association will hold an open house for graduating seniors Monday – Friday, May 10-14, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Hodgin Hall. President and Mrs. Louis Caldera and the Alumni Association will host a commencement reception Saturday, May 15 on the University House lawn, 1 - 3 p.m.

UNM's honorary degree recipients

Denise Chávez

Chávez captures and gives a voice to the people, landscape and distinctive language of the Southwest borderlands. Often her characters live on the edges of society, struggling to understand their personal identity, cultural heritage and place in the community.

Chávez is the author of more than twenty plays – her best known include Plaza (1984) and Women in the State of Grace (1989) – as well as three books of prose fiction, poems and a story for children. Her fiction includes a prize-winning collection of short stories Last of the Menu Girls (1986); and two novels, Face of an Angel (1994) and Loving Pedro Infante (2001), both published by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, New York.

Widely regarded as among the most important Hispanic-American writers in the United States today, Chávez was born and raised in Las Cruces, she earned her BA in English from New Mexico State University, MFA from Trinity University, San Antonio; and M.A. in creative writing from UNM. She currently lives in her hometown where she directs the Cultural Center of Mesilla.

Edward Lewis

As co-founder, publisher, chairman and CEO of Essence Communications Partners, the career of UNM alumnus Ed Lewis is one of the great entrepreneurial success stories of the last half-century.

A New York City native, Lewis was recruited to UNM to play football. He also shined off the field – earning his BA in 1963 and MA in 1965, both in political science.

In 1979, as a management trainee armed with little but a business plan and a loan, Lewis and partner Clarence O. Smith started a lifestyle publication for African American women, ESSENCE Magazine. The two men grew the single publication into one of the country's largest African American-owned multimedia organizations.

Lewis is a passionate advocate of civil rights and community involvement. He gives both time and money to UNM and served two four-year terms on the UNM Foundation Board, 1992-2000.

Stewart Udall

Political figure, citizen activist and scholar of culture and history in the American Southwest, Stewart Udall has served our region for decades in innumerable ways – from environmental stewardship to the defense of Native American miners who are victims of radiation. His eight books stand as testament to the region's land, history and people.

He served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II, seeing combat duty in Italy. He obtained a law degree from the University of Arizona in 1948 and then opened a law practice in Tucson.

Elected to the U.S. Congress in 1954 from the 2 nd District of Arizona, shortly after his fourth term, Udall was appointed by U.S. President John F. Kennedy to serve as the 37 th secretary of the Interior, a cabinet position he held for eight years during the Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson administrations. Charged with developing and protecting our nation's natural resources, he initiated ideas and programs that helped bring the ecological evolution to fruition. In the late 1970s, he took up the cause of Navajo uranium miners and “downwinders” in the Southwest who suffered from cancer attributable to radiation exposure from the Nevada nuclear test site. Rebuffed by the courts, he persevered and played a pivotal role in convincing congress to pass the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act in 1990.

For more information and a complete list of convocations visit http://www.unm.edu/~commence .

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