Gov. Jennifer Granholm to deliver U-M Commencement address




Updated 4:00 PM March 24, 2003
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Gov. Jennifer Granholm to deliver U-M Commencement address

By Joel Seguine
Office of the Vice President for Communications

Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm will deliver the main address and receive an honorary degree when U-M holds its Spring Commencement exercises April 26 in Michigan Stadium.

The honorary degrees for Granholm and for five additional recipients were approved by the Board of Regents at the March 20 meeting.

"I am gratified that Gov. Granholm will deliver this year's Commencement address—in my first year as president of the University and her first year as governor," President Mary Sue Coleman says. "Gov. Granholm represents an example of energetic and dedicated public service that will be of great value to our graduates as they begin the next stage of their lives."

The honorary degrees to be conferred are: Granholm, doctor of laws; Oleg Grabar, professor emeritus at the Princeton Institute for Advanced Studies, doctor of humane letters; Judith Jamison, director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, doctor of fine arts; Hillel Shuval, Lunenfeld-Kunen Professor of Environmental Sciences at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, doctor of science; Dr. John (Joe) Schwarz, former Michigan state senator representing Battle Creek, doctor of laws; and Billy Taylor, jazz pianist and educator, doctor of music.

Schwarz will be the main speaker at the University Graduate Exercises April 25, and Taylor will receive his honorary degree and serve as the main speaker at the commencement ceremonies for U-M-Flint May 4.

Granholm also will address more than 6,000 Michigan State University undergraduates at convocation ceremonies May 2 in East Lansing.

"I am thrilled to be speaking to the Class of 2003 at the University of Michigan," Granholm says. "These young people are our future. This is the perfect opportunity to talk to them about how they will impact our world."

Gov. Jennifer Granholm (Courtesy Governor's Office)

Granholm was inaugurated as Michigan's 47th governor, and the state's first female governor, Jan. 1. Previously she served as the state attorney general following her election in Nov. 1998.

The first person in her family to attend college, Granholm earned a bachelor's degree in political science and French from the University of California, Berkeley, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa with highest honors. At Harvard Law School, she was editor-in-chief of the Harvard Civil Rights Civil Liberties Law Review, and she graduated with honors in 1987. She clerked for U.S. Judge Damon Keith on the 6^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In 1990, Granholm became a federal prosecutor in Detroit, and in 1994 she was appointed Wayne County Corporation Counsel.

Grabar is the former Aga Khan Professor of Islamic Art and Architecture at Harvard University and is professor emeritus at the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study. He received the prestigious Charles Lang Freer medal

Oleg Grabar ((Photo by Cliff Moore, Princeton University)

"in recognition of his enormous impact on American understanding of Islamic art," from the Freer Gallery in Washington, D.C., in April 2001. He received his B.A. from Harvard University and completed his doctoral studies in Oriental languages, literature and art history at Princeton University.

Grabar is a leading expert in the field of Islamic art and the architecture of Jerusalem. He served on the faculty of U-M from 1955-69. He is the founding editor of Muqarnas, the annual journal on Islamic art and architecture.

Jamison has been artistic director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater since 1989, following Ailey's death. A highly regarded choreographer, she has created works for many companies, including "HERE NOW," commissioned for the 2002 Cultural Olympiad of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games. In 1999 she was awarded a Kennedy Center Honor for her "unique and extremely valuable contributions to the cultural life of our nation," and President Bush presented her with a National Medal of Arts, the most prestigious award for an artist in the United States. She holds

Judith Jamison (Photo by andrew Eccles, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater)

an honorary doctorate from Howard University. She was awarded an Emmy for Outstanding Choreography for the PBS documentary "A Hymn for Alvin Ailey."

Discovered by Agnes DeMille, Jamison made her New York City debut with the American Ballet Theater in 1964 and joined the Alvin Ailey Dance Company in 1965. In 1971, Ailey choreographed "Cry" expressly for her. It is a 15-minute solo depicting the struggles of Black women, which became her signature piece.

Shuval, a 1952 alumnus of the School of Public Health, was the founder of the first environmental protection program in the state of Israel and the originator and later director of the environmental science program at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he was professor of environmental sciences. He is a world authority on water supplies and public health, and his research and service have been supported by major international organizations.

Shuval has worked to build bridges of understanding through scientific cooperation among Israel, the Palestinian community and neighboring Arab states, pioneering numerous

Hillel Shuval (Photo courtesy Shuval)

collaborative studies to address shared environmental problems. He has served as advisor to the World Bank and the World Health Organization. He is a strong advocate for civil rights and for scientific, cultural and religious freedom in Israel. He is chairman of the Council for Freedom of Science, Religion and Culture in Israel.

Schwarz championed public higher education during 20 years in the Michigan State Senate, most recently as chair of the higher education subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee. Prior to serving in the Michigan Senate, Schwarz was mayor of Battle Creek from 1985-87 and a Battle Creek commissioner from 1979-87. Schwarz practices medicine and surgery in Battle Creek and is on the active staff of the Battle Creek Health System.

Schwarz received an A.B. in history from U-M, and an M.D. from Wayne State University. He completed his residency training in otolaryngology at Harvard and is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons. He is past president of the Calhoun County Medical Society, and a past

John Schwarz (Photo by Austin Professional Portraiture)

trustee of Leila Post Montgomery Hospital in Battle Creek. He serves on the Alumni Visiting Committee for LSA and on the visiting Alumni Committee for the Wayne State University School of Medicine. He is a trustee of Olivet College. Schwarz also served in the United States Navy in Vietnam and Indonesia.

Taylor has played jazz piano for more than 50 years. He made his first professional appearance at age 13. He studied classical music with Henry Grant, who also trained Duke Ellington. He earned a bachelor's degree in music from Virginia State College in 1942 and immediately went to New York City, where he began his full-time professional career. He completed his doctorate in music education at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he currently occupies the Wilber D. Barrett Chair of Music. He also is a Duke Ellington Fellow at Yale University.

In 1942, Taylor quickly caught the attention of major jazz musicians of the time, such as Ben Webster, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis and Lester Young. His talent for educating people about jazz showed first in a 13-part series produced in 1958 for National Educational Television

Billy Taylor (Photo courtesy Taylor)

called "The Subject is Jazz." Since then Taylor has appeared on CBS and on public television. But he really found a home on radio. He was the first African American to host a daily show on a major New York station. In 1992 President George H.W. Bush presented Taylor with the National Medal of Arts, and in 1994 he was named artistic advisor for jazz at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm to deliver U-M Commencement address

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