Everything You Need to Know about Commencement 2009

Instructions for the media, the ceremony's history, honorary degree recipients, and more

Rutgers University Commencement: On May 20, University President Richard L. McCormick officially will confer all graduate and undergraduate degrees on an estimated 10,852 graduates (approximately 7,168 receiving baccalaureate degrees and 3,684 receiving masters and doctorates) and offer greetings and congratulations to the graduates and their families during the colorful and dignified event. Included in this link are instructions for the media such as seating locations, technical assistance and journalist parking.

Commencement Student Speaker: As a nontraditional Rutgers undergraduate, Key Jo Lee, 35, has not been shy about offering advice. She has been a peer adviser in the Bunting program, which assists Douglass Residential College women who are at least five years out of high school, and a house mentor in the Sophia House for female nontraditional students. Still, the senior from Willingboro expects to be nervous when she addresses fellow graduates, their guests and members of the Rutgers community at the university commencement on May 20.

Graduates to Watch: These exceptional individuals have inspirational stories, including softball teammates who didn’t let serious injuries beat them, a fighter for workers’ rights and a globetrotter expanding his horizons in an attempt to control a threat to human health.

Commencement At-a-Glance: A comprehensive guide to the convocation ceremonies in Camden, Newark and New Brunswick.

Honorary Degree Recipients: Fashion designer and entrepreneur Marc Eckō, founder of one of the world’s most recognizable clothing brands, will receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree before delivering the keynote address at Rutgers’ 243rd Commencement. Business leader-social activist Alfred C. Koeppe, artist-author Faith Ringgold, jazz musician-composer Sonny Rollins and social psychologist Dr. Philip

G. Zimbardo all to be honored.

Getting Around That Week: The ceremony brings hundreds of extra vehicles to roads in and around the New Brunswick. Motorists are urged to plan alternate routes, if possible, be alert to new traffic patterns in the construction zone and allow extra travel time.

Class of 2009 ROTC commissioning ceremony at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey; seven Air Force and seven Army second lieutenants will be commissioned. Retired Army Brig. Gen. Bruce B. Bingham will be speaker. In 1968, he graduated from Rutgers College as a Distinguished Military Graduate and was commissioned a second lieutenant through the ROTC.  Bingham retired from the military in 2001. He is executive director of Capstone Valuation Services LLC, in New York.

Voorhees Mall, Site of Commencement, Rich in History: Rutgers’ Class of 2009 will graduate in a historic setting that dates back to the earliest days of the university. On May 20, a sea of 12,000 neatly positioned chairs covering the expanse of Voorhees Mall will be filled with graduates and guests celebrating Rutgers’ 243rd commencement. 

Voorhees Mall's Elms: The stately elm trees on  Voorhees Mall contribute to the ambience of the many important events that occur at the heart of the College Avenue Campus. The 243rd universitywide commencement scheduled May 20 and the joint Rutgers College-School of Arts and Sciences convocation the next day are two such occasions. Most of the American elm trees that grace the mall and the adjacent Old Queen’s campus date from the turn of the 20th century. At the time, Bleeker Place, a New Brunswick street, cut across the mall. These living antiques were planted on either side of the road and in a wide grassy median that separated the northbound and southbound lanes.

Media Contact: Steve Manas
732-932-7084, ext. 612
E-mail: smanas@ur.rutgers.edu