Gov. Dannel P. Malloy will be joined by Mia Farrow, an acclaimed actress and outspoken champion of human rights, Hartford Mayor Pedro E. Segarra, and a host of other speakers during commencement exercises at UConn next month.
The bulk of the more than 7,000 graduating students will take part in commencement ceremonies during the weekend of May 7-8 in Storrs. Students at the schools of medicine and dental medicine will graduate on May 15 at 2 p.m. at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford; and law graduates will celebrate on the grounds of the Law School on May 22 at 11 a.m.
Malloy, who became Connecticut’s 88th governor after the November 2010 elections, was formerly mayor of Stamford, playing a critical role in the construction of UConn’s downtown Stamford campus, which opened in 1998. He has earned accolades – and brickbats – since he took office and began a whirlwind tour of the state, explaining his plan to erase a more than $3.3 billion deficit in the 2011-12 fiscal year. Malloy will be the keynote speaker at UConn’s May 7 graduate ceremony, scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. on May 7.
Farrow, selected by Time magazine in 2008 as one of the most influential people in the world, has traveled to the Darfur region of the Sudan many times since 2004, writing extensively about the genocide in the country. She blogs and posts analysis on her website, and speaks regularly about human rights in the United States and Canada.
Farrow also has won numerous awards for her many roles in television and movies, including starring roles in television’s Peyton Place and the movies Rosemary’s Baby, John & Mary, and a variety of Woody Allen movies, including Hannah & Her Sisters and Broadway Danny Rose. Farrow will speak at the School of Fine Arts commencement at 5 p.m. on May 7 in the Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts.
On May 8, during twin ceremonies starting at 12:30 and 4:30 p.m., nearly 3,000 students from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences will receive their degrees after a keynote speech by William E. Trueheart, president and chief executive officer of Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count. Trueheart, who earned a bachelor’s degree from UConn in 1966, formerly led The Pittsburgh Foundation, one of the oldest and largest community foundations in the nation, and he served as president and CEO of Reading is Fundamental Inc., America’s oldest and largest children’s and family literacy organization.
Trueheart also served as president of what was then Bryant College in Rhode Island, and held several administrative posts at UConn from 1966 to 1972, including dean of undergraduate affairs in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, assistant to the president, and American Council of Education Fellow.
Other well known keynote speakers include Pedro Segarra, mayor of the City of Hartford, who will speak during the School of Social Work’s recognition ceremony at 9 a.m. on May 7, in the Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts. Segarra earned a master’s degree in social work from UConn.
Also, Dr. Henry C. Lee, an endowed professor at the University of New Haven and founder of its forensic science program, will speak during ceremonies at the UConn Health Center on May 15; Connecticut Attorney General George Jepson will deliver the keynote speech at the School of Law commencement on May 22; and Kelci Stringer, founder and CEO of the Korey Stringer Institute, a research center based in UConn’s kinesiology program in the Neag School of Education, will speak at that school’s commencement, at 9 a.m. on May 8 in the Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts. The Institute is named after Stringer’s late husband, who died of complications from heat stroke in 2001 while playing for the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League.
More information, including the dates and times of all UConn’s celebrations, is available at the commencement website.
