Last modified: Friday, December 10, 2004
President Herbert to address IU's 2004 winter commencement
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Indiana University's 2004 winter commencement will be held Dec. 18 at 10 a.m. in Assembly Hall on the Bloomington campus. Adam W. Herbert, president of Indiana University, will address the graduates.
A total of 1,676 students are eligible to participate in the event. That figure includes all degree candidates for December, as well as graduate students whose degrees have been awarded on a monthly basis from September to November.
The traditional commencement ceremony includes a formal presentation of the graduating class, which will be performed by Kenneth R.R. Gros Louis, interim vice president for academic affairs and chancellor of the Bloomington campus. Herbert will follow by presenting the class with its charge. Conferral of degrees will be led by Herbert, assisted by Gros Louis and the deans of the individual schools.
The Rev. Linda C. Johnson, Episcopal chaplain to Indiana University and associate rector of the Trinity Episcopal Church, will deliver the invocation. Fred Eichhorn, president of the IU Board of Trustees, will represent the university in the induction of its newest graduates. P.T. Moore, chair of the Indiana Alumni Association Executive Council, will represent the alumni, and Grace Eun-Hye Chung, a representative of the IU Student Alumni Association, will represent the class. Gwyn Richards, dean of the IU School of Music, will lead musical accompaniment to the processional and recessional, and later will lead the graduates in singing the alma mater and the national anthem.
Herbert, who is delivering his second winter commencement address at IU, began his official duties as the 17th president of Indiana University on Aug. 1, 2003. He also is professor of public administration in IU's School of Public and Environmental Affairs and professor of political science in the College of Arts and Sciences.
During Herbert's first year in office, he has focused on laying the institutional foundations for higher levels of excellence in teaching and learning, expanding research initiatives that advance the frontiers of knowledge, and making transformative contributions both to the economic welfare of our state and the well-being of humanity at large.
Firmly believing that IU's most important mission is the education of students and that learning occurs not only in the classroom, but also through student involvement in all aspects of university life including research, international experiences and intercollegiate athletics, Herbert has put a strong emphasis on the quality of undergraduate education.
Before becoming president at Indiana University, Herbert was Regents Professor and executive director of the Florida Center for Public Policy and Leadership at the University of North Florida for two years. From 1998 to 2001, he was chancellor of Florida's state university system, the second-largest university system in the nation. Before that, from 1989 to 1998, he served as president of the University of North Florida.
Herbert also has taught and held leadership positions at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Howard University, the University of Southern California's Washington Public Affairs Center and Florida International University.
A native of Muskogee, Okla., Herbert earned a bachelor's degree in political science (1966) and a master's degree in public administration (1967) from the University of Southern California, and a Ph.D. degree in urban affairs and public administration from the University of Pittsburgh (1971).
