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 The
largest class in the school’s 162-year history graduated from
Willamette University, Sunday, May 16.
The College of Liberal Arts awarded degrees to 434 undergraduates.
Representing 27 states and four countries, more than half of the
Class of 2004 are non-Oregon residents. In keeping with national
trends, women students outnumbered the men 60 to 40 percent, and
the most popular degrees, also the case last year, were economics,
biology and English.
The Willamette College of Law awarded 116 JD and two LLM degrees
to a class that represented 87 undergraduate colleges and universities
and 19 states. The law Class of 2004 is 46 percent women.
The Atkinson Graduate School of Management awarded 52 degrees
to a class evenly divided between men and women and that represented
10 states and eight countries. Almost half the graduates are non-Oregon
residents.
The School of Education awarded 70 degrees to a class that is
74 percent women and 86 percent Oregon residents.
Willamette also recognized four prominent individuals with honorary
degrees. LeVar Burton, who served as commencement speaker at the
College of Liberal Arts ceremony, received an honorary doctorate
of fine arts. Burton has won 18 Emmy Awards for “Reading Rainbow,”
a PBS children’s literacy program he has hosted since 1983.
Harvard University Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., a prolific writer
and educator whose focus is African-American literature, received
an honorary doctorate of humane letters. Ann Rule, a former Willamette
student regarded by many as the foremost true crime writer in America,
received an honorary doc-orate of humane letters. Willamette trustee
William Webber, Tektronix vice president and distinguished philanthropist,
received an honorary doctorate of public service.
Willamette University graduate school commencement speakers were
Greg Merten, long-time executive at Hewlett Packard for the Atkinson
Graduate School; U.S. House of Representative Jay Inslee JD’76
for the College of Law; and Drea Ferguson MAT’95 for the School
of Education.
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