KENNEDY SPEECHWRITER, CARNEGIE PRESIDENT TO ADDRESS COMMENCEMENT
OSWEGO -- Two nationally known figures will speak at
SUNY Oswego's dual commencement ceremonies Saturday, May 15, when they
receive honorary degrees from the State University of New York.
Theodore C. Sorensen, an attorney, best-selling
author and special counsel to President John F. Kennedy, will receive
an honorary doctor of laws degree at the 9 a.m. ceremony for the
College of Arts and Sciences.
Lee S. Shulman, president of the Carnegie Foundation
for the Advancement of Teaching, will receive an honorary doctor of
humane letters degree at the 1:30 p.m. ceremony for the School of
Education and School of Business.
Now an attorney in New York City, Sorensen has had a
distinguished career on the international stage. He joined Kennedy's
staff as an assistant when Kennedy was a senator and became his
speechwriter and policy adviser in the White House. He was often the
man behind the president's words on the Cold War, Cuban missile crisis,
civil rights and space race.
Since then, in addition to his career in
international legal practice, he has written seven books, including the
best-seller "Kennedy," taught at Princeton University, served on the
board of the Council on Foreign Relations and chaired the Twentieth
Century Fund (now the Century Foundation), among many other
governmental, political and civic endeavors.
A graduate of the University of Nebraska, he has
always taken pride in his state school education and the background it
gave him to successfully compete with Ivy League lawyers. He is
connected to SUNY Oswego through a 1982 alumna, Eileen Green White, his
former special assistant.
A fellow of the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences, Shulman had a 35-year career in academe as a professor of
educational psychology at Michigan State University and professor of
education at Stanford University before assuming the presidency of the
Carnegie Foundation in 1997.
His research group at Stanford laid the conceptual
foundations for a reconsideration of the nature of teacher knowledge.
He and his colleagues conducted the technical studies and field tests
that supported the creation of the National Board for Professional
Teaching Standards and the development of portfolio-based assessments.
His more recent work has focused on strengthening
the role of teaching in higher education and promoting scholarship
about teaching and learning, areas in which SUNY Oswego's faculty is
deeply engaged.
Shulman received his doctorate from the University
of Chicago and is the co-author and co-editor of numerous publications.
Admission to SUNY Oswego's graduation ceremonies is
by ticket. Each degree candidate receives five tickets for friends and
family.