Carleton to hold its 142nd Commencement Ceremony June 11

May 25, 2016

Carleton College will award the Bachelor of Arts degree to the 494 graduating members of the Class of 2016 on Saturday, June 11, in a ceremony beginning at 9:30 a.m. on the lawn west of Hulings Hall on the Carleton campus. A celebratory picnic on the Bald Spot will follow. In the event of severe weather, commencement will be held indoors at the Recreation Center. Seating is available to accommodate all guests, whether outdoors or indoors, and no tickets are required. The ceremony will also be live-streamed on the Commencement Website

Following remarks by Carleton College President Steven Poskanzer, two seniors will address the graduating class, chosen by a panel of their peers. This year’s senior commencement speakers will be Elizabeth Drew Higgins, an environmental studies major from Greenwich, Conn., and Daniel Bollinger, a sociology/anthropology major from Towson, Md. 

Carleton will then award an honorary doctorate, the highest honor given by the College, to a recipient who will briefly address the graduating class. This year’s honorary degree recipient is former Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Alan C. Page. Page first gained fame as a defensive tackle for the Minnesota Vikings in the 1970s, and later embarked on a legal career after his retirement from football. He went on to serve as an associate justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court from 1992 until reaching the court’s mandatory retirement age of 70 in 2015. Justice Page, who attended law school at the University of Minnesota during the height of his football career, is an ardent defender of equal education for children. He is the founder of the Page Education Foundation, which encourages minority and other disadvantaged youth to pursue postsecondary education by offering a unique blend of partial scholarships, mentoring and service-to-children projects. Page is a member of both the College Football Hall of Fame and the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and is considered one of the greatest defensive linemen ever to play the game. 

For further information, including disability accommodations, contact the Carleton College Office of College Communications at (507) 222-4309 or email kraadt@carleton.edu. The commencement site is located on the Carleton campus between College and Winona Streets in Northfield.