Carleton College will award the Bachelor of Arts degree to 466 graduating seniors at the 138th annual commencement ceremony on Saturday, June 9, at 9:30 a.m. on the Bald Spot, 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.
Commencement is always a special time of celebration at Carleton. In addition to remarks by College President Steven Poskanzer, this year’s ceremony will include brief speeches by two graduating seniors—selected to speak by a panel of their peers—along with an address from this year’s recipient of an honorary degree.
The two members of the Carleton College Class of 2012 selected to speak are Rebekah Frumkin, a philosophy major from Libertyville, Illinois, who will present “What We Talk About When We Talk About Carleton,” and Michael Groeneman, a computer science major from Bethesda, Maryland, will then deliver his speech entitled, “Thirteen Hundred Days.”
Carleton College will confer an honorary doctorate degree, the highest honor that the College can bestow, upon scientist George H. Davis. He will then briefly address the graduating class with a speech entitled “Carleton College’s Personal and Professional Impact.” Carleton has always awarded this degree sparingly and selects its honorary degree recipients with great care and with the assent of both the faculty and Board of Trustees, seeking to honor those who have achieved eminence in their own profession or who have rendered distinguished service to society.
The Regents Professor (Emeritus) of Structural Geology at the University of Arizona, George Davis served as the Chair of the Department of Geosciences, a department now regarded as one of the top geo-programs in the world. His primary scientific interest is in field-oriented structural geology, with applications in regional and active tectonics; he has published extensively on the Basin and Range and Colorado Plateau tectonic provinces and structure. However, Davis’ interest also spans other disciplines, and he is currently the team leader at the Mt. Lykaion (Zeus) Sanctuary and Excavation Site in Greece, where he works to interpret geological history in relationship to the archaeology of the site. Davis is currently the chair of the National Science Foundation Advisory Committee for Geosciences Directorate.
For further information, including disability accommodations, please contact the Carleton College Office of College Relations at (507) 222-4309 or email kraadt@carleton.edu.