Thursday, March 06, 2003
USI Board of Trustees approves awarding 1,400 degrees for 2003 Commencement
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The University of Southern Indiana Board of Trustees at the March 6 board meeting approved 1,400 associate, baccalaureate, and master’s degrees to be awarded in 2003. The degrees will be conferred during University of Southern Indiana’s Commencement ceremony at 3 p.m. on Sunday, May 11. Board members also approved awarding honorary degrees to three Indiana citizens. They are Olive Carruthers Clifft and Robert Griffin, both of Evansville, and Joseph E. Kernan, lieutenant governor of Indiana, who will be this year’s Commencement speaker. Clifft will be recognized for her distinguished career as an educator and her commitment to help others receive a college education. She taught social studies at Ben Davis High School in Indianapolis for more than 41 years, and retired in 1973, the same year she married Homer L. Clifft and moved to Evansville. Her interest in students continues with her endowed scholarship for students in the School of Liberal Arts and an endowed Presidential Scholarship, which helps attract some of Indiana’s brightest students to USI. Griffin is chairman of the board of Escalade, Incorporated, a global company in the sporting goods industry. Griffin has given leadership to numerous initiatives of the University of Southern Indiana through the USI Foundation, which he served as board chair, and the School of Business Board of Visitors. Mr. Griffin also is a member of the Community Advisory Council for the Evansville Center of the Indiana University School of Medicine, which is located on the USI campus. As Indiana’s lieutenant governor, Kernan is president of the Indiana Senate, the director of the Indiana Department of Commerce, and commissioner of Agriculture. A 1968 Notre Dame alumnus, Kernan is a former mayor of South Bend and holds two Purple Hearts and other military awards for his service to the U.S. Navy. He was held prisoner of war for nearly 11 months during the Vietnam conflict. Kernan has announced that he will not be seeking the office of Governor in the next gubernatorial election. |
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