May 20, 2003
Director of Media Relations
413/542-8417

AMHERST, Mass.—Amherst College will grant bachelor of arts degrees to 415 members of the Class of 2003 at Commencement exercises on Sunday, May 25, at 10 a.m. in the Main Quadrangle. (Exercises will be held in LeFrak Gymnasium in the event of rain.) Amherst President Tom Gerety, who will leave the Amherst presidency at the end of June after nine years, will give the address. Sarah W. Walker '03, a double major in English and fine arts from West Hartford, Conn., has been chosen by her classmates to speak.

Honorary degrees will also be awarded at the ceremony to Rosanne Haggerty '82, housing activist; Asma Jahangir, advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and human rights activist; LaSalle Doheny Leffall, Jr., surgeon and cancer specialist; Charles Ashby Lewis '64, investment banker, life trustee of Amherst College and chair of its recent comprehensive campaign; Minoru Oya, chancellor of Doshisha University in Japan; Gordon Parks, filmmaker, composer and photographer; Gary Alan Sinise, actor, director and producer, and Peter Morrison Vitousek '71, environmental biologist.

The college will honor Douglas Wilson '62 with the Medal for Eminent Service. The honorary marshal is George Johnson '73.

At Senior Class Exercises on Saturday, May 24, at 2 p.m. Benjy Caplan, an English major from New York City, and Sarah M. Miller, a chemistry major from Dayton, Ohio, will offer remarks. The recipients of honorary degrees will speak at 3:30 p.m. at various locations around campus; Asma Jahangir will deliver an address at Class Day Exercises at 2 p.m.

The college will award prizes at Senior Class Exercises, and present Phebe and Zephaniah Swift Moore Awards on behalf of graduating seniors to secondary school teachers Frederic (Ted) Fitts '74, a history teacher at Moses Brown School in Providence, R.I.; Jennifer Greeley, an English teacher at Concord-Carlisle High School in Concord, Mass.; James P. Spellicy, an economics and history teacher at Lowell High School in San Francisco, Calif.; and Margaret Wong, a Chinese teacher at Breck School in Minneapolis, Minn.

Commencement Information and Schedule

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