Wednesday's convocation exercises, marking the official opening of the College's 225th academic year, will include a keynote address by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala as well as speeches by College President James Freedman and Student Assembly President Danielle Moore.
The exercises will begin at 11 a.m. and Shalala will receive an honorary doctor of laws degree.
Unlike last year, when convocation was held the day before classes began, tomorrow's ceremony will coincide with the first day of classes.
Convocation is a formal ritual that features the full faculty dressed in academic robes designating their degree of education. It is also one of the few times during the year when the College President addresses the students and faculty together.
Because of the time conflict, the 10 O'clock class period will end at 10:35 instead of 11:05 so students and faculty can arrive at Leede Arena by 10:45, Olivia Chapman, the public programs administrative assistant, said. Dress is formal.
The lost class time will be recovered during the 10 x-period on Thursday. Courses scheduled for 11:15 will begin Friday instead of tomorrow and will be made up during the 11 x-period on the following Tuesday, Chapman said.
Chapman said the change was made to increase attendence at Convocation. She said in the past it has been held before all the upperclassmen had arrived on campus.
Shalala's speech will focus on the college student generation's potential to improve the community in a world in which the Cold War is over, Shalala's Press Secretary Victor Zonana '75, said. "She's challenging you to build a better community," he said.
Student Assembly President Danielle Moore said her speech will focus on "identity and community" adding that it would be about "individual expression versus collective voice." This will be Moore's first address as Assembly President.
As HHS secretary, Shalala oversees 250 health, welfare, food, drug safety and income-assistance programs. She has refocused programs including Head Start, biomedical research, women's health and AIDS prevention.
Shalala was chancellor of the University of Wisconsin at Madison for four years before being named to President Bill Clinton's cabinet in 1993. In 1980, she was appointed president of Hunter College in New York and became the youngest woman to lead a major U.S. college.
