Friends and Family Celebrate Class of 2006 at NYU’s 174th Commencement

Nearly 15,000 students graduate today, continuing an NYU tradition that started in 1833. Unlike that first ceremony, during which a small audience watched three young men receive diplomas, thousands of friends and family members in Washington Square Park will cheer on the Class of 2006.
NYU President John Sexton will preside over the 174th Commencement ceremony, which begins at 10:30 a.m., in the park that has been home to these proceedings since 1976. Anthony M. Kennedy, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, who will receive a Doctor of Laws degree, honoris causa, will offer “A Response on Behalf of the Honorary Degree Recipients,” an NYU tradition.

This year’s other recipients of honorary doctorates are: Mikhail Baryshnikov, dancer, actor, and founder and director of the Baryshnikov Center for the Arts, who will receive a Doctor of Fine Arts degree, honoris causa; Anne Marie Mulcahy, chair and CEO of Xerox, who will receive a Doctor of Commercial Science degree, honoris causa; Alain Robbe-Grillet, writer and filmmaker, who will receive a Doctor of Letters degree, honoris causa; and Wilma Stein Tisch, philanthropist and civic leader, who will receive a Doctor of Humane Letters degree, honoris causa.

The 2006 Albert Gallatin Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Society will be awarded to Rita Hauser, an alumna of the NYU School of Law and the president of the Hauser Foundation. The 2006 Lewis Rudin Award for Exemplary Service to New York City will be presented to Beverly Sills, chair emerita of the board of the Metropolitan Opera, chair emerita of the board of Lincoln Center, and a recipient of an honorary degree from NYU in 1973.

There will be two student speakers taking the podium at today’s Commencement ceremony. Representing graduate students is Kimani Paul-Emile, a 2006 Ph.D. recipient in the Graduate School of Arts and Science. (See story on Page 2.) The student speaker representing undergraduates will be Chinaka Hodge, who receives a B.A. from the Gallatin School of Individualized Study today. (See story on Page 4.)

Finalists for student speakers included: Yael S. Elmatad (See story on Page 3), College of Arts Science; Brandon Buskey, School of Law, a Root-Tilden-Kern Scholar and a Truman Scholar who will begin a federal judicial clerkship next fall; and Keshava Belur Desarathy, Stern School of Business, winner of the President’s Service Award and the Kenneth G. Langone Award for Leadership and Service. Other nominees from various schools included Jill N. Mastrandrea, Steinhardt School; Vaughn Jack Crandall, Wagner Graduate School of Public Service; Veronica A. Alabi, School of Social Work; and Andre Holland, Tisch School of the Arts.

The academic procession is led by students who have qualified for conferral of an NYU degree or certificate. Marching according to school or college, they are seated in the central plaza of Washington Square Park.

The schools and colleges, in order of their founding, are represented by the following student banner bearers: College of Arts and Science (1832), Stephanie Elizabeth Tolden, B.A.; School of Law (1835), Jenny Xiao Ling Huang, J.D. and Guy Katz, L.L.M.; School of Medicine (1841), Bobby Rajarshi Das, M.D.; College of Dentistry (1865), Alfonso L. Navarrete, D.D.S., Olivia Voellmicke, M.A., Frances D. Arroyo, B.S., and Michelle DesLauriers, A.A.S.; Graduate School of Arts and Science (1886), Kimberly Ann Moran, Ph.D. and Pat Ma, M.A.; The Steinhardt School (1890), Fernando Naiditch, Ph.D., Julia V. Mortyakova, M.A., and Patrick Day Heusner, B.S.; Leonard N. Stern School of Business (1900), Susan Elaine Perkins, Ph.D., Damian S. Hattingh, M.B.A., and Vishal Advani, B.S.; School of Continuing and Professional Studies (1934), Joel Burke Hoffman, M.S., Lindsey A. Johnson, B.S., and Robert C. Mooney, A.A.; Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service (1938), Federico Guanais Aguiar, Ph.D. and Jacinda Denise Jordan, M.P.A.; School of Social Work (1960), Katherine Charlap, Ph.D., Denise Gaetano, M.S.W., and Megan Elizabeth Martino, B.S.; Tisch School of the Arts (1965), Jeffrey Gray, M.P.S. and Andrew D. D’Aurora, B.F.A.; and the Gallatin School of Individualized Study (1972), Victoria Phillips Geduld, M.A. and Alexandra Blaes, B.A.

In keeping with NYU tradition, today’s Commencement ceremony includes “The Ceremony of the Torch.” The University torch — designed and fashioned by Tiffany and Company in sterling silver and donated to NYU in 1911—is once again passed from a senior member of the faculty to the youngest undergraduate degree recipient. Today, the torch is passed from George C. Stoney, Paulette Goddard Professor of Film in the Tisch School of the Arts, to Tiffany Walden, 19, who receives her B.A. from the Gallatin School of Individualized Study.