Pulitzer Prize Winner Frank McCourt, Fed Banker William McDonough, Composer and Lyricist Alan Menken, Nobel Laureate Robert Solow, and Educator Ludmila Verbitskaya New York University President L. Jay Oliva today announced the names of those to receive honorary doctoral degrees at NYU’s 2000 Commencement. The 168th Commencement will be held on Thursday, May 11 at 10:30 am in Washington Square Park in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village neighborhood.
The honorary degree recipients will be:
- Frank McCourt, Pulitzer Prize-winning memoirist, long-time New York City schoolteacher, and NYU alumnus; he will receive a Doctor of Letters degree, honoris causa
- William J. McDonough, president and chief executive officer, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York; he will receive a Doctor of Commercial Science degree, honoris causa
- Alan Menken, Academy Award-winning composer and lyricist and NYU alumnus; he will receive a Doctor of Fine Arts degree, honoris causa
- Robert M. Solow, an Nobel Prize-winning economist and Institute Professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; he will receive a Doctor of Humane Letters degree, honoris causa
- Ludmila Alexeevna Verbitskaya, rector of St. Petersburg State University and professor of linguistics; she will receive a Doctor of Humane Letters degree, honoris causa
Dr. Oliva said, “We are a community: a community of scholars, of thinkers, and of doers, linked together through this great institution. Commencement reinforces those bonds like no other day in the year, providing us with a moment to contemplate past, present and future. Our expectations for our students are great. In choosing to honor this group of accomplished people, we hope to remind our entire community but especially those who are leaving us — what heights can be scaled, what challenges can be met, and what successes can be achieved. The need for ongoing contributions to our world is great; we hope our graduates will take the torch held high by our honorees and carry it forward.”