Ithaca College to Hold Commencement Ceremony on Sunday, May 20

By Dave Maley, May 15, 2018
Over 1,200 students to graduate during 123rd Commencement.

Metropolitan Museum of Art President and Chief Executive Officer Daniel Weiss will deliver the main address to some 1,234 graduates at Ithaca College’s 123rd Commencement ceremony, scheduled for Sunday, May 20.

A distinguished scholar of art history, Weiss was named the fifth president in the Met’s history in 2015 and added the CEO title in 2017. He previously served as the president of Haverford College and Lafayette College, and as the dean of the Krieger School of Arts & Sciences at Johns Hopkins University, where he was also a professor and chair of the Department of the History of Art.

Also making remarks at Commencement will be Ithaca College President Shirley M. Collado, Senior Class President Fatoumata Jallow and Board of Trustees chairman Tom Grape ’80.

The 10 a.m. ceremony at Butterfield Stadium on campus is open to the public. It can be viewed locally on Spectrum cable channel 16 and will be streamed live online at www.ithaca.edu/commencement.

Weiss will join Mara Keisling and Gloria Hobbs in being awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree at the ceremony.

Keisling is the founder and executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, an organization focused on social justice, education and achieving inclusion and full and equal participation in society for transgender Americans. She coauthored the report of the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey — the largest study ever of the lives and experiences of transgender people in America — and her work is used by researchers, policy makers, elected representatives and health care professionals.

Hobbs is nationally and internationally recognized for her expertise and leadership in fighting racial discrimination and in developing educational opportunities that enhance the quality of people’s lives. She has had a distinguished career as a language teacher and scholar, and in 1972 she became the first African American elected to the Ithaca College Board of Trustees. At the age of 93, she continues to serve as a strong advocate for marginalized youth in higher education and in the workplace.

For more information on Ithaca College Commencement, visit www.ithaca.edu/commencement.