MOUNT VERNON — Cornell College will conduct its 142nd commencement on Saturday, May 20, at 1:30 p.m. President Leslie H. Garner Jr. will confer the degrees on approximately 185 graduates in the Richard and Norma Small Life Sports Center.
Craig Allin, politics professor, will be the faculty speaker. Senior speakers will be Sean Sornsin, a biology major from Rockford, Ill., and Jane Riessen, a politics major from West Burlington.
Three Cornell professors will receive faculty emeriti status: Don Cell, retiring from the economics and business department after 38 years; Harlan Graber, retiring from the physics department after 38 years; and Ed Hill, retiring from the mathematics department after 31 years.
Commencement weekend activities begin Thursday, May 18, with a dinner for seniors at 5:30 p.m. in The Commons dining rooms. Faculty will help serve the meals and then dine with the seniors.
On Friday, a senior brunch will be at 11:30 a.m. at the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library in Cedar Rapids. Afternoon activities are a reception for seniors and parents at the President’s House at 3 p.m., followed by a 5 p.m. senior/parent picnic on The Commons patio.
Saturday events begin at 9 a.m. with a baccalaureate service in King Chapel. The Rev. Catherine Quehl-Engel, college chaplain, will deliver the sermon. Music will be provided by college organist and distinguished artist-in-residence Robert Triplett. Seniors’ words of thanksgiving for family, friends and mentors will be read at the service.
New inductees in Cornell’s Delta of Iowa chapter of Phi Beta Kappa will be recognized at a reception at 10:30 a.m. in Hedges Conference Room, The Commons. Among more than 3,600 colleges and universities in the United States, Cornell is one of only 255 with an active chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, the oldest and most widely respected academic honorary society in the United States.
After a buffet luncheon from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Cornell seniors, faculty and administrators will assemble at 12:45 p.m. in the Sports Center for the traditional academic procession that begins the 1:30 p.m. commencement ceremony. The public is invited.