December Grads 'Freeze The Moment' Dec. 2
11/21/2000
NEW PALTZ -- NOTE TO EDITORS: Media are invited to cover the commencement ceremony. The ceremony begins at 11 a.m., Saturday, Dec. 2. Contact Ken Ross at (845)-3245 for additional details.
Under the theme "Freeze the Moment," SUNY New Paltz graduates finishing their requirements in December now have their own ceremony to commemorate their achievement. In the past, students finishing their studies before spring either left without a ceremony or returned five months later to "walk" with the May graduates.
University officials expect about 240 of the 700 December graduates to participate in the Dec. 2 commencement ceremony at the campus' Elting Gym.
While planners are organizing an event that largely parallels the May ceremony, the indoor venue will lead to distinct differences.
"Elting Gym is obviously smaller than our outdoor location, and will give us a more intimate ceremony," said Judy Costa, coordinator of marketing and special events. "We also have the opportunity to present a more formal event that will give it an identity of its own."
The guest speaker for the ceremony is Maxine Greene, director of the Teachers College Center for Social Imagination, the Arts and Education at Columbia University's Center for Educational Outreach and Innovation. She is a well known philosopher on education, with a strong interest in aesthetic education.
Valedictorian Lyn-Marie Kiefer of Wappingers Falls will receive a bachelor's of science degree in engineering.
Salutatorian Erica Peterson of Hyde Park is receiving her bachelor's of science in art education and ran varsity cross country all four years.
Located in the heart of a dynamic college town, 90 minutes from metropolitan New York City, the State University of New York at New Paltz is a highly selective college of about 8,000 undergraduate and graduate students.
One of the most well-regarded public colleges in the nation, New Paltz delivers an extraordinary number of majors in Business, Liberal Arts, Sciences, Engineering, Fine and Performing Arts and Education.
New Paltz embraces its culture as a community where talented and independent minded people from around the world create close personal links with real scholars and artists who love to teach.
