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| Posted 03.02.07 |
Five to Receive Honorary Degrees at Commencement
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 Wesleyan’s
175th Commencement Ceremonies will be held on Sunday, May 27, and will
complete the 2007 Reunion-Commencement Celebration that will run from May
24-27. During that ceremony, the following people will receive honorary
degrees:
Jim Lehrer, P ’85, who will also give the principal address at
commencement, will be awarded an honorary doctor of letters degree during
the ceremony. Lehrer has anchored The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on the Public
Broadcasting Service since 1995. Lehrer joined PBS in 1972, teaming with
Robert MacNeil in 1973 to cover the Senate Watergate hearings. They began in
1975 what became The MacNeil/Lehrer Report, and, in 1983, The MacNeil/Lehrer
NewsHour, the first 60-minute evening news program on television. Lehrer has
been honored with numerous awards for journalism, including a presidential
National Humanities Medal in 1999. In the last five presidential elections,
he moderated 10 of the nationally televised candidate debates. Lehrer has
written 15 novels, his latest, The Franklin Affair, published in April 2005.
He also has written two memoirs and three plays. His daughter, Lucy Lehrer,
is a member of Wesleyan's Class of 1985.
Nobutaka Machimura, former Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs,
currently serves as a member of the Japanese House of Representatives
representing Hokkaido 5th District. As foreign minister of Japan from
September 2004 to October 2005, his efforts were directed toward signing a
treaty with Russia resolving a border dispute and toward investigating the
whereabouts of Japanese hostages who had been kidnapped by North Korean
agents during the 1970s and 1980s. Educated in economics at the University
of Tokyo, he attended Wesleyan for one year as an exchange student. His
career in public service has included appointments to the Japanese Ministry
of International Trade and Industry, the National Land Agency, the Japan
External Trade Organization, and the Agency of Natural Resources and Energy
(from which he retired as director of the planning division for petroleum).
He also served as minister of Education, Science, Sports and Culture and
director of the National Defense Division of the Policy Research Council. He
has been elected to seven terms in the Japanese House of Representatives.
Alan M. Dachs ’70, P’98 serves as chair of the University's
Development Committee. He served 14 years as a member of the Wesleyan
University Board of Trustees and eight years as Board chair. In that role,
he led in fund-raising for the Wesleyan Campaign, as well as in strategic
planning and in strengthening the University's finances, operations and
reputation for academic excellence. He was elected trustee emeritus and
chair emeritus in 2005 upon his retirement from the Board. Dachs is
president and CEO of Fremont Group, a private investment company based in
San Francisco.
Rosa DeLauro was elected to Congress from Connecticut's Third
District in 1990 and is currently serving her ninth term. She sits on the
House Appropriations and Budget committees. In addition to her work on the
full committees, Representative DeLauro chairs the House Appropriations
Subcomittee on Agriculture, which is responsible for funding the Food and
Drug Administration and the Food Stamps program. She also sits on the Labor
- Health, Human Services - Education and Commerce - Justice - Science
Subcommittees. DeLauro has built a reputation as an advocate for economic
development, healthcare and education. She has been a strong proponent for
student aid, advocating such measures as increasing the size of Pell Grants
in order to restore their purchasing power, allowing the consolidation of
student loan debt and cutting interest rates to make student borrowing more
affordable, and defending against cuts in programs that help to increase
students' access to college , such as Upward Bound and TRIO. A frequent
visitor to Wesleyan's campus and to Middletown, DeLauro has shown herself
eager to meet and talk with faculty and students. She has strongly supported
Wesleyan's efforts to establish and fund the Green Street Arts Center. Since
she first came to Congress in 1990, DeLauro has put every pay raise she has
received toward a scholarship program she founded in memory of her late
father. To date, her scholarships have helped 420 students further their
educations.
Jewel Plummer Cobb is renowned as a teacher, a research biologist,
and an advocate for the participation of women and members of minority
groups in the sciences. A graduate of Talladega College, she earned her
Ph.D. in cell physiology at New York University. Her scientific research has
centered on factors influencing the growth, morphology, and genetic
expression of normal and neoplastic pigment cells and on the changes
produced in vitro by chemotherapeutic agents, by hormones, and by other
agents known to disrupt cell division. She taught at NYU, Sarah Lawrence
College, and Connecticut College before becoming dean of the college at
Connecticut, then dean of Douglass College, and finally president of
California State University at Fullerton. Currently president and professor
of biological science, emerita, at Fullerton, Dr. Cobb continues to be
active in promoting science education programs for minority youth and in
promoting the greater representation of women in science. In 1993 the
National Science Foundation honored her with a Lifetime Achievement Award
for Contributions to the Advancement of Women and Underrepresented
Minorities. |
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