SIUC's commencement ceremonies set for May 11-12

May 02, 2007

SIUC's commencement ceremonies set for May 11-12

by Tom Woolf

CARBONDALE, Ill. — Southern Illinois University Carbondale's spring commencement exercises are set for Friday and Saturday, May 11-12.

There are 2,929 candidates for bachelor's degrees, 384 candidates for master's degrees, 39 doctoral degree candidates, 122 candidates for law degrees and 23 candidates for associate degrees.

SIUC's graduation ceremonies are open to the public, and tickets are not required.

Minnijean Brown Trickey, a member of the "Little Rock Nine," will receive an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from the College of Education and Human Services. Trickey attended SIUC after the Little Rock desegregation crisis and went on to become a deputy assistant secretary in the U.S. Department of the Interior during the Clinton years.

Trickey was just 16 when she and eight other African-Americans attempted to desegregate Little Rock Central High School in the late '50s. After she dropped a bowl of chili on several white students barring her path in the cafeteria, school officials suspended her; when she called a student who hit her "white trash," they expelled her.

Trickey finished her high school education at New York City's New Lincoln School while living with noted African-American psychologists Kenneth B. and Mamie Clark, whose research on the effects of segregation helped decide the outcome of Brown v. Board of Education in the Supreme Court.

She came to SIUC in 1961 intending to major in journalism but wound up in social work when she and her husband, Roy Trickey, moved to Canada after he was denied conscientious objector status for the war in Vietnam.

A lifelong social activist, Trickey's causes include nonviolence, peacemaking, social justice, the environment, diversity, gender equity, cross cultural communication and organizational change.

Commencement speakers include the president of the largest educational architectural firm in Illinois, the assistant vice president for instructional technology and academic affairs at Florida A&M University, the vice president of supplier management and procurement for Boeing Integrated Defense Systems and the chief judge of the U.S. District Court's Northern District of Illinois.

Nine alumni will receive Alumni Achievement Awards as part of individual college and school ceremonies. The award is the highest honor presented by the SIU Alumni Association.

College of Agricultural Sciences: 11 a.m., Saturday, May 12, Shryock Auditorium.

Karen G. Little, corporate dietitian, Robert's Sysco Food Services Inc. of Lincoln, will give the address and receive the Alumni Achievement Award.

Little earned her bachelor of science degree in dietetics in 1969 and a master's degree in nutrition science in 1984, both from SIUC. Prior to joining the Bunn Capitol Co. (purchased last year by Robert's Sysco Food Services) as corporate dietitian in 1999, she served as a nutrition and food management consultant from 1996 to 2000 and from 1979 to 1982.

From 1984 to 1996, Little was director of food and nutrition services at St. John's Hospital in Springfield, and served as a clinical instructor at SIUC's School of Medicine in Springfield from 1976 to 1984.

College of Applied Sciences and Arts: 11 a.m., Saturday, May 12, SIU Arena.

Wayne Machnich, president of Legat Architects in Waukegan, will give the address and receive the Alumni Achievement Award.

Machnich earned an associate degree in architectural studies in 1963 from the then-SIUC Vocational Technical Institute. He earned a bachelor's degree in architecture from the University of Illinois in 1968, and joined the architectural firm a year later. In 1982, he became president of the firm, which had seven employees.

By 2001, Legat Architects' staff consisted of 182 people, including 133 architects housed in six studios in the Chicago metropolitan area. Legat became the largest educational architecture firm in Illinois, 35th largest architectural firm in the U.S. and 267th largest in the world. Over the last 24 years, the firm's accomplishments include more than 800 educational building projects, including 36 new K-12 schools and architectural projects at 17 of the 41 Illinois colleges. Legat was picked as the architect for the first University Center project in Lake County, Ill., of which SIUC is a founding member.

Legat also designs municipal, health care, commercial and residential facilities.

Machnich remains active with the SIUC Architectural Studies Advisory Committee.

College of Business and Administration: 4 p.m., Saturday, May 12, SIU Arena.

Susan W. Rashid, chief administrative officer of Element 79 Partners LLC in Chicago, will give the address and receive the Alumni Achievement Award.

Rashid earned her bachelor's degree in accounting in 1987 from SIUC. While in school, she was a member of the women's swim team and in 2001 became a member of the Saluki Hall of Fame for her accomplishments, including All-American status. She holds four of the top five records for the women's swim team.

Rashid earned her MBA in international business, organizational development, from the University of Chicago in 1998. She held positions with Arthur Andersen and Leo Burnett & Co., and served as head of human resources and finance for the executive search firm A.T. Kearney.

She joined Element 79 as chief financial officer and chief accounting officer when the firm opened in 2002; its startup was the largest in advertising agency history. This year marks the sixth consecutive year of growth on all fronts for the firm.

College of Education and Human Services: 8:30 a.m., Saturday, May 12, SIU Arena.

Dhyana Ziegler, assistant vice president of instructional technology and academic affairs at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, will give the address and receive the Alumni Achievement Award.

Ziegler earned a bachelor of science degree cum laude from Baruch College, City University of New York. She earned her master's degree in radio-television in 1983 and her doctorate in higher education administration in 1985, both from SIUC.

Prior to her work in higher education, she worked as a reporter/producer for two New York City television stations, as a regional manager for Patten and Guest Productions and as a copywriter/producer for Rosenfeld, Sirowitz & Lawson Advertising Agency.

Ziegler spent 14 years on the faculty at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, where she was professor of broadcasting and associate director for diversity resources and educational services, supervising research and technology under the chancellor's office. To date, she remains the first and only African-American elected as president of the University of Tennessee-Knoxville Faculty Senate, and was a charter inductee into the university's African-American Hall of Fame in 1995.

She joined Florida A&M in 1997 as the Garth C. Reaves Eminent Scholar Chair of Excellence in Journalism.

College of Engineering: 1:30 p.m., Saturday, May 12, SIU Arena.

Daniel G. Korte, vice president of supplier management and procurement of Integrated Defense Systems for the Boeing Co. in St. Louis, will give the address and receive the Alumni Achievement Award.

Korte earned a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering in 1985 from SIUC and an MBA from Lindenwood College in St. Charles, Mo. He joined McDonnell Douglas in 1984 as an electronics engineer.

In 2003, he became program manager for the Boeing V-22 after holding several key positions of increasing responsibility in supplier management and procurement at Boeing Integrated Defense Systems. The V-22 is a revolutionary hybrid aircraft that combines the hover and vertical takeoff and landing capabilities of a helicopter with the speed, range and operational economy of a turboprop airplane.

He subsequently moved into his current role, in which he is responsible for all subcontract and procurement matters, including policymaking and implementation, subcontract oversight and process improvement. The Integrated Defense Systems Supplier Management and Procurement organization employs more than 3,500 people in 30 states and eight countries, and is responsible for the annual purchase of $13 billion in products and services for Boeing's operations.

School of Law: 4 p.m., Saturday, May 12, Shryock Auditorium.

James Holderman, chief judge for the U.S. District Court Northern District of Illinois, will give the address and Lena Taylor, a Wisconsin state senator, will receive the Alumni Achievement Award.

Holderman earned both his bachelor's and law degrees from the University of Illinois. He was an assistant U.S. attorney from 1972 to 1978, and then spent seven years with the firm of Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal. He became a federal judge in 1985.

Taylor earned her bachelor's degree in English from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and her law degree from SIUC in 1993. Previous experience includes working in the law office of Taylor & Associates and as an attorney with the Wisconsin State Public Defender's Office. She is first vice chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin and is a member of the Democratic National Committee. After being elected to the Wisconsin Assembly in a 2003 special election, she was elected to the Wisconsin Senate in 2004.

College of Liberal Arts: 5 p.m., Friday, May 11, SIU Arena.

Nick P. Calamos, senior executive vice president and head of investments for Calamos Asset Management Inc. of Naperville, will give the address and receive the Alumni Achievement Award.

A Chartered Financial Analyst, Calamos earned his bachelor's degree in economics in 1983 from SIUC and a master's degree in finance from Northern Illinois University.

As head of investments, he oversees research and portfolio management for Calamos Investments' family of mutual funds, closed-end funds and separately managed accounts, totaling more than $44 billion in assets. He leads the development of the firm's proprietary research tools and investment processes for a team of more than 60 professionals, and serves as a portfolio manager of various strategies utilizing equities, high-yield bonds, convertible securities and alternative investments.

He wrote "Convertible Arbitrage: Insights and Techniques for Successful Hedging" in 2003, and the book is used as a textbook in a number of investment management curriculums.

College of Mass Communication and Media Arts: 1:30 p.m., Saturday, May 12, Shryock Auditorium.

Paul E. Elledge, owner of Paul Elledge Photography in Chicago, will give the address and receive the Alumni Achievement Award.

He earned his bachelor's degree in 1981 from SIUC. For more than 20 years, he has worked with creatives and advertising agencies, including DDB Chicago, Fallon, Foote Cone and Belding, Goodby, Silverstein and Partners, Pentagram and VSA Partners. He has photographed many celebrities, including AC/DC, Ashanti, Billy Corgan, Ministry, Willie Nelson, Trent Reznor, Pavarotti and Oprah Winfrey.

His extensive client list includes Allstate, Bank of America, Business Week, Circuit City, Entertainment Weekly, IBM, Lexus, Newsweek, Quaker Oats and Target, among others.

Elledge's photography has appeared in many magazines and books, and he has had solo art shows and had his works exhibited in a variety of museum shows.

College of Science: 8:30 a.m., Saturday, May 12, Shryock Auditorium.

Jorge Seminario, professor and inaugural holder of the Lanatter and Herbert Fox Professorship in Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University, will give the address and receive the Alumni Achievement Award.

Seminario holds a bachelor's degree in electrical sciences and a professional degree in electronics from the Universidad National de Ingenieria in Peru. He earned his master's degree in physics in 1984 and doctorate in molecular science in 1988, both from SIUC.

Seminario was a field engineer in broadcasting and nuclear engineering in Peru and worked for 13 years in quantum chemistry research as a postdoctoral associate and research professor in chemistry departments at the University of New Orleans and University of South Carolina.

He joined Texas A&M's faculty in 2004. His research focuses on nanotechnology, working on the analysis, design and simulation of systems and materials of nanometer dimensions, especially those for the development of nanosensors and molecular electronics. One of his major goals is to design smaller electronic devices and other systems in order to increase their efficiency, speed and energy savings, as well as reduce their costs.

Graduate School: 7 p.m., Saturday, May 12, SIU Arena.

Traditionally there is no guest speaker for this program. The Alumni Association will present its Outstanding Thesis Award to Jemil N. Yesuf, Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Outstanding Dissertation Award to John B. Ruhl, Geography and Environmental Resources.