Iowa State University
12-7-95

Contacts:
Herman Richtsmeier, Registrar's Office, (515) 294-0756
Anne Dolan, News Service, (515) 294-7065

FALL COMMENCEMENT EVENTS SCHEDULED AT ISU

AMES, Iowa -- An estimated 1,575 students will graduate during fall commencement events at Iowa State University next weekend. About 1,225 students will receive bachelor's degrees during a 2 p.m. ceremony Saturday, Dec. 16, in Hilton Coliseum.

Richard Stanley, a 1955 graduate of the College of Engineering and chairman of Stanley Consultants Inc. in Muscatine, will give the commencement address. D. Gale Johnson, an alumnus of Iowa State who spent several years on the faculty here and went on to become one of the most respected experts internationally in agricultural economics, will receive an Honorary Doctor of Letters during the ceremony.

An expected 350 students will receive master's or Ph.D. diplomas during a graduate ceremony at 8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 15, in C. Y. Stephens Auditorium. William Lord, an Anson Marston Distinguished Professor of Engineering at ISU, will give the address.

Saturday morning of graduation weekend is reserved for optional college receptions and convocations. Associate registrar Herman Richtsmeier said the college deans have asked that the new scheduling plan, piloted last fall and spring, be continued for the 1995-96 year. (See the schedule of college events at the end of this release.)

Also continued this fall are Saturday luncheons prior to the undergraduate commencement ceremony. A luncheon for graduates of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences will be held from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Maple Willow Larch dining hall. Tickets are $9 ($5 for children ages 3 to 10) and available in the LAS College Relations Office, 251 Catt.

A luncheon for the graduates and guests from all other colleges will be held from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on the second floor of Scheman. Tickets cost $10 and are available through the Student Alumni Association, Alumni Suite, Memorial Union.

Stanley, the undergraduate ceremony speaker, received bachelor's degrees in mechanical engineering and electrical engineering from Iowa State, and a master's degree in sanitary engineering from the University of Iowa. He is vice chairman of the board of HON Industries Inc. and president of The Stanley Foundation, a private foundation that conducts policy and education programs that promote peace with justice and freedom.

Lord, the graduate ceremony speaker, received the bachelor's degree and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Nottingham, England. He has held the Palmer Chair in electrical engineering and served as an associate director of the Center for Nondestructive Evaluation since he arrived at Iowa State in 1988. He also served on the faculty at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville; Clarkson College of Technology, Potsdam, N.Y.; and Colorado State University.

Honorary degree D. Gale Johnson will be honored for extraordinary career achievements in research, teaching and outreach.

Johnson received the bachelor's degree (1938) in agricultural business and the doctorate (1945) in agricultural economics from what then was Iowa State College. He earned a master's degree in 1939 from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

He was an assistant professor of agricultural economics at Iowa State from 1941 to 1944, when he joined the faculty at the University of Chicago as a research associate. He has remained at the university since, serving as professor of economics, dean of the Division of Social Sciences, chair of the economics department, vice president and dean of faculties and provost. Currently, he is a professor emeritus, though he continues to teach and study agricultural economic problems in Russia and China.

During his career, Johnson served as consultant or economic adviser to more than a dozen organizations, including the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Army, President Kennedy's Task Force on Foreign Economic Assistance, Agency for International Development, National Commission on Population Growth and the American Future, U.S. Council on International Economic Policy and the National Advisory Commission on Food and Fiber.

He is one of a small number of economists who correctly predicted the improvement in per capita world food supplies over the past 25 years. He has written nearly 300 papers during his career, with his major contributions coming in the areas of organization and contribution of labor resources, agricultural policy in high-income countries, the former Soviet Union and China, and economic issues facing developing countries. His most acclaimed books are Forward Prices for Agriculture and World Agriculture in Disarray.

Johnson is a fellow of the American Association of Agricultural Economics and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

He is the 103rd recipient of an honorary degree from Iowa State.

Schedule of graduation events Friday, Dec. 15

-- 8 p.m. Commencement, graduate students, C. Y. Stephens

Saturday, Dec. 16

-- 8:30 a.m. Reception, College of Business (ceremony at 9 a.m.), Ames City Hall Auditorium, 515 Clark Ave., tickets required, 294-8431

-- 8:30 a.m. Reception, College of Family and Consumer Sciences (ceremony at 9:30 a.m.), Sun Room, Memorial Union

-- 9:30 a.m. Reception and ceremony, College of Design, atrium, Design Building

-- 9:30 a.m. Ceremony, College of Education, Benton Auditorium (reception at 10:15 a.m. on second floor), Scheman Building

-- 9:30 a.m. Convocation, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Hilton

-- 10 a.m. Ceremony, College of Agriculture (reception at 11 a.m.), C. Y. Stephens

-- 10 a.m. Ceremony, College of Engineering, 220 Scheman Building

-- 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Luncheon, for students and guests of all colleges, second floor Scheman, pre-purchase tickets in Alumni Suite, Memorial Union, $10, 294-8488

-- 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Luncheon, for students and guests of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Maple Willow Larch dining hall (reception, 10:30 a.m., Maple Willow Larch commons), pre-purchase tickets in 251 Catt Hall, $9, 294-2224

-- 2 p.m. Commencement, undergraduate students, Hilton