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Two United States senators will help send Buffalo State College’s Class of 2006 into the world on May 6, 2006, as the college holds its 134th commencement ceremonies in the Sports Arena on the campus at 1300 Elmwood Ave.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton will give the keynote address at a 10 a.m. baccalaureate ceremony, and Sen. Charles E. Schumer will give the keynote address at a 2 p.m. baccalaureate ceremony. Bachelor’s degrees will be awarded to 1,729 graduates who completed their studies in December 2005 or May 2006, or will complete them in August 2006. State University of New York Chancellor John R. Ryan will speak at both ceremonies.
The college’s master’s hooding ceremony will be held at 6 p.m. to award degrees and certificates of advanced study to 665 students who completed their studies in December 2005 or May 2006, or will complete them in August 2006. Buffalo Public School Superintendent James A. Williams will give the keynote address.
Two honorary degrees will be awarded. Playwright Ruben Santiago-Hudson (“Lackawanna Blues”) will receive a SUNY Doctorate of Humane Letters at 10 a.m.; journalist and author Hank Nuwer (“The Hazing Reader”), a 1968 Buffalo State College graduate, will receive a SUNY Doctorate of Humane Letters at 6 p.m.
Distinguished Alumnus Awards will be presented to ceramic artist and philanthropist Sylvia Rosen, a 1971 graduate, at the 10 a.m. ceremony, and to the founding director of the Office of Research in Medical Education of the Medical College of Virginia, Edwin F. Rosinski, a 1950 graduate, at the 6 p.m. ceremony.
Attorney and philanthropist William J. Magavern II will receive the President’s Distinguished Service Award at the 2 p.m. ceremony.
SUNY Chancellor’s Awards for Student Excellence will be presented to Scott S. Bindemann, Jennifer M. Breier and Pamela B. Szefler at the 10 a.m. ceremony; to Jessica A. Bryant, Nija D. Marshall and Nicole G. Maiorana at the 2 p.m. ceremony; and to Jude A. Jayatilleke at the 6 p.m. ceremony. Maiorana will give the student address at both undergraduate ceremonies and receive the President’s Medal for Outstanding Undergraduate Student at the 10 a.m. ceremony. Timothy G. Zgliczynski will receive The President’s Medal for Outstanding Graduate Student and give the student address at the 6 p.m. ceremony.
Hillary Rodham Clinton was elected to the U.S. Senate on November 7, 2000. She serves on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee; the Environment and Public Works Committee; and the Special Committee on Aging. She is the first New Yorker ever to serve on the Senate Armed Services Committee. Clinton also chairs the Senate Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee, responsible for communicating with the public about key issues before Congress. Clinton has worked to strengthen the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which increased coverage for children in low-income working families, and helped schools address environmental hazards. She continues to work to increase access to health care, and sponsored legislation to increase America’s commitment against the global AIDS epidemic.
Born in Chicago, Illinois, Clinton is a graduate of Wellesley College and Yale Law School. She is the author of several books, including her autobiography, “Living History,” “It Takes a Village: And Other Lessons Children Teach Us,” “Dear Socks, Dear Buddy: Kids’ Letters to the First Pets,” and “An Invitation to the White House,” as well as numerous articles.
In 2004, New Yorkers re-elected U.S. Senator Charles E. “Chuck” Schumer to represent the state in the U.S. Senate for a second-six year term. Schumer started off his second term by being appointed to the Democratic Leadership team and earned a seat on the Senate Finance Committee, which oversees the nation’s tax, trade, social security and health care legislation. Schumer also sits on the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, the Judiciary Committee and the Rules Committee.
The ranking member of the Administrative Oversight and Courts Subcommittee and the Economic Policy Subcommittee, he represented the Ninth Congressional District in Brooklyn and Queens for 18 years prior to his election to the Senate. Before that, he represented the 45th Assembly District in Brooklyn for six years.
A product of the Brooklyn public schools, Schumer is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School. He was elected to the New York State Assembly at age 23 – making him one of the youngest members since Theodore Roosevelt – and to Congress at age 29.
Former U.S. Navy Vice Admiral John Ryan was named chancellor of the State University of New York, the largest comprehensive system of higher education in the nation, by the SUNY Board of Trustees in December 2005 after serving as acting chancellor. Prior to that, Ryan served as president of the State University of New York Maritime College, where he created the National Institute for Leadership and Ethics and helped to obtain $1 million in seed money to establish the New York State Strategic Center for Port and Maritime Security. He also served as the 56th superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis and as interim president of the University at Albany, where he lived in a student dormitory during his presidency and contributed the first three months of his salary for student scholarships.
Ryan graduated from the United States Naval Academy and received a master of science in administration from George Washington University. He has also completed the Program for Senior Executives in National and International Security at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.
James Williams, superintendent of the Buffalo Public Schools, received his master of arts in counseling psychology from the University of the District of Columbia and his Ed.D. in administration and curriculum from George Washington University. After serving in a variety of administrative positions for the Washington, D.C., public schools, he joined the Dayton Public Schools in Ohio as assistant superintendent for intermediate/secondary instruction, and subsequently became deputy superintendent and superintendent of schools.
Williams also served the Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland as the deputy superintendent of schools before becoming the chief academic officer for Community Education Partners, a company that works in partnership with public schools and the community to help low-performing students. He is known for his work in curriculum and instruction, and his contributions include more than 100 presentations and publications.
Former Buffalo State student and native Western New Yorker Ruben Santiago-Hudson is a Tony and Obie Award-winning actor. He won the 2005 Humanitas Prize for HBO’s “Lackawanna Blues,” for which he wrote the screenplay from his award-winning play of the same name. “Lackawanna Blues,” his writing debut, premiered at the Public Theater in New York and pays homage to the woman who raised him. He also served as its executive producer with Halle Berry and Vincent Cirrincione.
Santiago-Hudson recently made his directorial debut with August Wilson’s “Gem of the Ocean,” starring Phylicia Rashad and John Amos. This summer, he will direct Wilson’s “Seven Guitars” in New York City.
Santiago-Hudson earned his bachelor’s degree in theater from Binghamton University and his master’s of fine arts from Wayne State University.
Author, journalist, editor and professor of journalism Hank Nuwer is a nationally recognized authority on the effects of hazing and binge drinking on high school and college students. His most recent book, “The Hazing Reader,” extended his research on hazing from high schools and colleges to society at large.
Nuwer graduated from Buffalo State with a bachelor’s degree in English secondary education. He has appeared on CBS, CNN, ESPN, NBC Nightly News, Fox on Education and the ABC Home Show. He has also been interviewed by reporters for USA Today, Sports Illustrated, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and many other national and international publications. In 1993 he received the fraternal Order of Omega award for his work nationally with fraternities and sororities to try to end hazing and binge-drinking abuses.
Nuwer was a panelist on a 1998 national videoconference about hazing sponsored by Black Issues in Higher Education, and has lectured on the topic of hazing at dozens of universities and colleges, including his alma mater. In 1999, he was an adviser to the Alfred University Presidential Commission on Athletics, which conducted a nationwide study of attitudes toward hazing among NCAA athletes.
Sylvia L. Rosen is a renowned potter and educator who taught at Buffalo State College, Amherst Senior High School and the University at Buffalo.
In 1987, Rosen and her late husband, Nathan, created the Sylvia L. Rosen Endowment for Fine Arts in the Craft Media that has made possible the juried biennial craft art exhibition, Craft Art Western New York, an exhibition of artworks by some of the best established artists as well as the most promising emerging artists working in craft media in Western New York.
Her work has been included in many exhibitions over several decades, including the Cleveland Museum of Art (1943); the Buffalo Craftsmen Exhibition (1957 to 1970); the Albright-Knox Members Gallery (1962); Art Today 1967, New York State Council on the Arts, New York State Fair; the Buffalo State College 125th Anniversary Exhibition (1996); the Contemporary New York State Crafts Exhibition (1997); the Ohio State Alumni Reunion Exhibition (1999); New York Collects Buffalo State, Burchfield-Penney Art Center (2004); and Daemen College (2005).
Rosen graduated from Ohio State University and earned a master of science degree in art education from Buffalo State. She received the Distinguished Alumni Leadership Award in 1991 and the Individual Philanthropic Leadership Award in 2000, both from the Buffalo State College Foundation. She has also received the Endowment Development Award from the Foundation for Jewish Philanthropies and the National Philanthropy Award from the Association of Fundraising Professionals.
Edwin Rosinski earned his bachelor of science degree in elementary education at Buffalo State before going on to earn his doctoral degree in education research and evaluation. He was the first educator ever hired by a medical school whose responsibility was to focus on the improvement of medical education. Today, there are more than 150 such medical education specialists.
Rosinski was the founding director of the Office of Research in Medical Education at the Medical College of Virginia. President Lyndon B. Johnson asked him to serve as deputy assistant secretary for health manpower for the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare. Later, he became a professor and head of the Department of Health Education Research at the University of Connecticut Health Center.
Rosinski served as professor of medical education, executive vice chancellor and director of the Office of Medical Education for the University of California, San Francisco. He was also a visiting professor at the School of Medicine at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, and visiting scholar at Flinders University of South Australia.
William J. Magavern II is a senior partner in the Buffalo law firm of Magavern, Magavern & Grimm, L.L.P., where he concentrates in the areas of corporate law, commercial and residential real estate law, wills, trusts and estates.
A graduate of Dartmouth College and the University at Buffalo Law School, Magavern is the chairman of Kissing Bridge Corporation; secretary of the Mentholatum Company Inc.; and a director of Niagara Blower Company, Oden Corporation and Metal Cladding Inc. He served for 31 years as an officer and director of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, and as president of the Erie County Mental Health Association, the International Institute and the Buffalo Council on World Affairs; as incorporator of the Allentown Association; and as a member of the Erie County Cultural Advisory Board, the Buffalo Arts Commission and the former Fleet Bank of New York Buffalo Regional Advisory Board.
Magavern served on the Buffalo State College Foundation Board of Directors from 1988 to 1994 and as chair of the board from 1991 to 1994. He also served as co-chair of the Burchfield-Penney Art Center’s Project Steering Committee for the new museum.
Magavern and his late wife, Louise Morris Magavern, proposed the idea of a new freestanding home for the Burchfield-Penney Art Center and launched the capital campaign to fund construction of the new museum with their own gift to the project.
