Annual Commencement highlights the weekend

Cornell's Senior Class Convocation and 1998 Commencement are this Saturday and Sunday, May 23 and 24.

Saturday, May 23:

• Senior Convocation: Convocation will be held for graduates and their families in Barton Hall at noon. Broadcaster Keith Olbermann, a 1979 Cornell graduate and former co-anchor of ESPN's "SportsCenter," will speak. He currently hosts "The Big Show with Keith Olbermann" weeknights on MSNBC and is a contributor for NBC Sports and News. Also speaking at the convocation will be Senior Class President Melissa Amernick.

Other events Saturday include:

• 2:30 - 4 p.m.: President Hunter Rawlings' reception for parents and students on the Arts Quad.

• 3 p.m.: Cornell Wind Ensemble Concert, Arts Quad.

• 3 p.m.: Doctor of Veterinary Medicine Hooding Ceremony, Alice Statler Auditorium, Statler Hall.

• 4 p.m.: ROTC Commissioning, Alumni Auditorium, Kennedy Hall.

• 5 p.m.: Ph.D. Recognition Ceremony, Barton Hall.

Sunday, May 24:

• Commencement procession and ceremony: Thousands of robed graduates, faculty, trustees and administrators will assemble on the Arts Quad at 9:30 a.m. and proceed to Schoellkopf Field. Leading the academic procession will be University Marshal J. Robert Cooke, professor of agricultural and biological engineering, and Mace Bearer John L. Ford, the Robert W. and Elizabeth C. Staley Dean of Students.

The ceremony will take place on Schoellkopf Field from 11 a.m. to noon. After presenting the commencement address, President Rawlings will confer degrees on more than 6,200 eligible candidates, including those who completed degree work last August and January.

The ceremony will be broadcast live on Time-Warner cable channel 54 in Tompkins County beginning at 10 a.m. and on Ithaca radio station WHCU (870 AM) at 11 a.m.

Other events Sunday include:

• 8:30 a.m.: Baccalaureate Service with an address by the Very Rev. Robert Giannini, dean of Christ Church Cathedral, Indianapolis, in Bailey Hall.

• Noon-3 p.m.: College/school receptions at various locations.

Severe weather:

In the event of severe weather, commencement will be celebrated in two ceremonies in Barton Hall: at 10:30 a.m. for students from Agriculture and Life Sciences, Arts and Sciences, the Johnson Graduate School of Management and Veterinary Medicine, and at 1 p.m. for students from Architecture, Art and Planning, Engineering, Graduate School, Hotel Administration, Human Ecology and Industrial and Labor Relations.

Order a Commencement video

Members of the Class of '98, their families and friends will have the chance again this year to order a keepsake of Sunday's Commencement ceremonies -- a two-hour video of the event.

The video is a tape of the live telecast on Time-Warner Cable Channel 54 produced by Cornell's Media Services department and hosted by Community Relations Director David Stewart. Tapes will be sold for cost, $29.95 plus $3 shipping and handling. Copies can be ordered from Rick Gray, Media Services Resource Center, 7-8 Business Technology Park, Ithaca, NY 14850. Phone orders are available for credit-card users at (607) 255-2090.