Fineman to speak at W&J commencement
More than 300 Presidents will graduate from Washington & Jefferson College May 16 at the institution’s 216th commencement ceremony.
Commencement will be held on the Olin Fine Arts Center lawn of the W&J campus at 10 a.m. and will be streamed live via the college’s website at http://www.washjeff.edu/live. The feed will be active 30 minutes before the ceremony.
Howard Fineman, an award-winning journalist currently serving as the global editorial director of the AOL Huffington Post Media Group, will give the keynote address.
On May 15, the Baccalaureate service will be held at 6 p.m. at Church of the Covenant on Beau Street, Washington. The Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, 26th presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, will be the keynote speaker.
Fineman and Jefferts Schori each will receive honorary degrees from W&J, as will Tony and Grammy award-winner and Pittsburgh native Billy Porter, and distinguished civil rights activist Thomas Gaither.
One of the nation’s leading political journalists, Fineman’s career has been filled with milestones and awards. A Pittsburgh native, Fineman began his career at the Louisville Courier-Journal in 1973, joining the Newsweek Washington office in Washington, D.C., in 1980. He was named chief political correspondent in 1984, and has interviewed every major presidential candidate since that time. He became the deputy Washington bureau chief in 1993 and senior editor in 1995. His work includes the widely recognized November 2001 Newsweek cover story featuring the first extensive interview since Sept. 11, 2001 with George W. Bush and the “Bush and God” series, which won the 2003 National Magazine Award for General Excellence.
He began his post as editorial director of the AOL Huffington Post Media Group in 2010, and was named global editorial director in 2015. Fineman traveled to more than 40 countries, reported from 49 of the 50 states, and authored the best-selling book, “The Thirteen American Arguments.”
Jefferts Schori is chief pastor to the Episcopal Church’s 2.1 million members in 17 countries and 109 dioceses, ecumenical officer and primate, joining leaders of the other 38 Anglican provinces in consultation for global good and reconciliation. Elected in June 2006 for a nine-year term, Jefferts Schori’s current term will end at the conclusion of the Episcopalians’ General Convention in Salt Lake City in June.
Previously elected as the 9th bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Nevada, she is the first woman elected as a primate in the Anglican Communion.
W&J will present an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts to Billy Porter, a Tony and Grammy award-winning singer, composer, actor, playwright and director from Pittsburgh. Known for his powerhouse performances and creative presence, Porter made his name on Broadway in the ’90s before pursuing a solo career as a singer and making his directorial and writing debuts.
Porter won the 2013 Tony Award for Best Actor, a 2013 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theatre Album, and the 2013 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a musical for his performance in “Kinky Boots.”
Gaither is a civil rights activist and retired Slippery Rock University professor of biology/botany. Gaither grew up in Great Falls, S.C., and, as a young man, engaged in key portions of the nonviolent civil rights movement. In 1961, while serving as the field secretary for the Congress of Racial Equality, he and eight students of Rock Hill’s Junior College commemorated the one-year anniversary of the Greensboro sit-ins by ordering hamburgers and sitting down at the whites-only lunch counter of McCrory’s variety store in Rock Hill, SC. Within seconds of sitting the group was arrested. Convicted of trespassing, the group, known as the “Friendship Nine,” was sentenced to either pay a $100 fine or serve a month of labor at a prison camp. By mutual consent, they chose to not pay bail and support the faulty system that punished them.
This choice began the “jail no bail” phase of the Civil Rights movement. This was the third time Gaither was arrested for nonviolent civil rights protests. Gaither, as a part of leadership of the movement, helped recruit and train Freedom Riders on nonviolent reactions, arranged legal representation along the path, and sought community contacts through the NAACP and other groups. Gaither was eventually forced to leave the movement due to the draft and deferment of selective service. He will receive an honorary Doctor of Laws from W&J.
More information about the Baccalaureate service and commencement, visit www.washjeff.edu.