Commencement 2006

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Rodney Slater, the former U.S. Transportation secretary, and Jo Luck,  president and chief executive officer of Heifer International, will receive honorary degrees from the University of Arkansas at the All-University Commencement at 8:45 a.m. Saturday, May 13, in Bud Walton Arena.

Slater, who is a former chairman of the Arkansas State Highway Commission, will be given an honorary doctorate of laws. Luck, who formerly served as executive director for the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism, will be given an honorary doctorate in arts and humane letters. Both are scheduled to speak to graduates during the commencement ceremony.

Slater was only the third Arkansan in history to head a federal department and serve as a secretary member of a president’s cabinet when he became the 13^th secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Slater grew up in Marianna, Ark., and began working at age six, hiring himself out in the cotton fields to save money for a red Schwinn bicycle. He attended Eastern Michigan University as a scholar-athlete before returning to his home state for law school, graduating from the University of Arkansas School of Law in 1980.

Slater is known for his vigor, fairness and dedication to Arkansas. He served as assistant attorney general before joining then-Gov. Bill Clinton’s staff, first as executive assistant for economic and community programs and later as special assistant for community and minority affairs. He has also worked as director of governmental relations at Arkansas State University and secretary-treasurer of the Arkansas Bar Association. He was a member of the Arkansas State Highway Commission from 1987 to 1992 and served as chairman from 1992 to 1993. For the next four years, he served as administrator of the Federal Highway Commission, becoming the first African American to hold that position.

As transportation secretary, Slater transformed the Department of Transportation into a forward-thinking organization dedicated to “putting people first.” He managed 100,000 employees and a $60 billion annual budget from 1997 to 2001, and during that time he redefined transportation as more than concrete, asphalt, and steel. Under his leadership, the department became the architect of modern transportation, promoting new technologies, environmental awareness, and public safety. He received bipartisan acclaim for his visionary leadership. In fact, during his tenure, the department developed a strategic plan rated by Congress to be the best among all the federal agencies.

Slater was recently one of 10 African American leaders to receive a Silas Hunt Legacy Award from the University of Arkansas. He currently lives in Washington, D.C., where he is a partner at Patton-Boggs LLP. He is married to Cassandra Wilkins, and they have a  daughter, Bridgette Josette.

Luck, president and CEO of Heifer International since 1992, has dedicated her career to humanitarian service. Heifer International is a nonprofit organization headquartered in Little Rock, Ark., that fights world hunger through support of micro-enterprises, community development and ecologically sound animal and agriculture techniques. Since 1944, the organization has reached out to more than 4 million families in 125 countries and 39 states.  Under Luck’s leadership, Heifer has received national and international acclaim as a visionary organization committed to serving and empowering the world’s poor. 

Luck attended Hendrix College and pursued graduate studies at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. She was the first cabinet appointment of then-Gov. Clinton, and served as executive director of the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism for more than a decade, during which time she doubled the economic impact of the state’s tourism industry to $2 billion dollars. She was later elected to the Arkansas Tourism Industry’s Hall of Fame.

Luck has long been one of Arkansas’ most active champions of social justice and environmental preservation. She was Heifer’s director of international programs before becoming president and CEO. She also helped to establish Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, as its first executive director, and was a founding member of Women Executives in State Government, the International Women’s Forum, and the Arkansas Women’s Leadership Forum.

Her commitment to public service has won Luck well-deserved accolades. She was recognized by Arkansas Business magazine as one of the Top 100 Women in Arkansas for the years 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, and 1999. In 2001, she was one of two Arkansans chosen by then-First Lady Hillary Clinton to attend the U.S. Women’s Conference Circle. In the 1980s, Luck received a Distinguished Business Leader Award from what is now called the Sam M. Walton College of Business. Recently, she was named to the National Advisory Board of the Clinton School of Public Service. 

She has two children, Beth and Mark Wilson.

South entrance doors at Walton Arena will open at 7:30 a.m., and each person attending commencement will be required to pass through a security checkpoint. Please allow extra time for this preventive measure. Cameras and personal items will be checked. Officials request that attendees not bring backpacks or baggage. These items must be left at the entrance.

Seating will be in the south section above the main floor. Tickets are only required for family and friends of Senior Scholars.

Each college and school will also hold its own ceremony after the All-University Commencement. The following is the schedule for those commencement ceremonies and speakers.

Saturday, May 13

Sam M. Walton College of Business
12:30 p.m., Barnhill Arena
Graduates and faculty assemble for procession between 11 a.m. and 11:45 a.m.
Speaker: Doyle Z. Williams, dean emeritus

Doyle Z. Williams, Ph.D., CPA, served as dean of the Sam M. Walton College of Business for 12 years. Williams stepped down as dean on Aug. 21, 2005, and returned to the faculty in the fall of 2006.  In February 2005, the University of Arkansas announced that the Doyle Z. and Maynette Derr Williams Chair in Professional Accounting had been established in honor of his accomplishments.

Under Williams’ leadership, the Walton College became one of the fastest-rising business schools in the nation. In the 2006 edition of U.S. News & World Report, the Walton College was ranked 24th in the nation among undergraduate public business schools. In 1998, the Walton College received a $50 million gift from the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation - the largest gift at the time to a business school. On Jan. 26, 2001, the college officially changed its name to the Sam M. Walton College of Business.

Prior to joining the university, Williams served as the founding dean of the School of Accounting at the University of Southern California, leading the accounting school to be among the top five in the nation. He also served for two years as interim dean of the USC School of Business Administration. Williams has authored more than 45 articles, several monographs, and has contributed to more than 10 books.

From 2003 to 2005, Williams served as vice-chair and chair of the AACSB International -- the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business -- an international accrediting body for business schools.

Williams’ honors include the Arkansas Society of CPAs’ Lifetime Achievement Award in Education. In 2002, he received the American Institute of CPAs’ Gold Medal, the institute’s highest honor.

Williams earned his Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from Northwestern State University of Louisiana in 1960 and his Master of Science and doctoral degree in accounting from Louisiana State University in 1962 and 1965, respectively.

School of Architecture
1 p.m. Arkansas Union Ballroom
Graduates and faculty assemble for procession at 12:30 p.m. in the hallway north of the ballroom.

Grant Jones has gained international recognition for his planning and design work with highways, urban waterfronts, parks, rivers, scenic corridors, forest management and bioaesthetics, and botanic and zoological gardens. Highly regarded for his creative and imaginative ideas, Jones provides the strong project themes and visionary concepts that have directed his firm of Jones & Jones, Architects and Landscape Architects for the past 30 years.

Recent projects in which Jones’ firm participated include the design of the national Museum of the American Indian for the Smithsonian on the Mall in Washington, D.C.; Walt Disney Wild Animal Kingdom; Singapore Botanic Gardens; North Carolina Botanical Gardens; San Juan County Open Space Plan; design of the historic Paris Pike Scenic Byway in Lexington, Ky.; the Cedar Lake Park and Trail in Minneapolis; and major new facilities at the San Diego Zoo, Busch Gardens in Tampa, the St. Louis Zoo, Honolulu Zoo, Detroit Zoo, Houston Zoo, and San Francisco Zoo.

Jones has held academic positions at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, the University of Virginia, the University of California at Berkeley, Texas A&M University, and the University of  Washington, and he has lectured at 25 departments of landscape architecture in universities throughout the United States.

Jones received a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Washington and a Master of Landscape Architecture from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. His awards include ASLA honor awards, merit awards, and the President’s Award of Excellence, as well as awards from the Washington Chapter of the ASLA, the American Association of Zoos and Aquaria, the American Planning Association, and The Waterfront Center.

Bumpers College of  Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences
1 p.m., Pauline Whitaker Animal Sciences Center
Graduates and faculty assemble for procession at 12:30 p.m. in the graduate robing room.
Speaker: Tory Hodges

Tory Hodges is from Alpena, Ark., and came to the University of Arkansas as a Bodenhamer Fellow.  She is an agricultural business major with minors in global agriculture and political science. She currently serves as president of the Agricultural Business Club, a volunteer for  Faith in Action, and an active member of the University Baptist Church Leadership Team.  During her freshman year, Hodges served as state president of the 12,000-member Arkansas Future Farmer of America Association, where she hosted conferences and conventions for FFA members. She has served a number of internships ranging from a summer internship in Washington, D.C., for Congressman John Boozman to an internship with a church youth group in Harrison. As a junior, Hodges spent a semester studying political science and economics  at Oxford University where she rowed with her college boat club and volunteered at a local soup kitchen. At the University of Arkansas she has conducted an Honors Program research project on the European Union's common agricultural policy, and she has been a research assistant to Dr. Jennie Popp, helping to design and implement a multi-country survey of agricultural economics professionals. She received the John W. White Outstanding Student award from Bumpers College, and was also named one of four Senior Scholars in the college.  She plans to attend law school in the fall and specialize in public policy or constitutional law.

J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences
1 p.m., Bud Walton Arena
Graduates and faculty assemble for procession at 12:15 p.m. inside the truck tunnel under the Harrod (east) entrance.
Speakers: Lance Owen and Rohitha (Ami) SriRamaratnam

A native of Fort Smith, Ark., Lance Owen graduated from Southside High School in 2002 and came to the university on a Sturgis Fellowship. As a four-year honors scholar in the department of music, Lance has focused on music theory and history, with particular emphasis on film music. As a performer, he has sung with the university’s Schola Cantorum and the quartet and choir of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church.

  In addition to musical involvements, Lance was the humanities co-chair for the Fulbright College Honors Student Association from 2003-04.  In 2004, he helped co-found the University of Arkansas Society for Adoption Awareness, an organization that not only distributes information regarding adoption but also helps families defray the costs of adoption.

 Lance was an assistant program editor at the Aspen Music Festival and School during summer 2004 and was one of two students from Fulbright College to attend the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom during the following year. He will return to Cambridge this fall as a Gates Cambridge Scholar to complete his master’s degree in musicology. Before departing, Lance will be the artistic operations assistant at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, Calif. He hopes to have a career in teaching and arts administration.

Rohitha “Ami” SriRamaratnam, from Wellington, New Zealand, is a four-year honors scholar, graduating with a major in biochemistry and a minor in physics. She came to the University of Arkansas in 2003 as a member of the first class of Honors College Fellows. In 2004, she received a Barry Goldwater Scholarship, awarded to students pursuing a career in the sciences, mathematics and engineering. Twice she has been an honorary scholar in the chemistry department and has received an Arthur and Lois Fry Scholarship and a Barbara Wertheim Campbell Award. In summer 2004, she participated in a National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates in the chemistry department at Columbia University. She studied abroad in Spain on an Honors College Study Abroad Grant in summer 2005.

Her on-campus activities include her involvement with the International Students Organization, where SriRamaratnam has served as historian, student adviser and currently as vice president. She also serves as treasurer for her professional fraternity in the chemical sciences, Alpha Chi Sigma. She has recently been inducted as a member of Phi Beta Kappa. SriRamaratnam plans to attend Columbia University in New York where she will pursue a doctoral degree in chemistry. 

College of Engineering
3:30 p.m., Barnhill Arena
Graduates and faculty assemble for procession at 3 p.m. on the south side of Barnhill Arena
Speaker: Mike T. Duke

Mike Duke currently serves as vice chairman of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Duke joined Wal-Mart in 1995 and has served as president and chief executive officer of Wal-Mart Stores Division (USA), executive vice president of administration, executive vice president of logistics, senior vice president of logistics, and senior vice president of distribution.

Duke has full operating responsibilities for all of the company’s international operations,  including Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras, Japan, Mexico, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, South Korea and the United Kingdom.

Prior to joining the company, Duke had 23 years of experience in retailing with Federated Department Stores and May Department Stores.

Duke graduated from Georgia Tech with a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering. He is a member of the Council on Competitiveness Steering Committee and serves on the Board of Directors of Arvest-Bank of Bentonville, the Retail Industry Leaders Association, and on the Board of Trustees of Morehouse College.

Duke and his wife, Susan, have two daughters and a son. They are active in their church and community.

College of Education and Health Professions
4 p.m., Bud Walton Arena
Graduates and faculty assemble for procession at 3:30 p.m. inside the truck tunnel under the Harrod (east) entrance.
Speaker: Greg Simon

Greg Simon is president of FasterCures, the Center for Accelerating Medical Solutions in Washington, D.C. FasterCures is an “action tank” committed to saving lives by saving time. The nonprofit, nonpartisan organization examines the medical research and development process to discover and promote ways to accelerate the discovery, development and deployment of new medical treatments for today’s deadly diseases.

Simon was chief domestic policy adviser to Vice President Al Gore from 1993 to 1997, specifically with regard to economic, science and technology issues. He oversaw a number of initiatives, including the programs of the National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, Food and Drug Administration, the Human Genome Project and the development of the regulatory framework for biotechnology products. He played a leading role in a variety of White House policies and programs including passage of the Telecommunications Reform Act of 1996; encouraging the development of a V-chip-compatible system of television ratings; the space program, particularly the building of the International Space Station; and FDA reform.

Prior to work in the White House, Simon served on Gore’s Senate staff as legislative director and as staff director of the investigations subcommittee of the House of Representatives’ Science, Space, and Technology Committee.

Prior to joining FasterCures, Simon was a principal at Infotech Strategies, a Washington consulting firm with special expertise in health technology, biotech, education technology and communication technology. Earlier, he was CEO of Simon Strategies/Mindbeam, a consulting firm specializing in biotechnology, health care, technology and information technology, among other issues.

Simon earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Arkansas and a law degree from the University of Washington School of Law. He lives in Bethesda, Md., with his wife, Margo Reid, a documentary film producer, and their two children.

Saturday, May 20, 2006

School of Law
1:30 p.m., Barnhill Arena
Speaker: Morris S. Arnold

Judge Morris Sheppard Arnold was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eight Circuit on May 26, 1992. Prior to that he served as a United States district judge in the Western District of Arkansas. He was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1985.

Arnold was born in Texarkana, Texas, in 1941, and was educated at Exeter, Yale, the University of Arkansas, Harvard Law School, and the University of London. He has taught at numerous American law schools, including Indiana, Stanford, Texas, Michigan, and the University of Pennsylvania, where he also served as vice president of the university and was a professor of law and history. He is a former president of the American Society for Legal History and former vice president of the Selden Society.

Judge Arnold has published eight books and numerous articles, mostly on the subject of legal history and the history of colonial Arkansas. His latest book is “The Rumble of a Distant Drum, The Quapaws and Old World Newcomers, 1673-1804.”

Parking Recommendations for Saturday, May 13

In addition to the commencement events on Saturday, May 13, the University of Arkansas is also hosting the Southeastern Conference Outdoor Track Championship. This is expected to create an extra demand for parking in the area of Razorback Road.

Parking will be available in lots 56, 44, 72, 73, 73A and the Stadium Drive Parking Facility.

It is recommended that people attending commencement events at Bud Walton Arena park in lot 56.

For events at Barnhill Arena or the Arkansas Union, recommended parking is in lot 44 and the Stadium Drive Parking Facility.

For those attending the SEC Track Championship parking is available in lots 72, 73, and 73A.

For PDF maps of the parking areas for both events go to http://www.uark.edu and click on the “Commencement Parking Information for Family and Friends” link on the upper right hand side of the page, just above “Top Stories from Daily Headlines”.