Peter Douglas Beattie, the 36th premier of the Australian state of Queensland, and Walter Seff Isaacson, president and chief executive officer of the Aspen Institute and a journalist, author, and scholar, will be the speakers at the University's spring commencement ceremonies May 11-12.

Peter Beattie

Walter Isaacson

The ceremony May 11 is for graduates of the Darla Moore School of Business, the College of Engineering and Information Technology, the College of Mass Communications and Information Studies, the College of Nursing, the College of Pharmacy, the Norman J. Arnold School of Public Health, and the College of Social Work.

Isaacson, who will receive an honorary degree of doctor of humanities, will speak at commencement exercises at 10:30 a.m. May 12 in the Colonial Center. The ceremony is for graduates of the College of Arts and Sciences; the College of Education; the College of Hospitality, Retail, and Sport Management; the Fort Jackson Military Base Program; Interdisciplinary Programs; the School of Music; and the Honors College.

The Columbia campus will award more than 3,400 baccalaureate and graduate degrees, including 2,317 baccalaureate degrees, 79 Pharm. D. degrees, 21 graduate certificates, 1,017 master's degrees, and 14 specialist degrees.

The School of Law will award 237 degrees at commencement exercises at 9:30 a.m. May 11 on the Horseshoe. Michael Traynor, president of the American Law Institute and senior counsel with the San Francisco-based law firm of Cooley Godward Kronish, will be the speaker and will receive an honorary doctor of laws degree. In case of rain, the ceremony will be in the Koger Center.

March Eddings Seabrook, a 1986 graduate of the University's School of Medicine and a fellow of American College of Gastroenterology, will speak at the School of Medicine's commencement exercises at 12:30 p.m. May 11 on the Horseshoe.

Commencement exercises for doctoral degree candidates will be at 8:30 a.m. May 12 in the Koger Center. Christine Ebert, dean of The Graduate School, will be the speaker.

Commencement exercises at the other campuses include:

• USC Beaufort will award seven associate degrees and 73 baccalaureate degrees at commencement exercises at 6 p.m. May 4 on the Helen and Brantley Harvey Plaza at the South Campus in Bluffton. Jack McConnell, founder of Volunteers in Medicine on Hilton Head Island, will be the speaker and will receive an honorary degree of doctor of humane letters.
• USC Salkehatchie will award 60 associate degrees at commencement ceremonies at 7 p.m. May 7 in the Conference Center on the West Campus in Allendale. Jim Rex, the S.C. state superintendent of education, will be the speaker.
• USC Union will award 33 associate degrees at commencement exercises at 7 p.m. May 8 in the Main Building Auditorium. Martha Whitener, former chair of the Lander University Board of Trustees, will be the speaker.
• USC Sumter will award 29 associate degrees at commencement exercises at 7 p.m. May 9 in the Nettles Building Auditorium. Cameron McGowan Currie, U.S. district judge for the district of South Carolina, will be the speaker.
• USC Aiken will award 268 baccalaureate degrees and 15 master's degrees at commencement exercises at 7 p.m. May 10 in the USC Aiken Convocation Center. Bassam Zekin Shakhashiri, a professor of chemistry at the University of Wisconsin at Madison who is known for promoting excellence in science education, will be the speaker and will receive an honorary degree of doctor of education.
• USC Lancaster will award 148 associate degrees at commencement ceremonies at 3 p.m. May 12 in the Charles A. Bundy Auditorium in the James Bradley Arts and Sciences Building. S.C. state senator Greg Gregory, who represents district 16 in York and Lancaster counties, will be the speaker.
• USC Upstate will award 488 baccalaureate degrees and six master's degrees at commencement exercises at 7 p.m. May 12 on the Quad behind the Administrative Building. Congressman James E. Clyburn, U.S. House of Representatives, Sixth Congressional District of South Carolina, will be the speaker. James R. Smith, an alumnus of USC Upstate and chair of the Spartanburg County Commission for Higher Education, will receive an honorary degree of doctor of business administration.

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