S.C. state senators and Carolina alumni John Edward Courson and John Calhoun Land III will speak at summer commencement exercises for baccalaureate, master's, and professional degree recipients at all eight campuses at 10:30 a.m. Aug. 11 in the Colonial Center.

Courson and Land each will receive an honorary doctor of laws degree.

Commencement exercises for doctoral candidates will be held at 8:30 a.m. Aug. 11 in the Koger Center. Michael Matthews, chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering, will be the speaker.

The University expects to award more than 1,000 degrees from the Columbia campus, including two associate degrees, 522 baccalaureate degrees, three law degrees, eight graduate certificates, 375 master's degrees, nine graduate specialist degrees, and 106 doctoral degrees.

The University also will award 73 baccalaureate degrees and six master's degrees from USC Aiken; two associate degrees and 12 baccalaureate degrees from USC Beaufort; six associate degrees from USC Lancaster; nine associate degrees from USC Salkehatchie; 11 associate degrees from USC Sumter; 13 associate degrees from USC Union; and 190 baccalaureate degrees and two master's degrees from USC Upstate.

Courson was elected to the state Senate (District 20, Richland/Lexington counties) in 1984 and is the longest continuously serving state senator in the history of Richland County. He was one of only 10 Republican senators in 1984.

Courson chairs the Senate Education Committee, which has oversight of K-12 schools and higher education. He also is on the Ethics, Finance, Medical Affairs, and Banking and Finance committees in the Senate. He is the governor's appointee to and chair of the Governor's Climate, Energy, and Commerce Advisory Committee for which he has traveled extensively to learn more about the scope of global warming.

He was named Legislator of the Year in 1989 by Common Cause of South Carolina and in 1993 by the American Legion Department of South Carolina. He has received the Order of the Palmetto, South Carolina's highest civilian award, and has been recognized by the state Department of Education and the S.C. Association of School Administrators for his support of public education.

Land was elected to the S.C. House of Representatives in 1974, and in 1977, he was elected to the S.C. Senate, where he is the minority leader and second-longest serving member, representing District 36, which includes Calhoun, Clarendon, Florence, and Sumter counties.

Land was chair of the Joint Legislative Study Committee on Workers' Compensation Laws from 1987 to 1991 and, from 1988 to 1993 was chair of the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee. From 1993 to 2001, he was chair of the Senate Transportation Committee.

In 1995, the S.C. Pharmacy Association named Land Legislator of the Year by. In 1996, he received the Compleat Lawyer Award from the University's Law School Alumni Association.

Land was the author of South Carolina's first child safety seat laws for automobiles and a driving force behind the state's seat belt laws. He received the Child Advocate Award from the S.C. Chapter of American Pediatrics in 2001 as a result of his efforts to improve children's health care access.

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