ANNUAL COMMENCEMENT IN THE SEVENTY-SECOND YEAR OF MONMOUTH UNIVERSITY WEST LONG BRANCH, NEW JERSEY WEDNESDAY, MAY SEVENTEENTH, TWO THOUSAND AND SIX Monmouth University was founded in 1933 as the Central Jersey Shore’s first center of higher education. Its beginning was attended by an outpouring of support from the state’s educational community and great expectations of good. Today, well launched into its second half century, Monmouth has fulfilled those expectations. From a two-year junior college conducting classes in borrowed quarters, Monmouth grew to achieve university status in 1995. The University’s 155-acre campus in suburban West Long Branch connects Monmouth with New Jersey’s historic past. Woodrow Wilson Hall, the University’s administrative center, is a National Historic Landmark, and the Guggenheim building, a wing of the Monmouth University Library, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Monmouth University serves an enrollment of more than 6,000 undergraduate and graduate students—a richly diverse group that comes from a number of states other than New Jersey and from 28 foreign nations. The student body includes traditional-age students, young professionals pursuing advanced studies, and mature men and women resuming studies in preparation for a career change or for personal enrichment. Within Monmouth’s seven schools—the School of Business Administration, the Wayne D. McMurray School of Humanities and Social Sciences, the School of Education, the School of Science, Technology and Engineering, the Marjorie K. Unterberg School of Nursing and Health Studies, the Honors School, and the Graduate School— students have a choice of 48 undergraduate and graduate degree programs. At Monmouth, students participate in more than 70 extracurricular organizations and special interest activities, in addition to an NCAA Division I Athletics program, which fields 19 men’s and women’s teams. BOARD OF TRUSTEES Stephen M. Parks ’68, Chairman Alfred J. Schiavetti, Jr., Vice Chairman Robert B. Sculthorpe ’63, Treasurer Deborah B. Larrison ’94, Secretary Rudolph J. Borneo ’64 Michael Gooch Tavit O. Najarian Marcia Sue Clever Jan Greenwood Peter J. Novello Paul W. Corliss Oleta J. Harden Michael A. Plodwick ’82 Alan E. Davis Charles J. Hesse, III Thomas A. Porskievies ’82, ’86 Marti S. Egger ’81 Harold L. Hodes ’65 Steven J. Pozycki ’73 Alfred L. Ferguson John H. Kessler ’69 William B. Roberts Maiya Furgason Timothy Mann ’65 Robert B. Rumsby ’77 Paul G. Gaffney II Robert E. McAllan ’69 Benedict Torcivia, Jr. John R. Garbarino Herbert W. McCord Ann Unterberg LIFE TRUSTEES Lloyd F. Christianson Thomas P. Kiely Richard H. Turrell Paul S. Doherty, Jr. ’67 Charles T. Parton William D. Warters W. Cary Edwards Jules L. Plangere, Jr. Judith Ann Eisenberg Richard S. Sambol STUDENT GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION OFFICERS Alyson Goode, President Lynsey White, Vice President Joseph Bucher, Chair, Finance Committee Whitney Place, Chair, Academic Committee Megan Canavan, Chair, Student Affairs CLASS OF 2006 OFFICERS William E. Schwenck III, President Jenna Case, Vice President Lauren Povic, Treasurer Michael Malinowski, Secretary FACULTY MARSHALLS STUDENT MARSHALLS Derek A. Barnes, Kenneth Stunkel Brandon Bosqué, Stacey Ciprich 2 THE SEVENTY-SECOND ANNUAL COMMENCEMENT of MONMOUTH UNIVERSITY May 17, 2006 One thirty p.m. Paul G. Gaffney II, President of Monmouth University, Presiding ACADEMIC PROCESSION...........................................Pomp and Circumstance, Sir Edward Elgar NATIONAL ANTHEM.............................................The Monmouth University Chamber Singers INVOCATION ...................................................................................The Reverend Myrna Bethke Pastor, The United Methodist Church of Red Bank GREETINGS..................................................................................................Stephen M. Parks ’68 Chairman, Monmouth University Board of Trustees CONFERRAL OF HONORARY DEGREES......................................................President Gaffney COMMENCEMENT SPEAKER ............................................................................Charles Gibson SPECIAL RECOGNITIONS ...............................................................................President Gaffney CLASS OF 2006 REMARKS.....................................................................William E. Schwenck III President, Class of 2006 CONFERRAL OF DEGREES IN COURSE ALMA MATER ..........................................................The Monmouth University Chamber Singers BENEDICTION....................................................................................................Reverend Bethke RECESSIONAL............................................................................Trumpet Voluntary, Henry Purcell All Commencement participants and guests are requested to remain in their seats until the conclusion of the ceremony. You are to please refrain from the use of cellphones and other electronic devices during the ceremony. 3 HONORARY DEGREES CHARLES GIBSON Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa Presented by Marcia Sue Clever, Trustee Best known as a co-anchor of Good Morning America, Charles Gibson is a veteran newsman whose commitment to reporting a story with passion and precision is apparent daily to millions of viewers. He can also be a gentle storyteller who is comfortable revealing both affection and humor when focusing on the lighter side of life. Mr. Gibson returned to Good Morning America (GMA) to re-launch the broadcast with Diane Sawyer in 1999. He previously co-anchored the morning program from 1987 to 1998. In addition, Mr. Gibson was also co-anchor of Primetime Thursday, now known as Primetime, and continues to serve as a substitute anchor on World News Tonight, a responsibility that was magnified when the late Peter Jennings became ill last year. Mr. Gibson traveled to Vatican City in April 2005 to lead ABC’s coverage of the death of Pope John Paul II, which won a duPont- Columbia Award (the broadcast equivalent of a Pulitzer Prize). In October 2004, Mr. Gibson moderated the 90-minute town-hall- style debate between President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry that was watched by 47 million people around the country. The week before the 2004 presidential election, Mr. Gibson interviewed President George W. Bush at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, for Good Morning America. Among Mr. Gibson’s interviews with the previous six Presidents, he sat down with former President Bill Clinton for a candid conversation about Mr. Clinton’s memoir, My Life. With deep experience on the political beat, Mr. Gibson has anchored many broadcasts from Republican and Democratic national conventions as well as presidential inaugurations. Mr. Gibson has interviewed leaders from around the globe, including Kofi Annan, Tony Blair, the late Yasser Arafat, and Nelson Mandela. Mr. Gibson traveled to Israel in April 2002 to cover the suicide bombings crisis and reported from Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, in October 2000 to cover the Middle East peace summit. Closer to home, in October 2005, he became the first morning television anchor to report live from inside the walls of CIA headquarters in Virginia, where he had a wide-ranging exclusive interview with CIA Director Porter Goss. In February 2003, he anchored GMA from the Johnson Space Center in Houston to report on the loss of the space shuttle Columbia. Additionally, Mr. Gibson won an Emmy Award for his July 2003 hour-long Primetime Thursday investigation titled Columbia: Final Mission. On September 11, 2001, Mr. Gibson, along with Ms. Sawyer, began ABC’s award-winning coverage of the attacks on the World Trade Center. For ABC News’ first anniversary coverage of 9/11, Mr. Gibson interviewed Vice President Dick Cheney about the immediate federal response to the attacks on the World Trade Center and the decision to seek presidential authorization to shoot down aircraft over American soil. Mr. Gibson’s hour-long Moments of Crisis report captured many powerful memories of the day from the national leadership at the White House, the Pentagon, and on Capitol Hill. Mr. Gibson also interviewed Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld during a live, historic broadcast from the Pentagon on September 9, 2002. In June 2001, at the Oklahoma City National Memorial, Mr. Gibson anchored ABC’s live coverage of the events leading up to the Timothy McVeigh execution. He reported from the scene when the Murrah Federal Building was bombed in April 1995 and continued to follow the story on multiple return visits to Oklahoma City. Mr. Gibson first became familiar to television viewers as a correspondent on ABC’s World News Tonight With Peter Jennings, as an occasional substitute for Ted Koppel as anchor on Nightline, and as substitute anchor on World News This Morning. Mr. Gibson was chief correspondent covering the House of Representatives for ABC News from 1981 to 1987. He came to ABC News in 1975 from a syndicated news service, Television News Inc., that he joined in 1974. He covered President Nixon’s resignation and the subsequent Watergate conspiracy trials for TVN. His first job in broadcasting was as Washington producer for RKO Network in 1966. He was recently awarded the prestigious Paul White Award from the Radio-Television News Directors Association. The award recognizes an individual’s lifetime contribution to electronic journalism. Mr. Gibson is a graduate of Princeton University, where he served as news director for the university’s radio station, WPRB-FM. A native