8 Honorary Degrees to be Conferred at Commencement

Paul Farmer outside with a suit

Dr. Paul Farmer, who has devoted his life to treating impoverished patients in Haiti and other underdeveloped nations, and urban reformer Cory A. Booker, mayor of Newark, N.J., will speak as more than 2,400 students receive degrees at Suffolk University commencement exercises on May 22 and 23, 2010.

Booker will address Law School graduates at 9:30 a.m. Sunday, May 23, and Farmer will speak at 2 p.m. to College of Arts and Sciences and Sawyer Business School undergraduates, with both ceremonies to be held at the Bank of America Pavilion on Boston’s waterfront.

Profile picture of Cory Booker in a suit

The Sawyer Business School graduate commencement exercises will take place at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, May 22, at the Sheraton Boston Hotel, with Wycliffe “Wyc” Grousbeck, managing partner, governor, and CEO of the Boston Celtics, as speaker.

Karen B. DeSalvo, MD, MPH, MSc, professor of Medicine and vice dean of Community Affairs & Health Policy at Tulane University School of Medicine, will be the speaker at the College of Arts and Sciences graduate ceremony to be held at 1 p.m. May 22 at the Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel.

All four ceremonies will be Webcast.

Honorary Degrees

The College of Arts and Sciences and Sawyer Business School will award the following honorary degrees:

  • Farmer, Doctor of Humane Letters
  • DeSalvo, Doctor of Humane Letters
  • Grousbeck, Doctor of Commercial Science
  • Charles Burnett, award-winning American independent filmmaker, Doctor of Humane Letter

The Law School will award the following honorary degrees:

  • Booker, Doctor of Laws
  • The Hon. Bernice Donald, U.S. District Judge for the Western District of Tennessee, Doctor of Laws
  • Kenneth R. Feinberg, Feinberg Rozen, LLP, served as special master of the Federal September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001, Doctor of Laws
  • Justice John M. Greaney (Ret.), Director, Macaronis Institute for Trial and Appellate Advocacy at Suffolk University Law School, Doctor of Laws

Statistics

  • College of Arts and Sciences bachelor’s degree candidates: 710
  • College master’s degree and doctoral candidates: 290
  • Sawyer Business School bachelor’s degree candidates: 482
  • Business School master’s degree candidates: 433
  • Law School to confer 493 juris doctor, 61 master of laws degrees