Welcome
Welcome to the 2012 Commencement Web site for the University of Maryland (UM). We have created this site to help graduates, faculty, families, and friends prepare for the most exciting day of our year.
On Friday, May 18, students, families, and friends will again “take over” the West Side of Baltimore with a wide array of formal and informal activities and ceremonies to mark the commencement of approximately 1,800 graduates from the schools of medicine, law, dentistry, pharmacy, nursing, social work, and the Graduate School.
Building on last year’s success, we will again have an academic processional from the campus to the 1st Mariner Arena three short blocks away for the University commencement ceremony. We hope even more of you participate in what is a stunning display with the colors and the banners of the schools and the huge group of graduates and faculty in their caps and gowns proceeding from University Plaza down Baltimore Street to the Arena.
For the convenience of the graduates’ families, rooms have been reserved at local hotels at discount rates and arrangements have been made for affordable and convenient parking.
The University-wide commencement ceremony at 1st Mariner Arena will take place at 2 p.m. Graduates will depart the arena by 4 p.m. with their diplomas in hand. We are excited and honored that Freeman A. Hrabowski, III, Ph.D., President of University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), will be our keynote speaker. More about Dr. Hrabowski is available below.
This Web site will feature frequent updates with information on activities and programs that promise to make May 18, 2012 a memorable day. Congratulations to the graduates and their families as they celebrate years of sacrifice and hard work.
Jay A. Perman, MD
President
Keynote Speaker
Freeman A. Hrabowski, III, PhD, has served as President of UMBC since 1992. His research and publications focus on science and math education, with special emphasis on minority participation and performance. In 2008, he was named one of America’s Best Leaders by U.S. News & World Report. In 2009, TIME magazine named him one of America’s 10 Best College Presidents. In 2011, he received both the TIAA-CREF Theodore M. Hesburgh Award for Leadership Excellence and the Carnegie Corporation of New York’s Academic Leadership Award, recognized by many as the nation’s highest awards among higher education leaders. Also in 2011, he was named one of seven Top American Leaders by The Washington Post and the Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership. We are privileged that Dr. Hrabowski, a leader in educational advancement and a true friend of the University, will offer the keynote address at this milestone event for our graduates.
Honorary Degree Recipient
Peter I. Buerhaus, PhD, R.N., FAAN is the Director for the Center for Interdisciplinary Health Workforce Studies with the Institute for Medicine and Public Health at Vanderbilt Medical Center and serves as the Valere Potter Professor of Nursing at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Peter Buerhaus will be awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Science in recognition of his distinguished career. His ground-breaking research on the nurse shortage and contributions to understanding the dynamics of nursing and the broader health care workforce has earned him this prestigious honor. His current research interests include monitoring and analyzing trends in employment and earnings, and the age composition of the nurse and physician workforces; developing, testing and refining measures of nurse-sensitive quality of care and; determining opinions on the nursing workforce and healthcare-related issues held by the public, health policy thought leaders, and health care professionals.
