Contact: Carmen Ramos Chandler
(818) 677-2130
carmen.chandler@csun.edu

Educators, Business Leaders, Doctor, Poet
To Address Cal State Northridge Graduates

A record 8,676 students are candidates to receive their diplomas -- approximately 7,212 bachelor's and 1,464 master's degrees -- in a series of ceremonies that begin the evening of June 1.

"Commencement is a special time at the university," said CSUN President Jolene Koester. "It's a time when we join families and friends of our graduates in celebrating the accomplishments of our students. We are proud of all of them--the graduates and their families and other supporters--for all they have sacrificed and their tenacity in helping the graduates reach their educational goals. We invite the community to join us in celebrating."

The graduation celebration begins at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, June 1, with the Honors Convocation at the University Club at the southeast corner of the campus near Zelzah Avenue and Nordhoff Street.

This year's convocation speaker is Yvonne Chan, a CSUN alumna and principal at Vaughn Next Century Learning Center in Pacoima. Chan is considered a leader in the national charter school movement. Vaughn Next Century was one of the first charter schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

The formal commencement ceremonies are as follows:

• The College of Social and Behavioral Sciences has no planned speaker for its ceremony at 8 a.m. on Wednesday, June 2, on the Oviatt Library Lawn in the center of the campus at 18111 Nordhoff St.

• Dr. Colin McCannel, a CSUN alum and assistant professor of ophthalmology at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, will speak at the College of Science and Mathematics' ceremony at 4 p.m. on June 2 at the University Club.

• There is no speaker scheduled for the College of Arts, Media, and Communication's ceremony at 6:30 p.m. on June 2 on the Oviatt Library Lawn.

• Poet Eloise Klein Healy, former director of CSUN's Women's Studies program, will give the commencement address for the College of Humanities at 8 a.m. on Thursday, June 3, on the Oviatt Library Lawn.

  Healy, who headed Women's Studies at CSUN from 1988 to 1991, is the founding chair of the master's of fine arts in creative writing program at Antioch University Los Angeles. She is also the author of five books of poetry. Her most recent collection, Passing, was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in Poetry and a finalist for the Publishing Triangle's Audre Lorde Lesbian Poetry Prize.

• Alum Mory Ejabat, chairman and CEO of Zhone Technologies Inc., will speak at the College of Engineering and Computer Science's ceremony at 4 p.m. on June 3 at the University Club.

  Zhone is a newly formed company pioneering the development of next-generation communications equipment to enable carriers and service providers to offer cost effective high-bandwidth services independently of the existing loop communications infrastructure. Before Zhone, Ejabat was president and CEO of Ascend Communications, Inc., which was sold to Lucent Technologies in 1999 for $24 billion.

• There is no speaker for the College of Health and Human Development's ceremony at 6:30 p.m. on June 3 on the Oviatt Library Lawn.

• The College of Business and Economics has no speaker planned for its ceremony at 8 a.m. on Friday, June 4, on the Oviatt Library Lawn.

• Alum Deborah Leidner, superintendent of District A of the Los Angeles Unified School District, will speak at the College of Education's ceremony at 4 p.m. on June 4 at the University Club.

  As superintendent of District A, Leidner is overseeing the opening of a new high school currently being constructed on the east side of Cal State Northridge's campus. The school, scheduled to open this fall, will serve students who live nearby, helping reduce overcrowding at Monroe, Granada Hills and Cleveland high schools.