Newark Mayor Cory Booker, Business Leader Alfred Koeppe, Author Jayne Anne Phillips Among Speakers at Rutgers Commencements in Newark May 19 – 22

(Newark, N.J., May 6, 2009) –  The eight schools of Rutgers University in Newark will host six separate commencement ceremonies this month, awarding bachelors, masters, doctorates and Juris Doctors degrees to 2,700 graduates. Rutgers also will bestow an honorary Doctor of Laws degree upon Alfred Koeppe, a 1969 graduate of Rutgers University, Newark, and president and CEO of the Newark Alliance, during its May 21 joint commencement ceremony for the Newark College of Arts and Sciences and the University College. Koeppe is the commencement speaker for that ceremony, which will take place in the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark.  (A complete list of ceremony dates, times, speakers and locations appears on pg. 3)

Commencement activities for Rutgers in Newark begin at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, May 19, in the Rutgers Golden Dome Athletic Center. That morning, Rutgers College of Nursing graduates will hear an address by P. K. Scheerle, RN-Nurse Entrepreneur.  At 2 p.m. that day, the Golden Dome is the setting for the joint commencement ceremony for the Rutgers Graduate School-Newark and the Rutgers School of Public Affairs and Administration, where the speaker will be Jayne Anne Phillips, award-wining author and director of the Rutgers MFA program for the Newark campus.

 On Wednesday, May 20, the Rutgers School of Criminal Justice will hold a 10 a.m.  commencement in the Rutgers Golden Dome Athletic Center. The speaker is Newark Police Department Director Garry F. McCarthy.  Since his appointment in 2006, the city has seen a significant reduction in both murders and shootings.

At 10 a.m. on Thursday May 21, Newark’s mayor, the Honorable Cory A. Booker, will address graduates of the Rutgers Business School-Newark and New Brunswick in the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark.  Since taking his oath of office in 2006, his vision has been to transform Newark into a leading city in safety, prosperity, and family life. Under his leadership, production of affordable accommodations has doubled, and through a $40 million public/private partnership initiative, Newark has made a commitment to revitalize its parks and playgrounds. As of July 1, 2008, Newark led the nation’s large cities for reductions in shootings and murders, achieving decreases of more than 40% in both categories.

At 2 p.m. on May 21, graduates will assemble in the New Jersey Performing Arts Center for the largest commencement ceremony for Rutgers-Newark (R-N), the joint convocation of the Newark College of Arts and Sciences and the University College. During the ceremony, Rutgers will award an honorary Doctor of Laws degree to Alfred Koeppe, president and CEO of the Newark Alliance and a member of the Rutgers Hall of Distinguished Alumni.  After graduating from Rutgers in 1969, Koeppe earned the juris doctor at Seton Hall University School of Law and was a trial attorney for the state Department of the Public Defender. Koeppe served as president and chief executive officer of Bell Atlantic-New Jersey, then joined PSE&G, becoming its president and chief operating officer before retiring in 2003. To date, he is the only person to have served as the top executive of New Jersey’s two largest utilities.

A member of the Rutgers Law Class of 1979, the Honorable Freda Wolfson, is the main speaker for the final R-N commencement. The Rutgers School of Law-Newark ceremony will begin at 10 a.m. on May 22, in the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. Wolfson is United States district judge for the district of New Jersey. The New Jersey resident was an Eagleton Institute of Politics Undergraduate Fellow and a member of Phi Beta Kappa at Rutgers University, Douglass College, in New Brunswick. In 1979, she graduated cum laude from Rutgers School of Law-Newark, where she worked both as a teaching assistant and research assistant while serving as an editor of the Rutgers Law Review.

 Maps, directions, parking: http://www.newark.rutgers.edu/commencement/   

RUTGERS UNIVERSITY IN NEWARK 2009 COMMENCEMENT DATES

Tuesday, May 19, 2009, 10 a.m., RUTGERS COLLEGE OF NURSING, Golden Dome Athletic Center, 110 Warren St., Newark

Tuesday, May 19, 2009, 2 p.m., RUTGERS GRADUATE SCHOOL-NEWARK AND RUTGERS SCHOOL OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS & ADMINISTRATION, Golden Dome Athletic Center, 110 Warren St., Newark

Wednesday, May 20, 2009, 10 a.m., RUTGERS SCHOOL OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE

Golden Dome Athletic Center, 110 Warren St., Newark

Thursday, May 21, 2009, 10 a.m., RUTGERS BUSINESS SCHOOL-NEWARK AND NEW BRUNSWICK, New Jersey Performing Arts Center, 1 Center St., Newark (Tickets required.)

Thursday, May 21, 2009, 2 p.m., RUTGERS COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES-NEWARK AND RUTGERS UNIVERSITY COLLEGE-NEWARK (JOINT CONVOCATION).New Jersey Performing Arts Center, 1 Center St., Newark (Tickets required for NJPAC.) Seating is first come/first served. The Center is handicapped-accessible. The FAS-N/UC ceremony will be simulcast live in the Multipurpose Room of the Paul Robeson Campus Center, 350 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.  NO TICKETS NEEDED TO WATCH THE BROADCAST OF THE CEREMONY IN THE MULTIPURPOSE ROOM.

Friday, May 22, 2009, 10 a.m., RUTGERS SCHOOL OF LAW-NEWARK, New Jersey Performing Arts Center, 1 Center St., Newark