Professor, prominent author to speak at graduation exercises

BOWLING GREEN O,—A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and a professor emeritus will be the speakers for December commencement ceremonies at Bowling Green State University.

Approximately 1,230 students, including 324 graduate students, will receive degrees. Dr. Veronica Gold, a BGSU professor emeritus of special education, will speak at the Graduate College ceremony at 7 p.m. Dec. 20, and author Ron Suskind will speak to graduating students from the other colleges at 10 a.m. Dec. 21. The graduation exercises will be held in Anderson Arena.

It was 25 years ago this month when a winter storm forced the University to cancel graduation for the first and only time in the institution’s history. The 550 members of the University’s 1977 December graduating class are being invited to be recognized at commencement and to attend a reception on Dec. 20.

Gold has been affiliated with BGSU since 1974, when she entered the doctoral program in educational administration and supervision. She earned her doctorate in 1977 and is among those who would have gone through commencement exercises in December of that year. She joined the faculty of BGSU’s Department of Special Education in 1978.

During her tenure Gold developed new teacher training programs for students with behavior disorders. She also obtained more than $1 million dollars from private, state and federal agencies for disabled students and special education teachers in training. Winner of the Faculty Distinguished Service Award in 1995, she served as the chair of the Faculty Senate from 1998-99.

Suskind is author of the book, “A Hope in the Unseen,” which is based on a series of articles he wrote for the Wall Street Journal. The series won the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing in 1995. The book profiles Cedric Jennings, a young man from a troubled Washington, D.C. neighborhood who aspired to higher education. Jennings was able to graduate from high school with a 4.02 GPA and attend Brown University.

Since the publication of “A Hope in the Unseen,” Suskind has spoken nationwide about his writing, education and race issues. He has served as a “Nightline” correspondent in addition to appearing on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and “Good Morning America.”

In addition to working for the Wall Street Journal, Suskind has written for The New York Times and taught journalism courses at Harvard University. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia and Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. He also helped launch “Life360," a television series on PBS that looked at newsworthy issues from different perspectives.

(Posted December 5, 2002)