Film writer, producer and director Phil Alden Robinson '71 will be honorary chancellor and deliver the main address at the College's Commencement exercises on Sunday,
June 16, at 10 a.m. in Library Plaza. Robinson will receive an honorary doctor of letters degree.
Author Andrea Barrett '74 will receive an honorary doctor of letters degree. NBC Nightly News Anchor Tom Brokaw will receive an honorary doctor of laws.
About 650 students are to receive degrees; more than 500 bachelor's degrees, 137 master's degrees and one doctorate.
Robinson wrote and directed Field of Dreams, one of the most popular films of recent years and a nominee for the Director's Guild Award, the Writer's Guild Award and three Academy Awards including Best Screenplay Adaptation and Best Picture. Among his
other film credits is Sneakers, which makes several quiet references to a small
college in upstate New York. He was a political science major at Union and worked as a
newsroom intern and producer of documentaries at WGY radio and WRGB-TV. After graduation,
he produced films for the Air Force's Aerospace Audio-Visual Service. He worked as a
freelance writer, director and producer for network television and feature films. He wrote
the screenplays for All of Me, In the Mood and Rhinestone.
Barrett has established a reputation as one of the best contemporary American writers.
Her recent Ship Fever and Other Stories was praised by The New York Times for
its “sheer intelligence, its painstaking attempt to discern and describe the world's
configuration. The overall effect is quietly dazzling ….” After graduating from
Union with a biology degree, she pursued graduate study in zoology but eventually changed
to medieval history where she became fascinated with fictional possibilities of medieval
European society and decided to pursue writing seriously. She published her first novel
Lucid Stars in 1988 and has since added Secret Harmonies, The Forms of Water, The
Middle Kingdom (a Literary Guild Alternate) and Ship Fever.
Brokaw, anchor and managing editor of the NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw, is
equally at ease covering major events in world capitals to capturing the flavor of
small-town America. He was NBC's White House correspondent during the Watergate era, and
has covered every presidential election since 1968. He has written articles, essays and
commentaries for The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Los Angeles
Times. His awards include an Emmy for the NBC News special “China in Crisis”
and another Emmy for coverage of the Midwest floods in 1992.
The ceremony will take place in Library Plaza, rain or shine. Faculty will assemble for
the processional in full regalia in front of Alumni Gymnasium at 9:15. (In the event of
rain, in the Humanities Building.)
Faculty also are invited to a reception on Saturday, June 15, at 3:30 p.m. in the Nott
Memorial hosted by President Roger H. Hull and Dr. Anne E. Dyson. There will be a
Baccalaureate Commemoration following at 5 p.m. in Memorial Chapel.