The College's Commencement Committee has chosen outgoing President Roger H. Hull as honorary chancellor of Commencement 2005. He will deliver an address and receive an honorary degree at the June 12 ceremony.
“President Hull has made an immensely positive impact on Union — raising academic standards, renovating and upgrading numerous buildings, and raising funds to maintain the College's standing as one of the best liberal arts institutions in the nation,” said senior Erin Williams, a member of the Board of Trustees and of the Commencement Committee. “He was a clear choice as the committee reviewed his accomplishments over the years.”
Student Forum President Gillian McCabe, a senior who also served on the committee, agreed. “It is a common tradition for departing college presidents to serve as honorary graduation speakers, and President Hull is one of the longest-serving college presidents in the country,” she said.
Since coming to Union in 1990 as the College's 17th president, Hull has focused on five key areas:
— Integrating the liberal arts and technology;
— Enhancing academic, social and residential life;
— Increasing international education;
— Expanding undergraduate research; and
— Encouraging community service
Within this framework, the College launched a major initiative called Converging Technologies to better integrate the liberal arts and technology. In addition, Hull was instrumental in spearheading Union's Minerva Houses, which offer a new approach to academic, social, and residential life that combines a house system with traditional residence halls, theme houses, and fraternities and sororities.
Long interested in international education, Hull has expanded terms abroad and exchanges to two dozen countries. Today, more than 65 percent of Union's students study abroad at some point, a figure that ranks Union among the top dozen international programs at American colleges. Opportunities for student independent study and research have expanded significantly as well, and Union regularly sends one of the largest student contingents to the annual National Conference on Undergraduate Research.
Committed to cooperative efforts between college and community, Hull was co-founder of Schenectady 2000, an extensive revitalization project for the city of Schenectady, and created the Union-Schenectady Initiative, a plan to revitalize the neighborhood to the immediate west of campus. The College has invested more than $26 million in projects, including the renovation of the former Ramada Inn into College Park Hall, a residence for 230 upper-class students. Through the College's Kenney Community Center, more than 60 percent of Union's students perform volunteer service in the local community and schools.
Cliff Brown, chair of the Faculty Executive Committee and Robert Porter Patterson Professor of Government, said: “History will remember President Hull for all of these accomplishments and more. He conducted matters with integrity, with equity, with decency, and with a constant regard for the well being of everybody at this College.”
A native of New York City, Hull earned his B.A. degree from Dartmouth College, his law degree from Yale Law School, and his master's degree in law and his Doctor of Juridical Science degree from the University of Virginia. From 1967 to 1971, he was an attorney with White & Case in New York City. In 1971, he became special counsel to Gov. Linwood Holton of Virginia, responsible for the administration's legislative program. Three years later, he joined the National Security Council's Interagency Task Force on the Law of the Sea as a special assistant to the chairman and deputy staff director.
In 1976, Hull joined Syracuse University, where he served as vice president for development and planning and as adjunct professor of international law. He served as president of Beloit College for nine years and was inaugurated as the 17th president of Union College in the fall of 1990.
About 500 students are to receive their degrees at Union College's Commencement. The ceremony is June 12 at 10 a.m. in Library Plaza. For a schedule of events, see http://www.union.edu/commencement/2005/.