Interim President James Underwood has been chosen as this year's Commencement speaker, the Union College Commencement Committee has announced. He will receive an honorary doctorate degree during the ceremony, scheduled for 10 a.m. Sunday, June 11, in Library Plaza. Some 500 students in the Class of 2006 are expected to receive their degrees that day.
A member of the faculty since 1963, Underwood, 68, has more than 40 years of College service. He has been interim president since Roger Hull stepped down last June. Stephen C. Ainlay takes over as the College's 18th President on July 1.
Underwood has served in a number of capacities, including dean of faculty from 1988 to 1994, chair of the political science department from 1978 to 1984, chair of the Social Sciences division and director of the General Education program.
Among the courses he has taught are Contemporary American Politics; Political Leadership; Policy-Making and American Society; the Environment, Energy and American Politics; Civil Rights and Civil Liberties; and Seminar in American Politics.
He received the Faculty Meritorious Service Award from the Alumni Council in 2002.
He has been a consultant to the Subcommittee on Executive Reorganization in the United States Senate, and to the New York State Education Department. He also has served on congressional staffs as a recipient of an American Political Science Association Congressional Fellowship.
Underwood is the co-author of Governor Rockefeller in New York: The Apex of Pragmatic Liberalism in the United States, and has published articles in Policy and Congress and the Presidency.
He has also written and lectured extensively on former New York Governor Mario Cuomo. His article, “Lincoln: A Weberian Politician Meets the Constitution,” was published in the June 2004 issue of Presidential Studies Quarterly. His entry on William H. Seward, Union Class of 1820 and Lincoln's secretary of state, was published in the Encyclopedia of the American Presidency.
A graduate of Franklin and Marshall, he received his M.P.A. and Ph.D. from Syracuse University. He is a member of the American Political Science Association and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
A native of Irwin, Penn., he and his wife, Jean, live in Niskayuna. For a schedule of commencement events, go to http://www.union.edu/Commencement/2006/.