More Than 5,100 to Receive Degrees at Sunday Commencement

Duke University will award more than 5,100 undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees during its annual commencement ceremony Sunday, May 11, in Wallace Wade Stadium.

Duke President Richard H. Brodhead will preside over the 10 a.m. ceremony and Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will deliver the commencement address.

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The event is open to the public.

The event will be streamed live on Duke's YouTube channel, available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPKl1HKSFlY. Twitter users can follow commencement and contribute to the discussion using the hashtag #Duke2014.

The student speaker at commencement is Jennifer Sherman, a cultural anthropology major from Bay Village, Ohio. Sherman has worked with refugee families in Durham, Nepal and Jordan through a Bass Connections team and the Kenan Institute for Ethics, where she co-directed the Mastery Tutoring Program. She also has been a research assistant, an academic tutor for Duke Athletics and a community volunteer.

Dempsey graduated from West Point in 1974 and earned a master's degree in English from Duke in 1984. While commencement speakers typically receive an honorary degree, Dempsey has declined, stating that he is not accepting any further honorary degrees while in his role with the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Five people will receive honorary degrees during the ceremony. They are: Carolyn Bertozzi, a molecular biologist at the University of California at Berkeley; Erskine B. Bowles, businessman and former White House chief of staff and president of the University of North Carolina; Susan Hockfield, a neuroscientist and former president at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Walter Isaacson, a writer, biographer and president and CEO of the Aspen Institute; and Dr. W. Delano Meriwether, a physician, philanthropist and former track and field champion.

In addition to Sunday's commencement ceremony, Duke's graduation weekend May 9-11 will be filled with special events held by individual schools, departments and programs to recognize the 2014 graduates.

About 14,500 people are expected to attend the main commencement exercise and other ceremonies, according to Duke's Office of Special Events and University Ceremonies, which oversees graduation weekend planning.

Visitor spending in Durham during graduation weekend -- through sales of food, hotel rooms, retail items, gasoline, car rentals and entertainment -- is expected to total about $6.9 million, said Shelly Green, CEO of the Durham Convention & Visitors Bureau. Estimated tax revenue is expected to be $277,000, slightly lower than last year due to some changes in how tax revenue is calculated, she said.

"Duke's graduation weekend has always been an important event for Durham," Green said. "We are delighted to host the thousands of parents, friends and family members who are here to celebrate such a meaningful occasion. We are also very grateful that the attendees contribute a substantial impact on the community."

The bureau's website has a regularly updated "lodging hotline" -- http://www.dcvb-nc.com/LHL/2014_Graduation.pdf -- that allows visitors to see which hotels have available rooms during graduation weekend.

On Duke's campus, additional police officers and event staff will assist with traffic and parking. Free parking will be provided throughout campus on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Nearly all campus lots, including gated facilities, will be open, but some of the lots on the east side of Wallace Wade Stadium will be restricted. Parking is recommended in the lot on Frank Bassett Drive off Science Drive; the Science Drive visitors lot between Highway 751 and Towerview Drive; the lot at the corner of 751 and Science Drive; the Blue Zone lots on the east side of the stadium off Duke University Road; the parking garage on Science Drive near the Bryan Center; the Edens B and Edens C lots off Towerview Drive; the Grounds lot off Cameron Boulevard; and the Chemistry lot accessible from Circuit Drive.

On Sunday, Duke Transportation will provide shuttle buses to Wallace Wade from area hotels, including the Millennium, the Durham Marriott at the Civic Center, the Courtyard (Comfort Inn guests can walk across the street to take the shuttle) and the Hilton (Quality Inn guests can walk across the parking lot to the shuttle). The shuttle service will begin at 8 a.m. Sunday and run every 20 minutes until 1:30 p.m. Shuttles from Wallace Wace to East Campus, West Campus and the Bryan Center will run until 4:30 p.m.

The Washington Duke Inn and Golf Club has its own shuttle service from 7 a.m.-1 p.m.

There will be accessible transportation from the lots adjacent to Wallace Wade for guests using wheelchairs and their families. Golf carts are available for transport from the parking lots to the entrances of Wallace Wade for those with mobility concerns.

There also will be campus bus service beginning at 8 a.m.

Speakers at other ceremonies include:

-- At 6 p.m. Friday, David Taylor, group president, Procter & Gamble Global Health & Grooming, will address graduates of The Fuqua School of Business' Master of Management Studies program, at Cameron Indoor Stadium. The ceremony is not open to the public, but will be broadcast on Fuqua's YouTube channel.

-- At 9 a.m. Saturday, Joe Euteneuer (Global MBA '11), CFO of Sprint Corp., will address graduates of The Duke MBA -- Cross Continent, Global and Weekend Executive programs, at Cameron Indoor Stadium. The ceremony is not open to the public, but will be broadcast on Fuqua's YouTube channel.

-- At 9 a.m. Saturday, Robert Bonnie, undersecretary for natural resources and the Environment at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, will give the address at the Nicholas School of the Environment's recognition ceremony, at the Chemistry Lot at the corner of Circuit Drive and Towerview Road. The ceremony is not open to the public, but a video of Bonnie's talk will be posted on the school's website.

-- At 10 a.m. Saturday, Duke alumnus Daniel Werfel, consultant, former interim chief of the IRS and former controller at the White House Office of Management and Budget, will speak at the Sanford School of Public Policy graduate student hooding ceremony in Wilson Gym. The ceremony is not open to the public. A video of the speech will be available on the Sanford School YouTube channel by May 14.

-- At 1 p.m. Saturday, Grant Hill, former Duke basketball player and seven-time NBA All-Star, will address graduates of The Duke MBA -- Daytime and Ph.D. programs, at Cameron Indoor Stadium. The ceremony is not open to the public, but will be broadcast on Fuqua's YouTube channel.

-- At 5:30 p.m. Saturday, Xiqing Gao L'86, former president and chief investment officer of China’s sovereign-wealth fund, the China Investment Corp., and a Duke University trustee, will address Duke Law's 2014 graduates at their hooding ceremony. The ceremony is not open to the public.

-- At 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Richard Lischer, James T. and Alice Mead Cleland Professor of Preaching at Duke Divinity School, will deliver the baccalaureate service to Divinity School graduates in Duke Chapel. The service is open to the public and will be webcast live on the Duke Chapel YouTube channel.

Degrees to be conferred:

Degrees will be awarded to about 1,656 undergraduates and 2,298 graduate and professional students who are graduating this spring. An additional 1,210 students who graduated in September or December 2013 are also invited to participate in Sunday's commencement.

The estimated degree breakdowns for the May graduates are as follows:

Undergraduate degrees:

-- Trinity College of Arts and Sciences – B.A. 731; B.S. 590;

-- Pratt School of Engineering -- B.S.E. 257;

-- Nursing -- B.S.N. 78;

Graduate and Professional degrees:

-- Duke Divinity School -- M.Div. 123; Th.M. 16; M.T.S. 16; M.A.C.S. 11; Th.D. 4; D.Min. 10;

-- Fuqua School of Business -- M.B.A. 474; M.M.S. 111;

-- Graduate School -- M.A. 137; M.S. 121; M.A.T. 1; M.F.A. 13; Ph.D. 170; M.A.G.S. 1;

-- School of Law -- J.D. 214; LL.M. 110; LL.M.L.E. 12; S.J.D. 1; M.J.S. 14;

-- Nicholas School of the Environment -- M.E.M. 157; M.F. 5;

-- Pratt School of Engineering -- M.Eng.M. 64; M.Eng. 20;

-- Sanford School of Public Policy -- M.I.D.P. 35; M.P.P. 76;

-- School of Medicine -- M.D. 99; M.H.S. 87; M.H.S.-CR 13; D.P.T. 67; M.B.S.T. 22;

-- School of Nursing -- M.S.N. 61; D.N.P. 34.

For more information on Duke's commencement weekend, visit http://commencement.duke.edu/