WILLIAM PATERSON UNIVERSITY TO HOLD COMMENCEMENT ON MAY 20
— Eileen Scott, CEO of Pathmark Stores, Inc. and a 1976 graduate of William Paterson, to give commencement address
—Sr. Patricia Daly, social justice activist, and George Tice, internationally acclaimed photographer, to receive honorary degrees

William Paterson University in Wayne will hold its 177th commencement on Tuesday, May 20, 2003 at 10:30 a.m. on Wightman Field on campus. The rain date is Wednesday, May 21, also at 10:30 a.m.

A total of 1,015 students are scheduled to receive degrees. Bachelor’s degrees will be conferred upon 821 undergraduates; 194 students will receive master’s degrees. All graduates will have completed their degree requirements as of May, 2003.

Eileen Scott, the chief executive officer of Pathmark Stores, Inc. and a 1976 graduate of William Paterson, will be awarded the President’s Medal. Scott, who joined Pathmark in 1969 as a cashier and was named CEO last October, will deliver the commencement address. George Tice, an internationally known photographer, will receive an honorary doctor of humane letters degree. Sr. Patricia A. Daly, executive director of the Tri-State Coalition for Responsible Investment, will be awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree.

President Arnold Speert will address the graduating class along with Mary Antoine, senior class president, who will deliver the statement for the Class of 2003.

Alumni from the class of 1953, who graduated when William Paterson was called New Jersey State Teachers College at Paterson, will be present at the ceremony and attend a 50th reunion luncheon sponsored by the Alumni Relations Office. The Alumni Association’s Young Alumni Chapter will host a Senior Send-Off reception on Monday, May 19 from 7 to 9 p.m. in Caldwell Plaza on campus.

Graduates will be recognized by college and will proceed to the platform to be congratulated by their college dean. Receptions for students, faculty and guests will be held in Caldwell Plaza following commencement activities.

Scott was named CEO of Pathmark, one of the nation’s leading supermarket retailers, in October 2002. The company, which operates 144 stores in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Delaware and employs more than 27,000 associates, is particularly noted for its historical commitment to opening stores within the inner-cities of its trading area. Scott, who joined Pathmark in 1969 as a cashier and part-time bookkeeper at the Paulison Avenue store in Clifton, has held a variety of positions within the company, including assistant store manager, buyer, sales manager, vice president of sales and advertising, senior vice president and executive vice president for store operations. She is a 1976 graduate of William Paterson with a bachelor’s degree in business administration.

Daly has been an activist for corporate responsibility and socially responsible investing for more than 25 years. A member of the Dominican Sisters of Caldwell, she serves as executive director of the Tri-State Coalition for Responsible Investment, which invests on behalf of 35 Roman Catholic dioceses and organizations in the New York metropolitan area. Over the years, Daly has used her shareholder status to negotiate with hundreds of companies on issues including human rights, labor, and the ecology; she is perhaps most widely known for her leadership of Campaign ExxonMobil, a shareholder effort to urge the oil company to take a responsible position on global warming. In 2002, she was named Environmentalist of the Year by Environmental Advocates of New York for her role in forcing General Electric to pay for a clean-up of the Hudson River.

Tice, a native of Newark, has been a photographer for more than four decades, beginning as a darkroom assistant for a Newark portrait studio at age 16. Throughout his career, Tice has focused on the American urban landscape, including a 1972 solo show, "Paterson," at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and continues to focus on New Jersey in this work. He has published 13 books and six limited edition portfolios, and has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. His photographs have been widely collected and are included in major public collections such as the International Center for Photography, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Library of Congress, and others.

William Paterson University, one of the nine state colleges and universities in New Jersey, offers 30 undergraduate and 19 graduate programs through five colleges: Arts and Communication, the Christos M. Cotsakos College of Business, Education, Humanities and Social Sciences, and Science and Health. Located on 370 hilltop acres in Wayne, the university enrolls nearly 11,000 students and provides housing for nearly 2,300 students. The institution’s 366 full-time faculty are highly distinguished and diverse scholars and teachers, many of whom are recipients of prestigious awards and grants from the Fulbright Program (25 scholars), the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and the American Philosophical Society.

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For Further Information, contact:

Mary Beth Zeman, Director, Public Relations 973-720-2966

4/30/03