University News Desk

Morgan State University Celebrates 133rd Commencement

National NAACP President Benjamin Jealous to Address Graduates

On Saturday, May 16, 2009, over 900 students will be rewarded for years of dedication to academic excellence, as Morgan celebrates its 133rd Commencement at 10:00 a.m. in the W.A.C. Hughes Memorial Stadium on the University’s main campus. Individual degrees will be conferred to all graduates during the main commencement exercise.

This year’s commencement speaker is Benjamin Todd Jealous, President and CEO of the NAACP. Jealous’ career includes work with some of the leaders in local, national and international humanities and human rights advocacy. Before taking the helm of the NAACP as its 17th (and youngest) president in the organization’s 100-year history, Jealous, a Rhodes Scholar, served as president of the Rosenberg Foundation, director of the U.S. Human Rights Program at Amnesty International and executive director of the National Newspaper Publishers Association.

“It is a great honor to have Mr. Jealous as keynote speaker of our 133rd Commencement,” says Morgan State University President Earl S. Richardson. “Not only is he a dynamic speaker, but his innumerable successes, both academically and professionally, also serve as examples for our students that, with great effort, great accomplishments often follow.”

Among this year’s graduating “firsts” are the first group of English Ph.D.s in Morgan’s history, as well as the University’s first master’s degree in Psychometrics. This commencement, Benjamin Jealous is the only recipient of the honorary degree.

Morgan State University, founded in 1867, is a Carnegie-classified Doctoral Research Professional institution, offering more than 60 academic programs leading to bachelor’s degrees as well as programs at the master’s and doctoral levels. As Maryland’s public urban university, Morgan serves a multi-ethnic and multi-racial student body and seeks to ensure that the doors of higher education are opened as wide as possible to as many as possible. For more information on Morgan State University visit www.morgan.edu.

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