Charlie Rose Will Speak at NC State Spring Commencement

Charlie Rose, executive editor and anchor of the “Charlie Rose” show, will deliver NC State’s commencement address on Saturday, May 15, at the RBC Center in Raleigh. The commencement ceremony will begin at 9 a.m.

The “Charlie Rose” show is a nightly, one-hour interview program that airs on PBS and Bloomberg and engages in one-on-one in-depth conversations and round-table discussions about important issues and ideas. Rose is also a contributing correspondent to the CBS news program, “60 Minutes.”

Rose has interviewed some of the world’s top leaders, including Barack Obama, Gordon Brown, Nicolas Sarkozy, Lula da Silva, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Recep Erdogan, Bashar al-Assad, Pervez Musharraf, Hosni Mubarak, Lee Kuan Yew and Manmohan Singh. Since 1991, Rose has done more in-depth hours with Nobel Laureates, and extraordinary men and women of science, politics, art, business, sports, technology, literature and entertainment, than any other program in the world. He has received numerous journalistic awards and honorary degrees. Rose is a frequent principal interviewer and moderator at global forums around the world. He will receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree.

During the ceremony, Chancellor Randy Woodson will confer honorary degrees on behalf of NC State to Rose and two other distinguished recipients: Dr. I. King Jordan, the first deaf president of Gallaudet University – the world’s only university with all programs and services designed specifically for students who are deaf and hard of hearing, and Dr. William Julius Wilson, a Lewis P. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor at Harvard University.

Dr. I. King Jordan made history in 1988 when he became the first deaf president of Gallaudet University. In 1990, President George Bush appointed Jordan vice chair of the President’s Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities, and he was reappointed in 1993 by President Clinton. Jordan’s leadership has heightened public awareness of the important educational contributions Gallaudet makes to the nation and the world. Much sought after as a public speaker, Jordan challenges the American public to examine their attitudes toward people with disabilities and to open their minds, hearts and workplaces to them. He continues to advocate for the rights and empowerment of the deaf and disabled. He will receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree.

Dr. William Julius Wilson is the Lewis P. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor at Harvard University and director of the Joblessness and Urban Poverty Research Program at the John F. Kennedy School of Government. Wilson is one of only 19 University Professors, the highest professional distinction for a Harvard faculty member. Wilson has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the National Academy of Education and the Institute of Medicine. In 1996, Wilson was selected by Time magazine as one of America’s “25 Most Influential People.” He was a recipient of the 1998 National Medal of Science, the highest scientific honor in the United States, and was awarded the Talcott Parsons Prize in the Social Sciences by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2003. He will receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree.

For more information about NC State’s spring 2010 commencement activities, visit www.ncsu.edu/registrar/graduation/index.html.

– barnhill –