Lycoming College will hold its Class of 2012 graduation exercises Saturday and Sunday.
About 290 students will receive their degrees during the 164th commencement ceremony scheduled for 1 p.m. Sunday on the College's Quad. In the event of inclement weather, the ceremony will be held in the Recreation Center.
Baccalaureate service will be held at 4 p.m. Saturday in the Recreation Center.
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WARREN
Lycoming will confer four honorary degrees during commencement.
Dr. David Warren, president of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, will deliver the commencement keynote address and receive a doctor of divinity; Gene L. Dodaro, a 1973 Lycoming alumnus and the comptroller general of the United States, will receive a doctor of laws; Bishop Neil Irons, Lycoming emeritus trustee and executive secretary of the United Methodist Church's Council of Bishops, will receive a doctor of humane letters; and Dr. Marshall D. Welch Jr., a longtime benefactor of the college, will receive a doctor of science.
The senior greeting at commencement will be given by Megan Bullick of Phoenixville, a double major in creative writing and French who is a member of Phi Kappa Phi and Phi Sigma Iota.
The baccalaureate speaker is the Rev. J. Marco Hunsberger, who served as Lycoming's campus minister from 1989-2007. Recipient of the college's 2007 Dale V. Bower Service Award, he was instrumental in starting Lycoming's chapter of Habitat for Humanity and the community service-learning class.
Warren, president of NAICU since 1993, is widely regarded as one of the most persuasive and influential voices for higher education. Warren was a driving force on behalf of all higher education in shaping the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, which was signed into law in 2008.
Dodaro, recipient of Lycoming's 2011 Outstanding Achievement Award, is the nation's eighth comptroller general and heads the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
Irons was a member of the Lycoming College Board of Trustees from 1998-2009 and served on the academic policy and nominations committees. He was elected trustee emeritus in 2010.
Welch and his wife, Mary, have been generous benefactors of the college and many other nonprofits in the Williamsport area. The Mary L. Welch Theatre and the Mary Lindsay Welch Honors Hall on campus are named in honor of Mrs. Welch. The Lindsay Memorial Chapel in Honors Hall was dedicated in memory of her father. Marshall Welch earned a doctorate in dentistry and orthodontia from the University of Pennsylvania.
