NYC
Comptroller William C. Thompson Jr. to Deliver 187th Hunter College
Commencement Address at Radio City Music Hall
Date:
May 27, 2003
Contact: Deborah Sack (deborah.sack@hunter.cuny.edu)
Phone: (212) 772-4070
New
York City Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr., will be the keynote
speaker at Hunter College's 187th commencement ceremony at 2 p.m.
Wednesday, May 28 at Radio City Music Hall. Thompson will
also be awarded a President's Medal by Hunter College President
Jennifer J. Raab.
Sidney
A. McNairy, Jr., the director for research infrastructure in the
National Center for Research Resources, National Institutes of Health,
will receive an honorary degree of humane letters during the ceremony.
CUNY awards honorary degrees to people who have made outstanding
contributions to the betterment of society.
In
addition, a posthumous degree will be awarded to Anthony Fallone,
a student who was just a few credits shy of a degree and died on
September 11 while working for Cantor Fitzgerald. President
Raab will present the degree to his wife, Patricia Fallone, who
will also receive a bachelor's degree in economics during the graduation.
The couple met in an oceanography class at Hunter. They have
four children ages 6 through 12, who will be attending the ceremony.
Also,
there will be a moment of silence during the ceremony for Romona
Moore, a Hunter College junior, who was recently killed. President
Raab will announce that a scholarship has been set up in Moore's
name.
President
Raab will confer 1,353 undergraduate and 851 graduate degrees during
its spring commencement ceremony.
Thompson,
the city's highest ranking African American official, is the chief
financial officer. He is a Brooklyn native, son of a judge
and public school teacher, and product of New York City's public
school system. As comptroller his job includes auditing all
city agencies, managing more than $69 billion of the City's pension
funds, overseeing the city's issuance of debt, registering and monitoring
all city contracts, approving the city's legal settlements, and
enforcing the prevailing wage laws.
Thompson is a vigorous fiscal watchdog and a strong voice for New
Yorkers. He aggressively seeks savings and safeguards the
city's finances. Thompson will bestow his vision for the graduates
of Hunter during his keynote speech.
During
his tenure at NIH, McNairy has been the driving force behind the
development of a number of innovative programs supporting the development
of the biomedical research infrastructure at both emerging and research-intensive
biomedical research institutions. These include minority health
professionals, graduate and undergraduate schools throughout the
United States as well as K-12 science education.
McNairy
is responsible for a $350 million budget in the Division of Research
Infrastructure which covers numerous programs including the Research
Centers in Minority Institutions Program and the Science Educational
Partnership Program. Through these programs numerous research
advances have surfaced which are of great value to the public at
large and especially to the minority community and other communities
that are routinely underserved.
President
Raab will also honor several students who have academically distinguished
themselves. With a 4.0 GPA, Marshall Westerinen, a Staten
Island native, is the class valedictorian. A high school dropout,
Westerinen said that during his teenage years and in his early 20s,
he was more interested in partying and clubbing than school.
He picked up his GED and attended junior college for about a week.
Westerinen didn't think about school again until more than a decade
later after he backpacked around the world. The 39-year-old
East Village resident graduates with a bachelor's degree in English
and will attend CUNY graduate school in the fall.
Eleven
students are graduating with a GPA of 3.9 or higher. They
are: Dalia Samuel of Staten Island with a 3.991; Genri Pinkhasov
of Rego Park with a 3.961, Jessica Ryan of Flushing with a 3.954;
Noela Diaz of Brooklyn with 3.950; Anna Briskin of Manhattan with
a 3.924, Denis Ostrovskiy of Brooklyn with a 3.922; Sophia Fatouros
of Manhattan with a 3.919; Magdalena Wisniewska of Manhattan with
a 3.917, Katharina Prica of Manhattan with 3.915, Katherine Blyth
of Staten Island with 3.911 and Christopher Fugarino of the Bronx
with 3.9.
Two
transfer students who have earned 60 or more Hunter credits and
a 4.0 GPA were also honored at the ceremony for their significant
academic achievements. They are: Heather Clements of Valley Stream
and Marijo Thompson of Brooklyn.
