574 TO BE AWARDED DIPLOMAS
AT MOUNT HOLYOKE'S 167th COMMENCEMENT

Kim Campbell, the first woman prime minister of Canada, will be honored, as will civil rights pioneer Dorothy I. Height, ACLU president Nadine Strossen, and Nancy Skinner Nordhoff '54, the founder of a writer's colony for women.

SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. – The Right Honourable Kim Campbell, the first woman to serve as prime minister of Canada, will be the speaker at Mount Holyoke College's 167th commencement on Sunday, May 23, at which 574 seniors are to receive degrees. Campbell will be joined by honorary degree recipients Dorothy I. Height, a pioneer in the liberation struggle of black women; Nancy Skinner Nordhoff '54, philanthropist and founder of Hedgebrook, a retreat for women writers; and Nadine Strossen, president of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Commencement ceremonies begin at 10:30 am in Richard Glenn Gettell Amphitheater. In the event of rain, ceremonies will be held in Kendall Field House.

Saturday, May 22, features two of the College's most cherished and time-honored commencement traditions: the alumnae parade and laurel chain ceremony, and the canoe sing. At 9 AM at Woolley Circle, members of the class of 2004 will be led by alumnae "loyalty classes" in a procession to Mary Lyon's grave, carrying a chain of garland that they will place at the gravesite. They will join in singing "Bread and Roses," a song that became the anthem of workers who went on strike at a textile mill in Lawrence, Massachusetts, in 1912, demanding reasonable hours and pay.

The canoe sing begins at 10:30 PM, on Lower Lake. Twelve canoes, each decorated with lanterns and seating three seniors chosen by lottery, will illuminate the lake while changing formations. Seniors on the banks of the lake will join those in canoes in singing previously rehearsed songs.

President Joanne V. Creighton will preside over commencement, which begins on Sunday at 10:30 AM. Five hundred and seventy-four seniors, one of the largest classes in the College's history, are expected to receive bachelor of arts degrees; among them are 46 Frances Perkins Scholars. Three postbaccalaureate degrees and 18 certificates for international students will also be awarded.

About the honorary degree recipients:

Before becoming prime minister, Kim Campbell served as minister of state for Indian affairs and northern development, minister of justice and attorney general, and minister of national defense and veterans’ affairs. She was the first woman to hold the justice position, and the first woman defense minister of a NATO country. Campbell took part in major international meetings, including the Commonwealth, NATO, the G-7 Summit and the United Nations General Assembly. In September 2000, she completed a four-year term as Consul General of Canada in Los Angeles. She is currently a lecturer in public policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Long a champion of women’s rights, Campbell chaired the Council of Women World Leaders from 1999 to 2003. Based at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, the Council is a network of current and former women heads of state and heads of government. In October 2003, Campbell was named president of the International Women's Forum. On January 1, 2004 she assumed the position of secretary general of the Club of Madrid, an organization of former heads of government and state who work to promote democratization through peer relations with leaders of transitional democracies.

Campbell was educated at the University of British Columbia (BA, 1969, LLB, 1983) and the London School of Economics (Doctoral studies in Soviet Government, ABD, 1970-73). Her best-selling political memoir Time and Chance was published in 1996 by Doubleday Canada.

Dorothy I. Height has for more than half a century advanced the liberation struggle of black women. A national leader in the civil rights movement, Height has worked for 70 years towards racial and gender equality. She served for more than 30 years as the president of the National Council of Negro Women and held leadership positions at the YWCA, where she pushed for racial inclusiveness. Her work has helped countless women in America and around the world participate in democratic reform resulting in new opportunities for themselves, their families, and their communities. She received the Citizens Medal Award from President Ronald Reagan in 1989 and the Medal of Freedom from President William Clinton in 1994, and on March 24 of this year was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in a ceremony at the U.S. Capitol.

Nancy Skinner Nordhoff '54 devoted herself to fundraising and philanthropy in the Seattle, Washington, area for 25 years before founding Hedgebrook, a retreat for women writers on Whidbey Island, Washington. Hedgebrook is open to women writers around the world and, since 1988, has welcomed more than eight hundred women, ranging in age from seventeen to eighty-two, from Barbados, Canada, England, Mexico, the Philippines, South Africa, Thailand, the United States, and Zimbabwe.

Nadine Strossen, professor of law at New York Law School, has written, lectured and practiced extensively in the areas of constitutional law, civil liberties and international human rights. Since 1991, she has served as president of the American Civil Liberties Union, the first woman to head the nation's largest and oldest civil liberties organization. (Because the ACLU presidency is a non-paid, volunteer post, Strossen continues in her faculty position as well.) The National Law Journal has twice named Strossen one of "The 100 Most Influential Lawyers in America." In 1996, Working Woman magazine listed her among the "350 Women Who Changed the World 1976-1996."

Chosen to speak for the graduating class is Stacey Rose Pulmano '04 of Honolulu, Hawaii, a sociology major with a minor in psychology.

To better accommodate the graduating seniors and their families, Gettell this year has been expanded by approximately 160 seats, bringing its capacity to just over 3,000.