Grenfell Campus, Memorial University of Newfoundland, held its annual spring convocation ceremony at the Pepsi Studio on Friday, May 13.

Memorial University’s Corner Brook campus conferred about 175 degrees in areas such as arts, business administration, commerce, engineering, fine arts, nursing, resource management (first graduates of this program), science and technology, as well as master’s degrees in arts, education, public health, science and social work.

For his contributions to Canada and for his role in effecting social change internationally, Stephen Lewis was awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree. Mr. Lewis is well known as a politician in Ontario and nationally, but it was through his role as special UN envoy for AIDS that he has had the greatest impact, bringing to the attention of wealthier nations the plight of people in Africa — and bringing to the attention of African and other world leaders the fact that AIDS cannot be ignored.

This was the first spring convocation at Grenfell Campus for Dr. Gary Kachanoski as Memorial’s president. He spoke about his positive experiences in becoming a member of the Grenfell Campus community over the past months and the recent growth at the campus.  He also described some of the essential elements of a “university town” and spoke about Memorial’s desire to work with community leaders to build on the notion of Corner Brook as a “university town”. 

“Over the years, I think Corner Brook and Grenfell Campus have laid the foundation for this special type of engagement,” said Dr. Kachanoski. “But, I think we can all agree that there’s more we can do together. And we want to start exploring those opportunities and having those discussions in a more formal and structured way. That’s an idea worth pursuing.”

Grenfell’s students at Western Regional School of Nursing participated in the annual school of nursing awards ceremony later in the afternoon.

The ceremony will be aired on local cable television in the weeks ahead. Copies of the DVD will be made available for sale at the campus bookstore.

Convocation in St. John’s takes place at the Arts and Culture Centre from Tuesday, May 24, to Friday, May 27. In St. John’s, degrees will be awarded to writer and researcher Patrick O’Flaherty; musician Sandy Morris; biochemist and insect specialist E. David Morgan; molecular biologist Sidney Altman; author and thought leader John Ralston Saul; fisherman and community organizer Donald Best; philanthropist Elinor Gill Ratcliffe; and professional communicator and community bandleader Edsel Bonnell.

For more information about Grenfell convocation, contact Jana Walsh at (709) 637-6275 or jwalsh@grenfell.mun.ca, or click on the convocation icon at www.grenfell.mun.ca.

To view convocation, see http://www.distance.mun.ca/media/files/archives/archives.php?SAID=172.