MEDIA ADVISORY

May 17, 2006 --

WHAT: Washington University's 145th Commencement. The university will bestow degrees on more than 2,500 undergraduate, graduate and professional students. The university also will bestow honorary degrees on five individuals.

WHO:
• Sir John Major, former prime minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and a leading authority on the changing global landscape, will deliver the 2006 Commencement address. His talk is titled "The Changing World."

• Washington University's five honorary degree recipients and their degrees are: Aaron J. Ciechanover, M.D., D.Sc., a 2004 Nobel Prize winner in chemistry and Distinguished Research Professor at Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, doctor of science; Anna Crosslin, president and chief executive officer of St. Louis' International Institute, doctor of humanities; Steve Fossett, record-setting adventurer and the first person to fly around the world solo, nonstop, in a balloon, doctor of science; Henry Louis Gates Jr., Ph.D., the W.E.B. Du Bois Professor of the Humanities and chair of the Department of African and African American Studies at Harvard University, doctor of humane letters; and John F. McDonnell, vice chairman of Washington University's board of trustees and retired chairman of the board of McDonnell Douglas Corp., doctor of science.

WHERE: Brookings Quadrangle, which is directly west of Brookings Hall, the university's main administration building that sits on hill overlooking Forest Park.

WHEN: 8:30 a.m. Friday, May 19, 2006

MEDIA SEATING: News organizations sending a reporter to Commencement should call Sue Killenberg McGinn by 5 p.m. May 18 to make arrangements for a reserved seating ticket. Mult boxes will be available.

MEDIA PARKING: Reserved media parking is available near the south end of Brookings Hall. Take Forsyth Boulevard to Hoyt Drive; take Hoyt to south leg of the circle drive that leads up to Brookings Hall, where a parking attendant will direct you. Please show attendant a media ID.

VIOLENT WEATHER PLAN: Commencement will be held outside rain or shine. However, in case of violent weather, Commencement for undergraduates will be held in the Athletic Complex's Field House, still beginning at 8:30 a.m. If the violent weather schedule is necessary, media will be notified by 7:30 a.m. Friday.

For more information the morning of Commencement, call Sue Killenberg McGinn at 314-603-6008.