Ref. No. 24

Approximately 600 students will receive their degrees at Memorial's annual fall convocation which is being held on Friday, Oct. 19, 2001. The annual graduation exercises will take place at the St. John's Arts and Culture Centre. Both graduate and undergraduate degrees will be awarded during two sessions of fall convocation. In addition, two individuals will receive honorary degrees and several retired faculty will be designated professores emeritus.

At the 10 a.m. session, Dr. Ian Rusted, a noted physician, will be awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree; Peter Gardner, a distinguished musician and director of the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra, will be awarded an honorary doctor of letters degree. Honorary degree recipients will address their respective sessions of convocation.

In addition, Memorial professor Dr. Arya K. Bal, retired from the Department of Biology, will be honoured with the title professor emeritus at the 10 a.m. session of convocation. Dr. Jorge Segovia, Faculty of Medicine, and Dr. John Walsh, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, will be similarly honoured in the afternoon session of convocation. To be eligible for the title professor emeritus, a person must have served at least 10 years as a regular full-time faculty member at Memorial and must have held the rank of professor upon retirement. The prime criterion for nomination is sustained, outstanding scholarly work and/or service to the university.

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Note to editors: Media agencies are invited to send news representatives. Limited media seating is avail-able. To facili-tate seating, it is requested that reporters arrive at least 15 minutes early for each session and proceed to theatre doors at the north entrance of the centre's main auditorium off the upper con-course.

For further information, please contact Ivan Muzychka, manager of Memorial University's News Service, 737-8665, cell # 687-9433.