| Wertheimer
to speak at commencement
-
by Chelsey King:
Managing Editor
President
Cindy Ross announced Tuesday that National
Public Radio correspondent Linda Wertheimer
will deliver Cameron University’s
commencement address next May.
“Commencement
is the culmination of any college student’s
academic experience,” Ross said. “I
am very pleased that Cameron students, their
families and friends will have an opportunity
to celebrate that success by hearing from
someone of Linda Wertheimer’s experience
and caliber.”
Ross
expressed a desire earlier this year to
raise the bar in the search for the speaker
in hopes of finding candidates who were
both prestigious and nationally known.
Wertheimer,
who has more than thirty years of experience
as a media leader, fit the bill in a number
of ways.
Through
her work with NPR, Wertheimer has covered
every major congressional news story since
Watergate, including the House Judiciary
Committee’s hearing on the impeachment
of former President Richard Nixon, major
elections, historic tax reform legislation
and the Iran-Contra affair.
Wertheimer
joined NPR at the network’s inception
and was the director of its flagship newsmagazine,
“All Things Considered,” starting
with its debut in 1971. In years since,
she has served the program in a variety
of roles, including reporter and host.
In
addition her to vast body of work, Werteimer
has also been honored with a number of national
awards including an Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia
University Citation for her outstanding
coverage of the historic 1978 Panama Canal
treaty debates. She was also recognized
as one of the top 50 journalists in Washington
by Washingtonian Magazine and one of America’s
200 most influential women by Vanity Fair.
In
addition to her radio work, Wertheimer also
makes appearances on CBS-TV’s “Face
the Nation” and authored the book
“Listening to America: 25 Years in
the Life of a Nation as Heard on National
Public Radio.”
Students
and staff who work at the Cameron-based
radio station KCCU were especially excited
to hear the announcement for several reasons.
In addition to being a member of NPR, the
station will be celebrating its 15th year
of service throughout 2004.
KCCU
Director Mark Norman made the initial suggestion
to invite Wertheimer to speak.
“Basically all the speakers we’ve
had here at Cameron for the past few years
have been local people and politicians,
so I’m very glad that we were able
to ask Linda Wertheimer this year. She is
a wonderful woman with a lot of background,”
Norman said. “Having her here will
work out well for us at KCCU and serve as
a kickoff to our celebration”
Senior
radio-television major Monte Brown agreed
with Norman.
“I
was glad to hear that we were able to get
someone of such prominence,” Brown
said. “NPR is nationally recognized
as one of the country’s best news
sources and Linda Wertheimer is a big part
of NPR. It’s really great for KCCU
since they are celebrating their anniversary,
so there’s nobody better they could
have asked to speak. KCCU is an important
part of CU, so to be able to have someone
at the network level come and speak is a
huge honor, and I think students should
be proud that she was chosen.”
The
university’s annual graduation ceremony
will take place at 10 a.m. Saturday, May
8, in Cameron Stadium in Lawton. The event
is open to the public.
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