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Mark your calendars: The graduation countdown is on!
April 28, 2014
Admiral Paul Gaffney, USN (Ret.), will speak
at the Arnold School's Hooding Ceremony
on Thursday, May 8.
Admiral Paul G. Gaffney, USN, (Ret.), will be the featured guest speaker for the Arnold School's Hooding Ceremony at 9 a.m. Thursday, May 8, at the Koger Center for the Arts. Gaffney, who considers himself a proud "Gamecock Dad" (Crista, 1998), was awarded an honorary doctoral degree from USC in 2002.
The Hooding Ceremony is for the Arnold School's master's and doctoral degree recipients. The event also includes the presentation of student, faculty and alumni awards. The University's official ceremony for doctoral graduates will be held Saturday, May 10, at the Koger Center.
U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden will deliver the commencement address for the Friday, May 9, ceremony at the University of South Carolina. The event includes graduation for Arnold School of Public Health undergraduate and master's degree students.
The 3 p.m. event at the Colonial Life Arena includes students from the Arnold School of Public Health, Darla Moore School of Business, College of Mass Communications and Information Studies, College of Nursing and the South Carolina College of Pharmacy. The ceremony is the University's official event for undergraduate and master's degree students from these schools and colleges.
USC will hold a ceremony for doctoral degree recipients at 1 p.m. Saturday, May 10, at the Koger Center for the Arts.
Gaffney is a retired Navy Vice Admiral who spent 35 years on active duty after graduation from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1968. Highlights of his distinguished career include hydrographic surveys in Vietnam, a year surveying the coastal waters of Borneo, and ocean forecasting in the Mediterranean. He commanded the U. S. Naval Research Lab, headed the Navy’s operational oceanography and meteorology program, served as Chief of Naval Research and ended his naval career as president of the National Defense University.
He was appointed Commissioner on the statutory U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy in 2000 and served during its full term. In 2003, he was selected to become the seventh President of Monmouth University in New Jersey. He retired as President Emeritus in 2013. The new basketball arena at Monmouth, named in his honor, reflects his support for NCAA Division I athletes.
The recipient of numerous military decorations, Gaffney was awarded the J. William Middendorf Prize at the Naval War College and is on the Engineering Wall of Fame at Catholic University. An undersea ridge in the South China Sea carries his name. Gaffney is a member of the prestigious National Academy of Engineering.
The vice president, who has spent his lifetime in public service, will receive an honorary degree of doctor of public administration. At age 29, Biden became one of the youngest people ever elected to the U.S. Senate, where he served for more than three decades.
He chaired or served as ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee for 17 years, and was widely recognized for his work on criminal justice issues including the landmark 1994 Crime Bill and the Violence Against Women Act. As chairman or ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee since 1997, Biden played a pivotal role in shaping U.S. foreign policy, working on issues and legislation related to terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, post-Cold War Europe, the Middle East and Southwest Asia.
A two-time presidential candidate, Biden was tapped by Barack Obama as his running mate in 2008, and the pair were re-elected in 2012. He is the first sitting vice president to give a commencement address at Carolina.
