Commencement 2008
Graduate Information | Parent/Visitor Information | Viewing Commencement Off Campus | Photos & Video | Additional Information | Registrar's Office
Spring commencement is scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday, May 17 on Fitchburg State College's quadrangle; the decision has been made to hold the ceremony outside. However, several indoor locations will be provided for live viewing via broadcast.
This year, a total of 596 graduates are expected to participate in the spring ceremony, including 461 undergraduates, 114 graduate students and 21 Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study candidates. A total of 177 graduates participated in the mid-term winter commencement in January.
Fitchburg State will honor four citizens whose work has contributed to its mission of teaching, learning and service during the spring commencement exercises. Honorary doctoral degrees will be awarded to State Senator Robert Antonioni, former Massachusetts State College Building Authority Chairwoman Tamara P. Davis, and commencement speaker Bert Jacobs, co-founder of Life is good. John Malloy, a member of the class of 1969, will receive the Distinguished Alumnus Award.
Sen. Robert Antonioni, a Leominster native, served in the House of Representatives from 1989 to March 1992, when he was elected to the State Senate for the Worcester and Middlesex district. He is now serving his eighth and final full term.
After his election to the Senate, Antonioni served as senate chairman of the Joint Committee on Criminal Justice until early 1997, when Senate President Birmingham appointed him senate chairman of the Joint Committee on Education, Arts and Humanities. Following committee restructuring from 2004, Senate President Travaglini appointed Senator Antonioni to chair the newly formed Joint Committee on Education. Antonioni is also vice-chairman of the Joint Committee on Mental Health and Substance Abuse, and a member of the Committees on Senate Ways and Means and Judiciary.
As co-chairman of the Education Committee with Rep. Patricia Haddad, Antonioni is responsible for legislative oversight of public education policy in the Commonwealth. Under his leadership, the funding of education reform has met established goals by adding more than 7.3 billion state dollars to public education in the Commonwealth. Consistent funding of Chapter 70's basic aid to public education and several grant programs have addressed many of the education needs leading to student accountability. He supports school choice options, including both Commonwealth and Horace Mann charter schools, and has led comprehensive special education and bilingual education reform. The senator is serving his fifth full term as senate chairman of the Education Committee.
In addition to education, he has since FY 01 championed a new line item in the budget for greater mental health funding, specifically for suicide prevention programs. In 2006, Antonioni was appointed to the board of directors of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, which works to reduce the number of needless deaths by suicide throughout the Commonwealth.
Also during his tenure in the Senate, Antonioni has sponsored major reform of the drunken driving laws, the implementation of a statewide sex-offender registry law, and a significant juvenile justice reform bill.
A 1980 graduate of the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, he earned a degree, with honors, from the New England School of Law in 1983. Antonioni makes his home in Leominster, where he also shares a law practice with his father, Attilio Antonioni.
Tamara Davis is managing director and head of the corporate governance practice at Levin & Company, Inc., in Boston, where she consults with CEOs of entrepreneurial life science companies on issues relating to board composition, governance best practices, effective board management and performance, and building boards as strategic assets. Davis is a member of several boards within the private and public sectors. She is past chairwoman of the Massachusetts State College Building Authority, which she led for 15 years. During that time, she was responsible for fundamentally altering the organization’s approach, allowing for a dramatic expansion of the number of state colleges and universities provided with assistance in building non-academic buildings.Fitchburg State is among the institutions that benefitted from the authority’sinnovative new philosophy, having renovated, purchased or constructed a variety of facilities under the authority’s auspices.
Previously, Davis served as founder president, chief executive officer, and director of UST Leasing Corporation, an investment banking/financial services company in Boston. She was also formerly an assistant dean of humanities at Santa Ana College in California and an educator within the Los Angeles City Schools System.
Davis was also board director and chairperson of the Fiscal Affairs and Administrative Policy Committee of the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education and was vice chairwoman of the Massachusetts Educational Financing Authority. She has participated on several state task forces and commissions relating to educator preparation/certification guidelines and the development of performance and accountability measurement systems for Massachusetts public higher education. She is also a trustee at Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, and an overseer at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Davis earned her master of arts in higher education administration from California State University, Northridge, and her bachelor of arts in English, speech and Russian from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Bert Jacobs is co-founder of the Life is good apparel company. He attended Fitchburg State and Villanova, where he graduated in 1987 with a degree in communications, and then enjoyed stints as a ski instructor, pizza delivery man, and substitute teacher. He officially launched Life is good with his brother John in 1994. Now a $100 million business based in Boston, Life is good offers a colorful collection of apparel and accessories, and promotes its products through the use of “Jake,” a graphic icon featuring a smiling face. The firm’s products are sold by nearly 5,000 retailers nationwide and in 29 countries, and in 2007 the company was named by Advertising Age as one of 50 outstanding brands marketed today – no small irony given the fact that the company spends no money on advertising.
The brothers have used their good fortune to reach out to those in need, underwriting celebratory community fundraisers coast to coast. One hundred percent of festival funds and profits from select Life is good products are donated to innovative charities helping children who face unfair challenges, including the trauma of violence and poverty. The company has raised and donated more than $3 million to such charities in the past three years.
John Malloy, of Plymouth, recently retired from a career in the financial services industry, providing investment management services to large public and private retirement funds. Over the course of his 40 year career, he was associated with a number of financial firms, most notably Cabot Partners Limited Partnership, where he was a founding partner and senior vice president. Following a successful IPO, Cabot became a publicly-traded real estate investment trust, listed on the New York Stock Exchange. He finished his career as a first vice president with Sentinel Real Estate Corporation in New York City.
Malloy, a member of the Pension Real Estate Association, served on the board of several planned residential communities. He also served as a director of the Boston Adult Literacy Fund. He is past president of the Fitchburg State College Alumni Association and currently serves on the board of directors of the Fitchburg State College Foundation. He currently plays a leading role in the college’s fundraising efforts.
He graduated from Fitchburg State with a bachelor of science degree in secondary education. In 1977, he received a master of business administration degree from Northeastern University, where he was elected to Beta Gamma Sigma, the National Business Honor Society.
Graduate Information
The processional will begin proptly at 9:50 a.m. Graduates are asked to arrive no later than 9:15 a.m. on Highland Avenue in back of the Anthony Building. Volunteers will assist the graduates in lining up; each graduate will be given an index card with their name on it. Please give this card to volunteers on the platform when you approach the stage.
For more information, please read the commencement brochure.
Parent/Visitor Information
Seating and Tickets
Seating areas for guests will open at 9 a.m. There are no tents, so please plan accordingly for the weather.
Parents and visitors do not need tickets for commencement. If the college enacts a rain plan for commencement, it will be announced by Friday, May 16, at www.fsc.edu, and announcements will be forwarded to the news media.
In the event of inclement weather, the ceremony will be moved to two sites. The graduate students and their guests will be in Weston Auditorium, and the undergraduates and their guests will be in the Recreation Center. The ceremony will be telecast from the Recreation Center to Weston. At the point of degree conferrals, the telecast will be halted and there will be two separate ceremonies. The undergraduates will receive their diploma covers from President Antonucci and graduates will receive their diploma covers from Provost and Vice President Michael Fiorentino.
Rain plan details are available in the commencement brochure.
Parking
All parking lots will be open for graduate and guest parking, except for those on Highland Avenue, which will be closed to all traffic on commencement day. Shuttles will transport guests who park at the Civic Center, between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. For directions and maps, visit the campus Web site.
Accomodations for Persons With Disabilities
Fitchburg State College is committed to providing access and reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities and medical conditions. To request accommodations, please contact Katrina Durham in the Disabilities Services Office at (978) 665-4020 (Voice/Relay) or kdurham1@fsc.edu. A form to request services is available through the commencement brochure.
President's Reception
President Robert V. Antonucci will hold a reception for graduates, guests, and faculty on the Hammond promenade following the ceremony. All are invited. Please take this opportunity to visit with faculty and friends.
 Viewing Commencement Off Campus
Commencement can also be viewed live on FATV or on the Fitchburg State Web site, at webcast.fsc.edu/commencement, starting at 10 a.m.
Photos and Video
Family and friends are encouraged to take photos and video prior to and after the ceremony.
Graduation photography will be taken by Chappell Graduation Images. You can pre-order images by going to Chappell's site and registering up to six family members' contact information.
FATV will sell DVDs of the ceremony, which include both the undergraduate and graduate commencements. DVDs can be ordered for $15, which includes the cost of shipping. Proceeds will go to the Bob Wilson Memorial Scholarship Fund. To order, contact FATV at (978) 343-0834. A form is also available through the commencement brochure.
Additional Information
For more information on spring commencement, contact the Academic Affairs Office at Fitchburg State College, (978) 665-3168, or view the Registrar's site.
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