Releases

Graduating students will receive diplomas at Vanderbilt University\'s Commencement on Friday, May 9, starting at 9 a.m. on Alumni Lawn, near West End Avenue and 23rd Avenue North. Chancellor Nicholas Zeppos will give the Commencement address to graduates. Read More

New evidence from the Monte Verde archaeological site in southern Chile confirms its status as the earliest known human settlement in the Americas and provides additional support for the theory that one early migration route followed the Pacific Coast more than 14,000 years ago. Read More

Genetic variation in the DNA of mitochondria ñ the "power plants" of cells ñ contributes to a person's risk of developing age-related macular degeneration (AMD), Vanderbilt investigators report May 7 in the journal PLoS ONE. Read More

Graduating seniors should become "the new American revolutionaries" aiming for the stars even if they find themselves sometimes lying in the gutter, said musician and social activist Bob Geldof, who gave the Senior Day address Thursday to Vanderbilt graduates. Read More

A roundup of news and feature items related to Vanderbilt Commencement, May 7-9, 2008. Read More

Terry B. Grier will receive the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Vanderbilt University\'s Peabody College of education and human development during Commencement ceremonies on Friday, May 9. Grier is the new superintendent of the San Diego Unified School District, in San Diego. Read More

Vanderbilt\'s Senior Class Day lecture on Thursday, May 8, has been moved to Memorial Gym because of the threat of severe weather. Musician and social activist Bob Geldof will now speak at 10 a.m. in the gym. Read More

There is a threat of severe weather on Thursday, May 8. Senior Class Day events will be moved indoors. Video of the event will be streamed live from this Web site at 10 a.m. Read More

In his May 9 commencement address at Vanderbilt\'s Owen Graduate School of Management, Howard Lutnick, Chairman and CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, will tell graduating MBAs that the heart and soul of a business resides inside its people and transcends success in the marketplace. Read More

Vanderbilt University\'s police department is joining with hundreds of law enforcement agencies across the country to intensify efforts to enforce seat belt laws during the 2008 Click It or Ticket campaign May 12 - June 1. Read More

Richard McCarty, a distinguished psychologist who has led the largest school at Vanderbilt University for the past seven years, will be presented to the Vanderbilt Board of Trust next week for confirmation as the university\'s chief academic officer. Read More

Discovery Education and Vanderbilt University are partnering to launch a new research-based evaluation tool that measures the effectiveness of school principals. The Vanderbilt Assessment of Leadership in Education (VAL-ED), which is being exclusively distributed by Discovery Education, was created at Vanderbilt University through a grant from the Wallace Foundation. Read More

Two professors in Vanderbilt\'s College of Arts and Science have been named 2008 Fellows by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Michael D. Bess, the Chancellor\'s Professor of History, and Barbara Hahn, Distinguished Professor of German, are among 190 recipients in the United States and Canada to receive a Guggenheim. Read More

Musician and social activist Bob Geldof will speak at Vanderbilt\'s Senior Class Day on Thursday, May 8, at 10 a.m. on Alumni Lawn. Senior Class Day, which starts with a ceremonial walk through the gates of the university at 9:30 a.m., is held the day before the university\'s commencement exercises. Geldof\'s speech will be webcast live. Read More

Read a selection of profiles of some of the stellar members of the Class of 2008. Read More

Fifteen retiring faculty members will be recognized during Vanderbilt\'s May 9 commencement ceremony when the university honors their years of service and bestows on them the title of emeritus or emerita faculty. Read More

A team of Executive MBA students from Vanderbilt\'s Owen Graduate School of Management has won first place in the MBA Jungle Business Plan Competition, a national competition held recently in New York City. Read More

Palmer Harston was on a spring break trip visiting relatives in Nashville when her family was involved in a terrible car wreck. Eight-year-old Palmer was airlifted to Vanderbilt Children\'s Hospital, where she underwent emergency surgeries to save her life and was a patient for months. Her injuries left her confined to a wheelchair. Years later, her memories of the life-saving treatment she received at Vanderbilt led her to apply for college here. Read More

La Chureca, the city dump on the outskirts of Managua, Nicaragua, could be the setting for a dreary, futuristic movie. A city of scavengers, many of them orphans, they live in the filthy heaps of refuse at this municipal garbage dump. Clothed in rags, they rummage for food, scrounging out a meager existence by selling the small trinkets or recyclables they find, or sometimes selling their own bodies to survive. Read More

Vanderbilt basketball star Shan Foster, who will receive a degree in human and organizational development from Vanderbilt\'s Peabody College on May 9, is the kind of student who gives teachers hope that the next generation is in good hands, said Sharon Shields, professor in the practice of human and organizational development."He embodies the idea that learning should be transformational," Shields said. "And it was for him. But he also transformed those around him." Read More