'It meant a lot to have my dad "be there" '
GRADUATION WEBCASTS | An increasing number of family and friends who can't be at commencement ceremonies now tune in to the event online
When Lauren Thorbjornsen was to earn her degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Illinois last year, there was one problem: her father, Chuck, an Army reservist, was stationed in Kuwait and couldn't attend the ceremony.
So Thorbjornsen, who grew up in Peoria, asked the school to Webcast the ceremony online. The school agreed, enabling Chuck Thorbjornsen to watch his daughter receive her diploma.
(Courtesy)
Highlights of upcoming graduation speeches at Illinois colleges and universities:
* University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine: M. Joycelyn Elders, former U.S. Surgeon General
* Lake Forest College: Scott Simon, journalist, National Public Radio
* University of Illinois College of Law: James Edgar, former Illinois governor
* Northwestern Law School: Jerry Springer, talk show host
* Columbia College: Dan Rather, former anchor, CBS news
* Bradley University: David S. Broder, Washington Post columnist
* Illinois Institute of Technology: Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway
* Knox College: Madeleine K. Albright, former Secretary of State
* DePaul College of Liberal Arts and Sciences: Mae C. Jemison, first African-American female astronaut
* Northwestern Kellogg School of Management: Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of General Electric
"I had a big smile as I watched,'' her dad said. "I would have liked to have been there in person, but it was the next best thing.''
Lauren Thorbjornsen, 23, said the Webcast from Urbana-Champaign was "a blessing.''
"It meant a lot to have my dad 'be there' for a milestone in my life,'' she said.
The university is one of a growing number that are posting graduation ceremonies online so friends, relatives and others can share in the big day. Locally, those schools include DePaul, Loyola and the University of Illinois at Chicago.
"A lot of schools are seeing this as a nice amenity to offer graduates,'' said Melissa Werner, co-founder of the North American Association of Commencement Officers. "If they are not doing it now, they are looking into it.''
Many schools already videotape the ceremonies for their archives and so students can buy a DVD of the proceedings. It's not much harder to do a live Webcast.
That's why DePaul started Webcasting in 2002, said Kelly Johnson, associate vice president for academic affairs. "It was an idea whose time had come,'' she said.
Johnson said Webcasting isn't too expensive: it's $25,000 of the $1.2 million DePaul will spend on seven commencement ceremonies.
UIC will Webcast several ceremonies, including a speech today by former U.S. Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders. At a school with a diverse student body, the function has been "well appreciated,'' said Bill Burton, school spokesman.
"You have relatives in foreign countries staying up all night to watch,'' he said.
In some cases, there are too many people logging on. In 2005, the number of viewers trying to watch live video of Sen. Barack Obama's talk at Knox College nearly took down the school's Web site. Comedian Stephen Colbert's 2006 commencement speech still gets about 2,000 hits a month, school spokeswoman Karrie Heartlein said.
About 3,000 people came to see Actor Kevin Dunn's address to the graduates of Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington on Sunday. The Webcast had more than 4,700 viewers. While campus officials don't know if those were unique visitors or the same people checking often to see when a particular student was graduating, they were thrilled with the response.
About 40 people log in each year to view the ceremonies at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois, including some of the graduating students. That's because many in the online degree program live out of state.
Most of U. of I.'s other schools aren't Webcasting this weekend's ceremonies, however, including the College of Media, which Webcast the ceremony for the Thorbjornsens last year. But the college plans to post a video of this year's event online next week.
Many Illinois colleges and universities plan to webcast graduation ceremonies on-line. The following is a list of some of the schools, including the dates of the ceremonies and speakers involved:
Webcast at oaa.depaul.edu/what/commencement_schedule.jsp
May 18
College of Law
Carla Michelotti, attorney, international advertising executive
June 14
School of Education
Danling Fu, associate professor at the University of Florida's College of Education
School of Music and The Theatre School
Daniel "Henry" E. Moran III, director of the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities
School for New Learning
Shirley Ann Jackson, president, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute physicist; former head of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
June 15
The College of Computing and Digital Media and College of Communication
Mitchell Kapor, a developer of Lotus spreadsheet software
College of Commerce
Charlie Trotter, chef
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Mae C. Jemison, first African-American female astronaut
Webcast at www.luc.edu/commencement/schedule.shtml
May 9
College of Arts & Sciences
Ramsey Lewis, Composer, Pianist/Jazz Musician
Susana Raimondi, Director of Cytogenetics, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
School of Social Work
Velma Williams
Assistant Director, Illinois Department of Children and Family Services
May 10
School of Business Administration
Carol A. McCarthy, CEO, Remedy Chicago
School of Continuing and Professional Studies
Frances Kao, Partner, Skadden, LLP
School of Education
Blondean Y. Davis, Former Deputy Chief Education Officer, Chicago Public Schools
The Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing
Helen K. Grace, Former Dean, School of Nursing, University of Illinois-Chicago and
May 17
School of Law
Anne M. Burke, Justice, Illinois Supreme Court
Webcast at www.knox.edu
June 7
Madeleine K. Albright, former Secretary of State
Webcast at www.media.niu.edu/
May 17
NIU President John Peters
Main ceremony
June 20
Webcast at www.northwestern.edu/commencement/webcast.html
Speaker unannounced
May 9
Urban Planning and Public Affairs
State Rep. Julie Hamos (D-Evanston)
Medicine
M. Joycelyn Elders, 15th surgeon general of the United States
Public Health
Joia S. Mukherjee, Harvard Medical School.
May 10
Business Administration
Charlie Trotter, chef
Dentistry
Dr. H. Todd Cubbon, president of the Chicago Dental Society
Engineering
U.S. Rep. Daniel Lipinski (D-Chicago)
May 12
Pharmacy
Peter H. Vlasses, Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education
May 11
Campuswide ceremony
Webcast at www.will.illinois.edu
Mannie Jackson, owner of the Harlem Globetrotters
Graduate School of Library and Information Science
Webcast at www.lis.uiuc.edu/itd/graduation.html
Clifford Lynch, Executive Director, Coalition for Networked Information
Webcast at www.wiu.edu
May 9 and 10
Al Goldfarb, WIU president
Webcast at www.wheaton.edu/wetn/
May 10 and 11
Akiko Minato, President of Tokyo Woman's Christian University
