Baccalaureate to include Tom Crean, Carrie Newcomer

On May 4, this year’s Baccalaureate ceremony, which celebrates the academic achievements of the class of 2012, will feature Men’s Basketball Coach Tom Crean and Grammy-winning singer Carrie Newcomer as speakers.

Baccalaureate, an interfaith IU tradition that dates back to at least 1837, invites members of the outgoing graduating class, as well as their parents, family and friends, to recognize the accomplishments and successes they made while at IU.

“It’s a beautiful interfaith recognition of significant achievements and transitions in the lives of the students,” Rev. Barbara Carlson, minister emerita of Unitarian Universalist Church of Bloomington and member of the event’s planning committee, said in a press release. “It also honors their parents and all those who have helped them reach this stage in their lives.”

The free ceremony will start at 11 a.m. in the Whittenberger Auditorium of the Indiana Memorial Union. Undergraduate graduation will follow the next day, May 5.

The Baccalaureate program was restructured in 2002 to incorporate and draw from different faith traditions, including Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism.

“It honors the diversity of people and their great spiritual traditions,” Carlson said. “Of course everyone is thrilled that Coach Crean will be our speaker. We’ve had many wonderful speakers in the past.”

The ceremony will feature a Baccalaureate message from Crean, a performance by Newcomer, an introduction of blessings by Rabbi Susan Silberberg and readings from the Buddhist Sutra, the Bible, Hindu Vedas, the Quran and prayers from the Hebrew liturgy.

— Matthew Glowicki