Commencement 2010 will be held on Sunday, May 16, 2010.
Highlights from the 2009 Commencement ceremony:
- The Commencement 2009 ceremony video is now available!
- Let our new blog take you there -- complete with photos and inside information. Meanwhile, at nearby Delaware Valley College, Haverford’s Tony Petitti ’83 delivered the commencement address.
Links to other information:
- Visiting Haverford's campus
- Lodging
- General Outline
- Handicapped Accessibility
- Honorary Degree Recipients
- Parking Information
- Photography & Legacies
- Tickets
General Outline for Commencement Weekend 2009
The Commencement celebration will begin at 8:30 Saturday evening, in Marshall Auditorium, when the College's honorary degree recipients will hold an informal discussion with graduates and their guests. This discussion is NOT open to the public. Immediately afterward, at about 9:30, members of the faculty, the administration, and others in the College community will host a reception for seniors and their families in the Dining Center.
On the morning of Sunday, May 17, at 8:30, there will be a meeting for worship at Haverford Friends Meeting House. Commencement exercises will follow at 10:00 on the green in front of Roberts Hall, or if it is raining, in the Alumni Field House. After graduation, a light luncheon will be served; once again the weather will determine the site, but if it is not raining, it will be on Founders' Green.
Handicapped persons or persons with difficulty walking may be dropped off at the corner of College Lane and Coursey Road, between Barclay Hall and Sharpless Hall. Handicapped parking is available in the lot at the rear of Lloyd hall, accessible from Carter Road only, or on Hall Drive. If you or your guests are handicapped, but do not have special license plates, please contact Violet Brown in the Events Office at 610-896-1130 (or email vbrown@haverford.edu) to make special arrangements.
Each year Haverford College awards four honorary degrees to men and women who have distinguished themselves in letters, the sciences, or the arts. Many recipients are noted for their contributions to the overall betterment of humankind and/or Haverford College.
The Honorary Degree Recipients for 2009 are:
Iris Nydia Brown is the Grupo Motivos Coordinator, Garden Coordinator and Cultural Coordinator of the Norris Square Neighborhood Project of Philadelphia. The Project’s mission is to nurture the community through after school educational programs and programs directed at cultural and environmental issues. She has received several awards and was recognized with the Local Heroes Award from the Bank of America and with the Femme du Terre Award by the Yves Rocher Foundation in Paris for “Women who act for the good of nature and well-being of all human kind.” The environmental, arts and education programs of NSNP have helped transform the surrounding community and the lives of Norris Square Residents and have dramatically improved the community landscape while also winning awards from the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society and the Philadelphia Flower show. Iris’ mission is to work with the people in the neighborhood to be proud of their cultural heritage, and she works tirelessly to educate visitors in the Spanish, Native and African threads that run through Puerto Rican culture.
Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge is currently Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Cape Town, South Africa. She served as Deputy Minister of Health of South Africa under President Thabo Mbeki from 2004 to 2007 and Deputy Minister of Defense from 1999 to April 2004. She was elected to parliament in 1994 and served in the portfolio committee of land affairs and the Improvement of the Quality of Life and Status of Women. In the Ministry of Defense she advocated for the peaceful use of the South African National Defense Force and she established the African Women’s Peace Table- a joint forum for women in the military and civil society in developing a gender perspective on peace. In the Ministry of Health she advocated for the use of scientifically tested methods in the treatment of HIV/AIDS instead of untested alternative remedies. She has published articles and papers, easy readers for newly literate adults and a manual for caregivers of elderly people. Nozizwe co-authored “The Dawn of a New Day: Redefining South African Feminism” in The Challenge of Local Feminisms – Women’s Movements in Global Perspective) as well as co-authored South Africa’s report to the UN for the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. She has a Bachelor of Social Science Degree and a Higher Diploma in Adult Education from the University of Kwazulu Natal and is enrolled for an MPhil at the University of Cape Town. She is a Quaker and is a recipient of the Tanenbaum Peacemakers Award.
View a list of past honorary degree recipients. 
If entering from Lancaster Ave., officers will direct vehicles to park at Barclay Beach. If entering from College Ave. or Old Railroad Ave., officers will direct vehicles to park in the South Lot and Orchard Field. If you have questions in the weeks before Commencement, please call the Office of Safety and Security at 610-896-1111. Security officers will be stationed at campus entrances and on the roadways on Commencement Day to provide directions.
A free shuttle van and golf carts will operate to Founders Green from all locations, but all parking locations are no more than a five minute walk from this site. The Commencement ceremony begins promptly at 10:00 a.m. We recommend that you plan to arrive earlier to take part in other events and to avoid last minute traffic crowding.
All graduates: At Commencement on Sunday, May 17, the College will engage the services of a professional photographer, who will take a photograph of each senior as his or her diploma is presented and will then make these photographs available to you.
Legacies: Each year the Haverford Alumni Magazine prints pictures of alumni along with their graduating daughter, son, grandchild or other Haverford legacy. After Commencement ceremonies on Sunday, May 20 we would like to take a photograph of you with your “legacy” graduate. The photographer will be stationed near the ramp to Magill Library. Please take a few minutes during the reception following Commencement to stop by. The photographer will be available between 12:15 p.m. and 1:45 p.m. We will try to make it quick and painless!
Tickets are not required for Commencement, nor is there a limit to the number of guests graduates wish to invite.