Grinnell College leader to speak at University of Michigan winter commencement
The leader of Grinnell College, University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman's alma mater, is slated to speak at the Ann Arbor school's winter commencement.
Raynard Kington
Photo courtesy of Grinnell College
Raynard S. Kington, president of Grinnell College in Iowa and a U-M alumnus, will give the keynote address to mid-year graduates on Dec. 16 at 2 p.m. in Crisler Center. He will receive an honorary Doctor of Laws degree.
Kington received his undergraduate and medical degrees from U-M and a MBA and Ph.D from the University of Pennsylvania.
After a career in health care that included service at Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Science and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Kington became president of Grinnell in 2010. Grinnell is a small liberal arts college that was recently rated 22nd among liberal arts schools in the country by U.S. News and World Report.
Kington is the college's first black president and one of the first openly gay leaders in higher education.
Coleman earned her undergraduate degree in chemistry from Grinnell in 1965, before obtaining her doctorate in biochemistry from the University of North Carolina. She also received an honorary degree from the school in 2004.
Kellie Woodhouse covers higher education for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at kelliewoodhouse@annarbor.com or 734-623-4602 and follow her on twitter.
Comments
atwomom
Wed, Oct 17, 2012 : 7:19 p.m.
How wonderful that people can make negative comments and not have them deleted by AnnArbor.com unless, of course, they support the status quo. Heaven forbid we question the power trifecta--male, white, and straight.
Unusual Suspect
Wed, Oct 17, 2012 : 7:45 p.m.
I questioned the reporter's apparent need to highlight the man's race and sexual orientation in an article that is about his selection as a commencement speaker. How is that negative? I would say the obsession with dividing people into categories based on race and sexual orientation is negative, and it's also maintaining the status quo. People really need to get past it.
thecompound
Wed, Oct 17, 2012 : 3:23 p.m.
It's seems like the next step in the quest to being treated "equally" should be to not let differences define someone.
Unusual Suspect
Wed, Oct 17, 2012 : 5:54 p.m.
Quite
thecompound
Wed, Oct 17, 2012 : 3:26 p.m.
Oh, and Dr Kingston has a pretty impressive CV.
Unusual Suspect
Wed, Oct 17, 2012 : 10:38 a.m.
"Kington is the college's first black president and one of the first openly gay leaders in higher education." Who cares? What difference does this make?
Unusual Suspect
Wed, Oct 17, 2012 : 2:56 p.m.
There's nothing about it in his own bio (http://www.grinnell.edu/offices/president/about-kington). Apparently, he doesn't feel that's what defines him or his position as President of the college. Instead, he describes his education and career accomplishments. What a strange concept.
Unusual Suspect
Wed, Oct 17, 2012 : 2:51 p.m.
What's a pity is that some people still keep track of these things, find them so important, and use them to define people. First black this, first woman that, first Hispanic the other. Third woman to moderate a Presidential debate. The left who has a very disturbing need to carry around this kind of score book and wave it around in celebration every time they get to add something on the next page. Whatever happened to judging by the content of one's character, as Martin Luther King, Jr. wanted us to do? Oh, sorry, I should have said that's what the First Black Person Named Martin Luther King, Jr. wanted us to do.
ak3647
Wed, Oct 17, 2012 : 2:33 p.m.
Because in the not-so-distant past, both of those things (being black and being openly gay) would have kept someone from obtaining such a post. Are you denying that this country has a history of bigotry and discrimination against blacks and gays? Gays couldn't even serve openly in the U.S. military until this year.
fjord
Wed, Oct 17, 2012 : 1:45 p.m.
I care, and it makes a big difference. It is a pity that we still feel the need to mention these milestones, but that's simply a measure of how rare such feats still are — even in 2012 — and of how far we still have to travel on the path to true equality.