For a few hours on this coming Mother's Day, the focus will fall not on the mothers in the audience but on their children -- now young adults receiving their diplomas in commencement ceremonies at Denison University. Some 552 seniors are expected to graduate and be recognized as the newest alumni of the college during its 166th Commencement Exercise at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday, May13, on the Fine Art Quadrangle. In case of rain, the ceremonies move to the Mitchell Recreation and Athletics Center.

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a 1980 graduate of Denison and former director of the Congressional Budget Office, will give the commencement address, "Step 1: Get a Job." Honorary degrees will be conferred on Holtz-Eakin and Edward Frank Zigler, a founder of the field of applied developmental psychology and Yale University's Sterling Professor of Psychology, Emeritus.

The Senior Class Address, titled "Soulquakes," will be given by Julie Marie Rogers and Senior Class Co-Governors Whitney Colvin Adams and Lauren Bennett Snider will announce the Class Gift.

Joan Krone, chair of the faculty, will recognize three retiring faculty members -- Bahram Mehdi Tavakolian, sociology/anthropology, Desmond Hamlet, English, and John David Kessler, modern languages.

Holtz-Eakin, who also served previously as chief economist for George W. Bush's President's Council of Economic Advisors, is currently serving as Economic Policy Chair for John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign. As head of the Congressional Budget Office, Holtz-Eakin was the legislature's chief numbers cruncher, giving lawmakers objective and independent analysis of the fiscal effects of proposed laws. Editorials in both The Washington Post and The Christian Science Monitor praised his service. He has a long and distinguished career of public service reflecting a long-standing and broad interest in the economics of public policy. A world-class economist, he has unparalleled expertise concerning the ways economic and political forces interact to influence world affairs.

Holtz-Eakin earned his doctorate in economics at Princeton University. He has been faculty research fellow and research associate at the national Bureau of Economic Research, and chairman and trustee professor of economics and associate director of the Maxwell Center for Policy Research at Syracuse University. He also has had academic appointments at Columbia University and Princeton. He was senior staff economist for George H.W. Bush's President's Council of Economic Advisors from 1989 to 1990.

Winner of the 2006 Morris and Edna Zele Award for Outstanding Achievement in Policy Research and Public Service, Holtz-Eakin's research has focused primarily on two broad areas: economic policy and entrepreneurship and the economics of estate and gift taxes. He has an ongoing interest in tax policy, the economics of aging and the political economy of growth. He also has recently done research centered on the economics of fundamental tax reform, the productivity effects of public infrastructure and on income mobility in the United States.

Zigler, who earned his doctorate in clinical psychology at the University of Texas at Austin, served an internship at Worcester State Hospital and taught at the University of Missouri before moving to Yale in 1959. During his 48 years at Yale, he served as director of the Child Development Program, chairman of the psychology department, and a member of the executive committee of the Child Study Center. He founded and is director emeritus of Yale's Zigler Center in Child Development and Social Policy, the first center in the nation to combine training in developmental science and policy construction.

He pioneered the discipline of developmental psychopathology as well as the developmental approach to mental retardation. Zigler's work in these areas has greatly influenced the study and treatment of individuals with mental health disorders and those with mental retardation. He has worked with every presidential administration since that of President Lyndon Johnson. He helped to plan Head Start and has continued to serve in positions that developed other national programs in early childhood education and family support programs. He is the author, coauthor or editor of more than 800 scholarly publications and more than 35 books.

During the weekend, graduates and their families also will attend Baccalaureate Services on Saturday afternoon at either 1:30 or 4 p.m. in Swasey Chapel with the President's Reception between services at 2:30 p.m. on the Swasey Lawn. On Sunday, a Faculty Coffee at 10 a.m. on the Academic Quad will give graduates an opportunity to introduce their families and their professors to each other. Shuttle service will be provided to guests between parking at the Mitchell Center and other ceremony sites on Sunday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. There also will be special-needs parking available at six locations in the Fine Arts Quad area with a special placard.

For comprehensive information regarding Denison's Commencement Weekend 2007, please visit:

About Denison:

Denison University, founded in 1831, is an independent, residential liberal arts institution located in Granville, Ohio. A highly selective college enrolling 2,100 full-time undergraduate students from all 50 states and dozens of foreign countries, Denison is a place where innovative faculty and motivated students collaborate in rigorous scholarship, civic engagement and the cultivation of independent thinking.

For press inquiries:

Name

Barbara Stambaugh

Position Title

Director, Media Relations

Primary Email

stambaughb@denison.edu

Business Phone

(740) 587-8575