Commencement will begin in Kenan Stadium at 9:30 a.m. Chancellor James Moeser will preside.

If it rains, the ceremony will be moved to the Dean Smith Center. Announcements will be posted at http://www.unc.edu, and air on 1610 AM, a low-frequency travelers' information system, and the University Access Channel (Chapel Hill Time Warner Cable Channel 4). The university also will notify area radio and TV stations as soon as possible.


The speaker>

Norman, a soprano, is known for bringing her joy of singing and passion to recital performances, operatic portrayals and appearances with symphony orchestras and chamber music collaborators to audiences around the world.

In 1997, she was selected to become the youngest recipient of the highest award in U.S. performing arts, the Kennedy Center Honor. In 2006, Norman became only the fourth opera-classical music singer in the history of the Grammy Awards to be presented the Lifetime Achievement Award for Classical Music.

The university's board of trustees has approved the awarding of an honorary doctor of music degree to Norman during the ceremony.


The graduates

The university registrar has estimated there are 5,509 expected graduates: 3,492 bachelor's, 1,214 master's, 204 doctoral and 599 professional degrees and certificates. UNC also holds a mid-year ceremony in December to recognize students who finished in August or December.


The honorary degrees

In addition to Norman, this year's honorary degree recipients are: Nobel Prize-winning chemist Peter Courtland Agre; genome scientist Philip Palmer Green, III; academic leader and public health specialist Heather Munroe-Blum; and North Carolina state senator Anthony Eden Rand.

Agre, Green and Munroe-Blum will receive honorary doctor of science degrees; Norman will receive an honorary doctor of music degree; and Rand will receive an honorary doctor of laws degree.


Doctoral hooding

UNC held a doctoral hooding ceremony Saturday in Memorial Hall. It was estimated about 280 graduates would attend the ceremony, the largest turnout ever. This number includes students who earned their doctorates in the past academic year, rather than just in the spring semester. The speaker for the doctoral hooding ceremony was scheduled to be Wayne J. Pond.


Other ceremonies

The Carolina Ministers' Association and the Office of New Student and Carolina Parents Programs, sponsored the baccalaureate service on Saturday in the Great Hall of the Frank Porter Graham Student Union.

Several individual schools and departments also will hold their own ceremonies this weekend. Locations and times for other ceremonies are at www.unc.edu/commencement/schedulemay2008.html.


Parking

Parking will be limited on campus, and the Department of Public Safety recommends access to the various campus commencement events through free park-and-ride shuttles from the Dillard's end of University Mall, or from the Friday Center park-and-ride lot running from 7:15 a.m. to 1 p.m. Return bus service to both park and ride locations will be offered from 1 until 5:30 p.m. from the Student Union, the Old Well and the Smith Center.

Traffic congestion along South Road is likely to be the heaviest from 8 to 9:45 a.m. and again from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Motorists who cannot park and ride are advised to access campus toward the south side via U.S. 15-501 to Columbia Street and Manning Drive, U.S. 15-501 directly onto Manning Drive, or Pittsboro Street to Manning Drive. Travel up Raleigh Road to South Road from N.C. 54 is not recommended.

Various shuttles will offer service to the stadium from most of the parking lots on south campus, including the Smith Center Lots and the parking decks across from UNC Hospitals beginning at 7:15 a.m. Return service from the stadium will be offered from the end of the ceremony to approximately 12:30 p.m. Service back to those parking lots will begin again at 1 p.m. from the Old Well, the Student Union and the Dean E. Smith Center.

For more information go to www.unc.commencement.