2,500 to Graduate from C.W. Post on Sunday, May 9

More than 2,500 students will don their caps and gowns on Mother's Day, Sunday, May 9, 2004 when the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University holds its 46th annual commencement exercises. C.W. Post -- a private, co-educational institution of higher learning located in Brookville, N.Y. -- has awarded more than 88,000 degrees in its 50-year history.

The commencement speaker is New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who began serving as the state’s 63rd Attorney General on January 1, 1999. Named "Crusader of the Year" by Time Magazine, Spitzer has spearheaded a broad array of initiatives that have exposed corruption and have safeguarded the common good. Focusing on investor protection, environmental stewardship, labor rights, personal privacy, public safety and criminal law enforcement, Attorney General Spitzer has been a tireless advocate for the people and a catalyst for dramatic reform.

Spitzer will be awarded an Honorary Doctorate along with another highly accomplished individual: the composer, arranger, conductor and pianist Marvin Hamlisch, who is known for writing such unforgettable melodies as "The Way We Were," "One," "What I Did for Love," "They’re Playing Our Song" and the theme from "Ice Castles."

Distinguished Alumni Awards will be presented to two successful C.W. Post graduates: John J. Hock ('72 marketing, '78 MBA) executive vice president and head of global sales, Tremont Capital Management, Inc. in Rye, New York; Mika Inatome (’82 marketing), bridal gown designer and president and CEO of Mika Inatome in Manhattan; and Richard P. Nespola (’67 business administration, ’73 MBA), chairman and CEO of The Management Network Group, Inc., with corporate headquarters in Overland Park, Kansas.

Adam D’Antonio of Locust Valley, NY is C.W. Post’s valedictorian. The 22-year-old is a student in C.W. Post’s prestigious Honors Program, serves as editor of the student newsletter Athena, is an executive member of the National Collegiate Honors Council, a Peer Mentor to new freshman, president of Kappa Theta Epsilon (the cooperative education honor society) and treasurer of the Public Relations Club. He has a perfect 4.0 grade point average and will receive a bachelor of fine arts degree in public relations. He will give his valedictory speech at commencement ceremonies, which begin at 9:30 a.m. in front of Humanities Hall. After graduation, D’Antonio will work as a public relations assistant in the C.W. Post Office of Public Relations and attend law school in the fall.

The C.W. Post salutatorian is Uniondale resident Jamilia Hall, 20, an aspiring dancer and choreographer who graduates with impressive credentials. Hall has taught in C.W. Post’s Saturday Dance Adventures for children and adults, and currently works as a teacher’s assistant for beginning movement in the campus’s Department of Theatre, Film and Dance. She also teaches a hip-hop class at the Dance Arts Repertory Theater in Uniondale. A graduate of the School for Advance Studies in Miami, Florida, Hall has a 3.97 grade point average and will earn her bachelor of fine arts in dance studies.

The Nassau County Secondary School Teacher of the Year Award, which recognizes exemplary teaching, will be awarded to Dr. Marilyn Maxwell of Great Neck, an English teacher at George W. Hewlett High School.

The Class of 2004 includes 941 baccalaureate degree candidates, 1,630 master's degree candidates, and 13 doctoral students receiving the Psy.D. in clinical psychology.

C.W. Post is one of six campuses of Long Island University, the seventh largest private university in the United States. With more than 13,000 full- and part-time students, C.W. Post offers a broad range of undergraduate and graduate programs in accountancy, business (AACSB accredited), computer science, liberal arts and sciences, library and information science, education, health professions and nursing, public service, and visual and performing arts. C.W. Post also offers doctorates in information studies and clinical psychology as well as an extensive continuing education program.