The University Magazine
Simone addresses Gallaudet Class of 2007
 |
| RIT President Albert Simone receives an academic
hood from Gallaudet Trustees Benjamin Soukup and Cheryl Heppner.
(Photo courtesy Gallaudet Office of Outreach and Programs and
Publications) |
RIT President Albert Simone was keynote speaker for the 138th Commencement Exercises at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., on May 11. Simone delivered his remarks to the Bison Class of 2007 in American Sign Language.
Simone also received an honorary doctorate degree. Robert Davila, Gallaudet’s
president, called the award “fitting recognition to Simone’s
many contributions as an educator, business and civic leader and adviser,
and humanitarian.”
Davila, who took office in January 2007, served from 1996 to 2004 as CEO
of RIT’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf and vice president
of RIT. He is an alumnus of Gallaudet and worked there as a faculty member
and administrator from 1972
to 1989.
Gallaudet University, the world’s only university in which all programs and services are designed to accommodate deaf and hard of hearing students, was founded in 1864.