Leadership educator, linguistics expert give commencement addresses at Concordia University Chicago
11/8/2011
Concordia University Chicago Professor of Leadership, L. Arthur Safer, PhD, and linguistics expert Walt Wolfram, PhD, addressed graduates at the fall Commencement ceremony Dec. 17.
Walt Wolfram addressed the Undergraduate Commencement. He is a William C. Friday Distinguished University Professor at North Carolina State University, where he also directs the North Carolina Language and Life Project. This project performs sociolinguistic research and leading educational programs in representative speech communities.
He has pioneered research on social and ethnic dialects since the 1960s and published more than 20 books and 300 articles on socioethnic and regional varieties. Wolfram has also served as linguistic advisor for the Children’s Television Workshop, the producers of Sesame Street and The Electric Company, in order to integrate linguistic diversity into their programs.
Safer, who addressed the Graduate Commencement, serves as professor in Concordia-Chicago’s Department of Leadership. Previously, he served with the AmeriCorps VISTA program as a program coordinator in the Homeless Education Division of the Chicago Public Schools.
Professor emeritus at Loyola University Chicago, Safer also retired as tenured professor and chair of the department of leadership and educational studies at Appalachian State University. In the 1980s, he served as special assistant to the deputy under the Secretary of Education in the U.S. Department of Education.
More than 420 students participated in the ceremony, from among 1,000 doctoral, graduate and undergraduate students who completed their degrees in December at Concordia-Chicago.
Taking part in conferring degrees to the graduates were Concordia University Chicago President John F. Johnson, PhD; Marilyn Reineck, PhD, senior vice president for academics; Gary E. Wenzel, PhD, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences; Kevin Brandon, EdD, dean of the College of Education; George Vukotich, PhD, dean of the College of Business; and Tom Jandris, PhD, dean of the College of Graduate and Innovative Programs.
About Concordia University Chicago
Concordia University Chicago is a liberal arts-based Christian university in the Lutheran tradition. Through its College of Arts and Sciences, College of Business, College of Education, and College of Graduate and Innovative Programs, Concordia offers more than 100 areas of study in small classes taught by professors who are passionate about teaching and student success.
Concordia University Chicago was named as the second fastest growing campus among private nonprofit master’s institutions nationally by The Chronicle of Higher Education’s 2011 Almanac Edition. For the third consecutive year, combined undergraduate and graduate enrollment has exceeded more than 5,000 students. Concordia University Chicago is located in River Forest, 10 miles west of downtown Chicago. Learn more at www.CUChicago.edu.
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