1,000 undergraduates to get degrees

The large number of graduates will result in a split commencement program.
YOUNGSTOWN -- An educator, a philanthropist, a retiring faculty member and the head of the Kuwaiti oil ministry will receive honorary degrees at YSU's spring commencement next Saturday.
Commencement will be split into two ceremonies again this year as it was last spring because of the high number of graduates resulting in overcrowding.
About 1,000 undergraduate students will receive their degrees at 10 a.m. in Beeghly Center, and about 175 graduate students will get their degrees at 2:30 p.m. in Stambaugh Auditorium.
J. Douglas Faires, professor of mathematics and statistics, and Issa M. Al-Own, undersecretary-ministry of energy in Kuwait, will receive honorary degrees at the morning undergraduate ceremony. Faires will give the commencement address.
The speaker
Faires, who received his bachelor's degree in mathematics from YSU in 1963, retires at the end of this academic year after 37 years on the mathematics faculty here. He holds a doctorate in mathematics from the University of South Carolina and received his fourth YSU Distinguished Professor Award at Honors Convocation in April.
In 1996, he was named Outstanding College-University Teacher of Mathematics by the Ohio Section of the Mathematics Association of America.
He is past president of Pi Mu Epsilon National Mathematics Honorary Society and is the author or co-author of 21 books and numerous other publications.
Issa M. Al-Own, undersecretary-ministry of energy in KuwaitAl-Own, whose son graduates from YSU at the commencement ceremony, became Kuwait's undersecretary-ministry of energy (oil sector) in 2001.
He participated in the management of the Kuwaiti Oil Sector during the Iraqi invasion and occupation of Kuwait in 1990 and was chairman of the Kuwait National Petroleum Co.-Higher Emergency Committee after the liberation of Kuwait in March 1991.
The student speaker at the undergraduate ceremony is Suzanne Olesko, a graduate of Poland Seminary High School, who receives a bachelor's degree in nursing.
Other honorees
James Hall, superintendent of South Range School District, and Eleanor Beecher Flad, a well-known area philanthropist, will receive honorary degrees at the afternoon graduate commencement. Hall will give the commencement address.
Hall, who earned a bachelor of arts degree from YSU in 1965, recently received the Lifetime Educational Service Award from the YSU Beeghly College of Education. He also is former superintendent of Lowellville and Lordstown schools.
Flad is a lifelong resident of the Mahoning Valley and active participant in the area's civic life. A noted philanthropist, she has made major donations to the Butler Institute of American Art, the YSU Foundation, the Youngstown Symphony Society and YSU, including contributions to the Andrews Student Recreation and Wellness Center and the Ward Beecher Planetarium.
William T. Aley, residential supervisor at Meridian Services Inc., who receives a master of social work degree, will be the student speaker at the afternoon ceremony.