FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (8/04)
Contact: Lynn Stewart, Centenary News Service, 318-869-5120

Centenary Traditions are Theme of President's Convocation Kicking Off 2004-05 Academic Year Tuesday, Aug. 31

SHREVEPORT, LA – The traditions of Centenary are the theme of Centenary College’s annual President’s Convocation, which kicks off the 2004-05 academic year at 11 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 31, in Brown Memorial Chapel.

Centenary alumna Rayne Martin of Chicago, Ill., will speak on "The Centenary Experience." A member of the Class of 1996, she is director of relocation for the Chicago Housing Authority, a program that obtains and sustains better quality housing for more than 3,000 families.

Dr. Darrel Colson, provost and dean of the college, will talk about "Academic Integrity" and President Kenneth L. Schwab will welcome returning students as well as the more than 285 new first-year students this year.

The annual convocation, held on the second day of fall semester classes, also gives special recognition to this year’s senior class, who will line the bannered walkway to Brown Chapel to applaud the incoming first-year students as they join the campus processional. Seniors will be honored at 10:15 a.m. during a reception on the patio between Magale Library and Mickle Hall.

President's Convocation will also include the anthem “Be Not Afraid” by 2004 alumnus Taylor Davis, sung by the Centenary College Choir under the direction of Dr. Will K. Andress. Organ music will be by Dr. Hollice Watson, presentation of the Honor Code book will be by the Honor Court chief justice, the invocation will be given by Dr. Peter A. Huff, T.L. James Associate Professor of Religion, and the benediction by Dr. Charles Ellis Brown, vice chairman of the Centenary Board of Trustees.

Leading the processional will be Grand Marshal Earle Labor, George A. Wilson Chair of American Literature, and Faculty Marshal Robert Buseick, professor of theatre and speech.

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