Boeing president, NASA administrator also speaking at commencement ceremonies
Vice President Joe Biden and Boeing President W. James McNerny will address graduates at commencement ceremonies May 9 and 10.
Biden will address graduates of the Darla Moore School of Business, College of Mass Communications and Information Studies, College of Nursing, South Carolina College of Pharmacy and the Arnold School of Public Health at 3 p.m. on May 9, while McNerny will speak to recipients of degrees from the College of Arts and Sciences and the South Carolina Honors College at 9:30 a.m. May 10.
Gen. Charles F. Bolden Jr., the administrator of NASA and a former astronaut and marine, will address graduates of the College of Education, the College of Engineering and Computing, the College of Hospitality, Retail and Sport Management, the Fort Jackson Military Base Program, Interdisciplinary Programs, Palmetto College, the School of Music and the College of Social Work.
Biden and McNerny will also be awarded honorary doctorate degrees in public administration and business administration, respectively. Bolden received an honorary doctorate from USC in 1984.
Biden is the most high-profile commencement speaker to come to USC in recent years. After students expressed extreme disappointment in the commencement speakers of May 2012 — among whom were an NOAA administrator, a J.P. Morgan Chase regional chairman and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission chairwoman — USC created a university commencement committee that includes student members appointed each year by the student body president. Last year, country singer Darius Rucker and former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates were selected with input from that committee.
Biden visited Columbia last year, headlining the South Carolina Democratic Party’s annual Jefferson/Jackson Dinner. He participated in two presidential debates in South Carolina in 2007 while running for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, but dropped out of the race before the state primary occurred. In the most recent polls, Biden is the second most popular potential presidential candidate in the 2016 race, with between 7 and 13 percent of Democrats favoring the current vice president.