Convocation to feature Pulitzer Prize winner

Baker University’s annual convocation ceremony will be held at 11 a.m. on Aug. 30 in Rice Auditorium on Baker’s Baldwin City campus. With a theme of Baker Builds Achievers, this year’s program is headlined by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Harold Jackson, a 1975 Baker graduate.

Jackson has served as the editorial page editor for the Philadelphia Inquirer since 2007 and received the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing in 1991. He has been recognized throughout his career with numerous honors including the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists Trailblazer Award and the Journalist of the Year award from the National Association of Black Journalists.

Baker University President Dr. Lynne Murray and provost Dr. Tes Mehring will also deliver messages about their vision for the 2016-2017 academic year. The event, which will celebrate the personal transformation that happens for students at Baker, will include video testimonials from alumni and a video welcoming the class of 2020.

To complement the convocation ceremony, the Baldwin City Public Library will host a panel discussion “Today’s Media in an Election Year: Information, Insight and Finding Truth,” which will feature Jackson and two area experts in journalism and mass communication. The discussion, which also includes an audience participation portion, will be held at 7 p.m., Aug. 30, in the library, 800 Seventh St., as part of the Kansas Humanities Council’s 2016 Pulitzer Prize Centennial Campfires Initiative program.

Later in the fall, the library will continue the centennial celebration by presenting a writing workshop featuring another Baker connection. Hosted by assistant professor of English and writer-in-residence Marti Mihalyi, “Flying through the Alphabet: A Poet’s Tools” will give participants the foundational knowledge for writing poetry.