Foreign policy expert, journalist to speak at Brenau commencements

GAINESVILLE - Brenau University will recapture this spring a tradition that has been on hold for close to a quarter of a century when it moves its commencement exercises for 738 graduates on May 3 and 4 to the outdoor venue on the "front lawn" of the historic Gainesville campus.

The ceremonies for those eligible to receive graduate and undergraduate diplomas will feature two internationally renowned speakers: Princeton University professor Anne-Marie Slaughter, formerly the top official for policy and planning in the U.S. Department of State and recently named president of the New America Foundation, and Newsweek/DailyBeast political columnist and television commentator Eleanor Clift.

Slaughter will speak at the ceremony for the 149 Women's College graduates that begins at 4:30 p.m. on Friday, May 3. Clift speaks at the 9:30 a.m. ceremony on Saturday, May 4, for the 589 who will receive undergraduate and graduate diplomas from all other Brenau programs on five campuses around Georgia and online.

For 25 years Brenau University has held graduation ceremonies in the 2,500-seat arena at the city-owned Georgia Mountains Center. As the facility's new lessee, however, Brenau has begun extensive renovation on what it calls the Brenau Downtown Center. It will convert the single-floor 19,000-square-foot arena into two floors of about 36,000 square feet of classrooms, laboratories, offices and other academic space for a doctoral program in physical therapy and other health care-related disciplines, so the arena is no longer available.

Surrounded by Second Empire-style buildings that date to the 19th century and a canopy of hardwood trees, the main campus lawn area

http://accesswdun.com/article/2013/5/261103