By Shannon Vicic
Diane Sawyer, co-anchor of the ABC News program "PrimeTime Live,"
was among three people selected by the UI Board of Trustees as honorary
degree recipients.
The recommendations by the Urbana-Champaign Senate were approved Jan. 22
by the UI Board of Trustees at its meeting in Chicago.
Two of those selected will receive honorary degrees at this year's commencement
exercises, while another will receive an honorary degree in 1998.
Sawyer, who will give the spring 1997 commencement address May 18, and William
G. Karnes, former president and CEO of Beatrice Foods, will each receive
the honorary degree of doctor of humane letters at the May commencement
exercises, along with three others previously approved by the board.
Donald Burton Kuspit, noted art critic and scholar, will receive an honorary
degree of doctor of letters at commencement exercises May 17, 1998.
Sawyer began her career in 1967 as a weatherperson and reporter for a TV
station in Louisville, Ky. She worked in the White House press office from
1970 to 1974, and after President Richard Nixon's resignation in 1974, Sawyer
assisted the former president in the writing of his memoirs.
In 1978, Sawyer joined CBS News as a reporter. She became co-anchor of "CBS
Morning News" in 1981 and in 1984 became the first female correspondent
on the news magazine "60 Minutes." In 1989, she moved to ABC to
co-anchor of "PrimeTime Live."
In addition to her work on "PrimeTime Live," Sawyer is co-anchor
of the ABC news magazine "Turning Point." She also serves as a
substitute anchor for "Nightline" and "World News Tonight
With Peter Jennings."
Sawyer has received several awards in her field, including the Matrix Award
from Women in Communications, the Peabody Award for Public Service, the
Robert F. Kennedy Award for journalism, and three Emmy awards for broadcast
journalism.
Karnes earned a bachelor's degree from the UI and a law degree from Northwestern
University. Under his leadership, Beatrice Foods was transformed from a
dairy company to one of the largest, most diversified international food
companies. Karnes has served on the boards of several organizations and
on the board of governors for the Midwest Stock Exchange.
He has been an active member of the UI Foundation since 1954. He was president
of the foundation's board of directors from 1978 to 1983 and vice president
from 1992 to 1993. He has received numerous awards, including the Horatio
Alger Award, the Alumni Achievement Award from the UI, and the NCCJ Food
Industry Award.
Kuspit holds degrees from Columbia University, Yale University, Pennsylvania
State University, the University of Michigan and the University of Frankfurt,
Germany.
Kuspit served as a lecturer at the University of Frankfurt from 1957 to
1959, before joining the faculty of Pennsylvania State University. From
1965 to 1978, he taught at the University of Saskatchewan, the University
of Windsor and the University of North Carolina. Since 1978, he has been
on the faculty of the State University of New York at Stony Brook as a professor
of art history and philosophy.
Kuspit has written 15 books and several volumes of poetry along with 15
articles and reviews in philosophy, 825 articles and reviews on art criticism
and art history, and 251 catalog essays. He has presented more than 400
lectures in his fields of expertise and has served as a consultant to numerous
art museums.
He has received several awards and fellowships, including the Frank Jewett
Mather Award for Distinction in Art Criticism, a Guggenheim Fellowship and
a Fulbright Fellowship.
###