Three days of activities celebrating the historic Investiture of Dr. Joseph I. Castro as Fresno State’s president begins Thursday with a special panel on education and includes an announcement on Friday of the first report by the President’s Commission on the Future of Agriculture.

Castro’s Investiture ceremony will be at 2 p.m. Saturday, May 10 at the Save Mart Center. The CSU Board of Trustees appointed Castro on May 22, 2013 and when he started Aug. 1, Castro became the first Central Valley native and first Latino president in the university’s 103-year history.

Castro will be presenting at each event this week leading up to his Investiture. All events are free and open to the public.

The Future of Education panel from 3-4:30 p.m. Thursday, May 8 in North Gym, Room 118, will feature local and national experts offering perspectives about education in the next decade and beyond. Panelists include:

  • Dr. Otto Benavides was a professor in the Kremen School of Education and Human Development who retired in 2012 and continued his campus affiliation through the Faculty Early Retirement Program (FERP). He is the director of the Instructional Technology and Resource Center and the NASA Educator Resource Center in the Kremen School.
  • Dr. Noemi Donoso leads local and national education initiatives for Roll Global LLC, a Los Angeles-based company that has invested millions of dollars to dramatically improve educational outcomes for students in the Central Valley and across the country.
  • Dr. Kenji Hakuta is a professor of education at Stanford University and co-chair of the Common Core State Standards National Initiative. An experimental psycholinguist, he is best known for his work in the areas of bilingualism and the acquisition of English in immigrant students.
  • Michael Hanson, who has been serving the Fresno Unified School District as superintendent since 2005, is responsible for leading California’s fourth largest school district and overseeing the academic performance of 72,000 students at 106 schools, as well as managing a $1 billion budget.

A reception follows the panel. RSVP online at http://www.fresnostate.edu/presidentrsvp and enter the code (FOE8).

From 10:30-11:45 a.m. Friday, May 9, the President’s Commission on the Future of Agriculture will present its preliminary report in North Gym, Room 118.

The report includes several key recommendations to enhance and enhance the Jordan College of Agricultural Sciences and Technology.

The commission consists of agricultural and university leaders who began meeting in December to develop a preliminary report for Castro. Co-chairs are Fresno State Provost Andrew Hoff and George Soares, managing partner of Kahn, Soares & Conway, LLP in Hanford and Sacramento and owner of Log Haven Dairy in Hanford.

RSVP is also available online (code: FOA9).

For the Investiture ceremony on Saturday, more than 3,500 people — including about 2,000 children in grades K-12 — are expected to attend the formal conferral of the authority and symbols of high office on Castro as the university’s eighth president.

CSU Chancellor Timothy P. White will present Castro with his presidential medallion and CSU Board of Trustees Chair Bob Lindscheid, president and CEO of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, will lead a lineup of dignitaries delivering greetings.

Dr. A. Eugene Washington, UCLA’s vice chancellor of health sciences, dean of the David Geffen School of Medicine and a mentor of Castro’s, will deliver the keynote address.

Following the medallion presentation by the chancellor, Castro will deliver the President’s Address.

Castro’s Investiture will be followed by a community picnic on the lawn south of the Save Mart Center, featuring student-produced food items such as Bulldog Hot Dogs from the Jordan College of Agricultural Sciences and Technology.

The picnic will feature the Bulldog Beat band, baton twirlers and university mascot TimeOut

The Investiture ceremony will open with the academic procession led by grand marshal Dr. F. Ndidi U. Griffin, one of the university’s longest tenured faculty members. Griffin, who joined Fresno State’s faculty in 1993, is a professor in the Department of Nursing.

The procession includes Fresno State faculty, delegates of American Colleges and Universities and the President’s Platform Party.

The prelude, “Dmitri Shostakovich, Festive Overture in A Major, Op. 96,” will be performed by the Fresno State Symphony Orchestra. The student musicians also will perform “Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op.74, Pathetique” for the processional and fanfare.

Fresno State’s Army ROTC will present colors followed by the invocation by Rev. Paul Binion of the Fresno Westside Church of God and the flag salute by Veronica Sanjurjo, a senior nursing major from Palmdale who is also a member of the Fresno State Army ROTC.

The National Anthem will be sung by vocalist Aaron Burdick, a Fresno State graduate assistant from Bakersfield who holds a bachelor’s degree in music performance and vocal performance, accompanied by the Fresno State Symphony Orchestra. ABC30’s Graciela Moreno will serve as mistress of ceremonies.

A poetry reading by Glady Ruiz,  a student from the Philippines who will earn a master of fine arts in  creative writing/poetry this semester, will feature “Our Valley” by Philip Levine, 2011-12 United States Poet Laureate.

Following Washington’s keynote and Lindscheid’s CSU greeting, additional messages will be presented by:

  • Dr. J. Michael Ortiz, president of California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, representing the California State University presidents. Ortiz is a former Fresno State provost.Moses Menchaca, president of Associated Students, Inc., representing Fresno State students.
  • Dr. Lynn Williams, chair of the Academic Senate, representing Fresno State faculty.
  • Grace Liu, chair of the Fresno State Staff Assembly, representing university staff.
  • Alumnus Clyde Ford (classes of 1980 and 1984), president of the Fresno State Alumni Association, representing alumni.
  • Alumnus Ray Steele (class of 1968), chair of the Fresno State Foundation Board of Governors, representing the foundation.

The recessional will feature the Fresno State Symphony Orchestra performing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow — What a Wonderful World” by Israel Kamakawiwo’ole and arranged by Adam Kehler.

The ceremony and picnic are fully funded by private donations.

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