The degrees of more than 6,000 Carolina students were conferred during the two-hour ceremony under Carolina Blue Skies on May 8th at Kenan Stadium . They included 3,721 with bachelor’s, 1,383 with masters, 251 with doctoral and 651 with professional degrees from the schools of dentistry, law, medicine, nursing and pharmacy.
Secretary of the Faculty Joseph S. Ferrell — for his 20th and final year — awarded honorary degrees to five people: Slaughter; Sandra Cisneros, award-winning writer of celebrated works including “The House on Mango Street” and 1995 MacArthur Foundation Fellow; Paul Fulton, former president and CEO of Bassett Furniture Industries, Inc and the Sara Lee Corporation as well as former Dean of UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School; Nell Irvin Painter, author of multiple books including “The History of White People, Creating Black Americans: African American History and Its Meaning 1619 to the Present,” member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and former Guggenheim Fellow and; Sister Helen Prejean, Doctor of Divinity, spiritual adviser instrumental to the national dialogue on the death penalty and acclaimed author of “Dead Man Walking,” which inspired the 1996 film.