Seventy-six Berea College seniors will participate in the recognition service for mid-year graduates on Sunday, Dec. 8. The program will begin at 3 p.m. in Phelps Stokes Chapel.

Candidates being recognized are expected to complete degree requirements at the end of December 2002 or January 2003.

Dr. Clifford Cain, the visiting Lily professor of religion, will address the candidates for graduation. Dr. Dean Colvard, '35, will receive an honorary doctorate from the College his lifetime achievements.

Colvard has had a distinguished 43 year career in higher, including service as the top administrator at two state universities. Until his retirement in 1978, Colvard served for 13 years as the first chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Prior to that he was president of Mississippi State University from 1960-66, and is the author of the book "Mixed Emotions," about racial integration at that institution under his leadership. He served as Dean of the School of Agriculture at North Carolina State College (now University) from 1953-60, where he earlier chaired the department of Animal Husbandry. In addition to a B.S. in agriculture from Berea, Colvard holds a masters degree in animal physiology from the University of Missouri and a doctorate from Purdue University.

A former member of the College's Board of Trustees, Colvard received the College's Distinguished Alumni Award in 1980 and its Alumni Loyalty Award in 1993. Colvard was a member of the first educational delegations to the People’s Republic of China after it was reopened for visitation and has visited more than 40 countries.

Currently a resident of Charlotte, N.C., Colvard is married to the former Martha Lampkin, a 1934 Berea graduate.

Cain holds a B.A. in religion and philosophy form Muskingum College, a master of divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary and doctorate degrees from the Divinity School of Vanderbilt University and Rikkyo University in Tokyo.