Fred Rogers, star of the long-running children’s television program “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” Pulitzer Prize winning author Doris Kearns Goodwin and U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Donna E. Shalala are among the commencement speakers scheduled to appear next month as the 14 State System of Higher Education universities hold their Spring graduations.

Graduation ceremonies for the Class of 1998 will be held throughout the month of May on the different campuses. This will be the 15^th Spring class to graduate since the creation of the State System in July 1983

Edinboro University of Pennsylvania will present Rogers with an honorary Doctorate of Public Service degree during its commencement program, which is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. May 9 at McComb Fieldhouse. Rogers also will give the commencement address.

“Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” has been on television for more than 30 years. The series ran on Pittsburgh’s WQED-TV for four years before being made available to the affiliates of the Public Broadcasting Service in 1968. That same year Rogers was appointed chairman of the Forum on Mass Media and Child Development of the White House Conference on Children and Youth. He has received a variety of awards, including two George Foster Peabody Awards and several Emmys.

Born in 1928 in Latrobe, Rogers earned a bachelor’s degree from Rollins College in Florida, but returned to the Pittsburgh area in 1953 to work for WQED, the nation’s first community-supported public television station.

“Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” reaches almost 8 million households and child care settings each week. There are nearly 700 episodes in the series.

Goodwin, author of the Pulitzer Prize winning No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II, will speak May 16 at Millersville University of Pennsylvania. Ceremonies will begin at 10 a.m. at Biemesderfer Stadium.

A former Harvard University professor, Goodwin has written several books about presidents and their families, including The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys, which was made into a six-hour television mini-series for ABC; and Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream, which was published in 1976. Goodwin worked as an assistant to President Johnson during his last year in the White House and later assisted him in the preparation of his memoirs.

She holds a Ph.D. in government from Harvard, where she taught for 10 years. A regular contributor to “The News Hour with Jim Lehrer,” her other television work includes regular appearances on “5 on 5,” a weekly public affairs program on Boston’s ABC affiliate station. Goodwin, who was the first woman journalist to enter the Boston Red Sox locker room, was a consultant on Ken Burns’ PBS documentary “The History of Baseball.”

Millersville also will present Arthur J. Glatfelter, chairman of the Glatfelter Insurance Group, with an honorary doctorate during commencement.

Shalala will speak at East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania’s commencement on May 23. The event will be held at 10 a.m. in Koehler Fieldhouse.

She has been a scholar, educational administrator and public servant for her entire career. Shalala has led the Department of Health and Human Services since 1993. Prior to joining the Clinton Administration, she was chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 1988-93, the first woman to hold such a post for a Big Ten university.

Business Week magazine in 1992 named Shalala one of the top five managers in higher education. An expert on Total Quality Management, she is considered one of the most experienced and successful public managers in the country. She received a bachelor of arts degree from Western College for Women and a doctor of philosophy degree from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.

Other commencement speakers who have been scheduled to appear on State System campuses this Spring are:

· Paul H. O’Neill, chairman and chief executive officer of Pittsburgh-based Alcoa Corp. O’Neill also will receive an honorary doctor of public service degree from California University of Pennsylvania during graduation ceremonies scheduled for 10 a.m. May 2 in Hamer Hall.

O’Neill has served on numerous education-related boards and commissions, including a blue-ribbon panel appointed by Gov. Tom Ridge to help the state develop new academic standards for elementary, middle and high school students.

· Rabbi and novelist Chaim Potok will be the featured speaker at West Chester University of Pennsylvania, which will hold its commencement at 10 a.m. May 3 in Farrell Stadium. Potok also will receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree.

The university also will present a Doctorate of Public Service to alumna Marian Washington, who was an assistant coach on the 1996 Olympic Gold Medal-winning U.S. women’s basketball team. She currently is the head coach of the women’s basketball team at the University of Kansas.

· Public Broadcasting Service President Ervin S. Duggan will be the featured speaker May 9 at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania. Activities are scheduled to begin at 2:30 p.m. at the Bloomsburg Fairgrounds. Duggan also will receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree.

· Dr. Boyce Williams, vice president for institutional relations for the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education, will speak at Cheyney University of Pennsylvania. The program will begin at 11 a.m. May 9 on the campus Quadrangle.

· Robin B. Huffman and Pamela L. Peltz, two members of the senior class, will give commencement speeches at Mansfield University of Pennsylvania, which will begin its graduation ceremonies at 11 a.m. May 9 at Karl Van Norman Field. This will be the final graduation presided over by President Rod C. Kelchner, who will retire in June.

· Dr. Richard L. Lesher, former president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, will be the featured speaker at Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania, also on May 9. The program will be held beginning at 11 a.m. at Seth Grove Stadium. Lesher will receive an honorary Doctor of Public Service degree during the event.

· Dana S. Still, who has served Clarion University of Pennsylvania for nearly 50 years, will speak at separate ceremonies scheduled for 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. May 16 in Tippin Gymnasium. Still will receive the President’s Medallion, which honors individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the advancement of Clarion University.

Still is a former trustee who held a variety of positions at the university, including professor of English, provost and academic vice president and acting president.

· Gilbert M. Grosvenor, chief executive officer and president of the National Geographic Society, will present the commencement address May 16 at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. The main ceremony is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. at Miller Stadium.

· Diana Dyad, a former world-class swimmer and producer and writer of ABC Television’s “Vital Signs,” will speak at Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania. Dyad set a record in 1979 for the longest swim by a male or female. She was an announcer for ABC-TV during the 1980 Summer Olympics and appears as a host of documentaries on the Outdoor Life Network.

Lock Haven’s graduation ceremonies will begin at 10:30 a.m. May 16 at Hubert Jack Stadium.

· Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Editor John G. Craig will address graduates at Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania on May 16. Ceremonies are scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. in N. Kerr Thompson Stadium.

· DeLight E. Breidegam, chairman of the board of East Penn Manufacturing Company, will speak May 23 at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania. The program will be held at 10 a.m. in the University Fieldhouse.

The State System of Higher Education comprises 14 universities throughout the Commonwealth and is the largest provider of higher education in the state. One of every 29 Pennsylvanians is attending or is a graduate of a System university. The State System is the 17^th largest employer in the state, with more than 11,700 employees.

The 14 state-owned universities are Bloomsburg, California, Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Indiana, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock and West Chester Universities of Pennsylvania. The System also operates branch campuses in Clearfield, Kittanning, Oil City and Punxsutawney and several regional centers.