Board Tabs Elder, Kozol For Honorary Degrees

January 17, 2003
University Park, Pa. – Penn State's Board of Trustees approved today (Jan. 17) the granting of honorary degrees to Glen H Elder, Jr., the Odum Distinguished Professor in Sociology and research professor of psychology at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill's Carolina Population Center (CPC), and Jonathan Kozol, best-selling author of books focusing on issues of race, poverty and education.

Both Elder and Kozol will be conferred with honorary doctorate of humane letters degrees at Penn State's May 2003 commencement ceremonies on the University Park campus.

Elder is engaged in studies of the life course, family and human development in relation to variations in historical time and place. He is also examining the process by which economic hardship adversely influences social adjustment and school achievement among inner-city youth, black and white, in the transition to adulthood.

Elder directs the CPC's demography of aging program, as well as the Carolina Consortium on Human Development at UNC-Chapel Hill.  He holds a Ph.D. from UNC-Chapel Hill, a M.A. from Kent State, and a B.S. from Penn State   whe where he was honored in 1988 as a Distinguished Alumni Fellow.

Kozol's books often focus on social problems, including segregated and unequal schools, illiteracy and homelessness. Among his best-selling works are Death At An Early Age, Savage Inequalities, Amazing Grace, Illiterate American and Rachel and Her Children.

Kozol graduated summa cum laude from Harvard University and was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to Magdalen College, Oxford. He has since held two Guggenheim Fellowships, twice been a fellow of the Rockefeller Foundation, and received fellowships from the Field and Ford Foundations.

*ptk*

Contacts:
Tysen Kendig  (814) 865-7517 tysen@psu.edu
Amy Neil  (814) 865-7517 aen4@psu.edu