KINGSTON, R.I. –May 16, 2007—Anyone interested in watching the University of Rhode Island’s undergraduate commencement ceremonies can do so from the comfort of their living room couch.
URI’s undergraduate commencement ceremonies on Sunday, May 20 will be broadcast live from the Kingston campus beginning at 12:30 on Rhode Island PBS on Channel 36, on Cox Cable Channel 8, on DirecTV 36, and on Dish Network 7776.
Rhode Island Statewide Interconnect C will also carry the commencement, which can be viewed on Cox Cable on Channel 15. Viewers in the Warren, Bristol, and Barrington areas can catch the action on Full Channel Cable System, which will carry the ceremony on Rhode Island Statewide Interconnect C (Channel 50).
Listeners also have the option to tune their radio dial to WRIU, 90.3 FM to hear the excitement. People living inside or outside the state, can catch the action by simply turning on their computer. The ceremony will be web cast live. For details, click on www.uri.edu/commencement.
Barbara Meagher of Johnston, URI assistant professor of journalism and a 21-year veteran as a television news reporter, will co-host with Dave Lavallee of Wakefield, assistant director of URI’s Department of Communications, the commencement show from the University’s quadrangle, providing commentary and live interviews beginning at 12:30. In case of rain, the ceremonies will be broadcast from the Ryan Center.
Meagher got her start in television news at WPTZ-TV in Plattsburgh, N.Y. From 1983 to 2001, she became a recognizable Rhode Island personality as a news reporter and substitute anchor for ABC6 in Providence. She is a founding member and current president of ACCESS/RI—a coalition of organizations and interested individuals who are working to ensure that public records and public meetings remain open and accessible to the public.
Lavallee, who earned his bachelor’s degree in journalism from URI in 1979, was a newspaper reporter for 13 years before joining the URI Department of Communications in 1994. He was a reporter and photographer at The Manchester Evening Herald in Connecticut and The Woonsocket Call. After earning his master’s degree at URI in 1987, he worked at The Newport Daily News as a reporter, editor and photographer where he was honored by the Associated Press and Rhode Island Press Association for breaking news coverage and news analysis.