Franklin College Announces 2024 Commencement and Baccalaureate Details
Franklin College will host its 2024 commencement ceremony at 10 a.m., Saturday, May 18 in Spurlock Center Gymnasium on campus. Seating is limited and tickets are required to attend the ceremony. The event will be livestreamed on the college website, www.FranklinCollege.edu/commencement.
Callie Crossley will provide the commencement address. She is a television and radio broadcast journalist in the Boston area. Crossley will receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from the college during the ceremony.
Baccalaureate service will be held at 4:30 p.m., Friday, May 17 in Spurlock Center Gymnasium. The Rev. Gregory I. Carlson, S.J., associate professor of literature and theology at Creighton University and associate director of the Deglman Center for Ignatian Spirituality, will provide the address and will receive an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from the college. Baccalaureate is open to the public and no ticket is required to attend.
Callie Crossley is a television and radio broadcast journalist in the Boston area. She is the host of “Under the Radar with Callie Crossley,” on public radio GBH, 89.7 FM, and shares a weekly commentary on the station as well. She also co-hosts “The Culture Show” radio program which focuses on local and national cultural trends and perspectives and offers commentary about cultural issues on the television news program “Greater Boston.” A former producer for ABC News “20/20,” Crossley is a Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow, guest-lecturing at colleges and universities about media literacy, media and politics and the intersection of race, gender and the media.
She was both a Nieman Fellow and an Institute of Politics Fellow at Harvard University and was honored as a distinguished alumna of Wellesley College in 2013. In 2017, she was named to Wellesley’s Board of Trustees. Crossley holds four honorary degrees: a 2005 Doctor of Arts degree from Pine Manor College; a 2009 Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Cambridge College; a 2018 Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Wheaton College; and a 2022 Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Tufts University.
Crossley was a producer for Blackside, Inc.’s “Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years,” which earned her an Oscar® nomination, an Emmy Award and the Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia Award (Gold Baton). Crossley has earned the Associated Press, Edward R. Murrow, and Clarion awards for her work as a host and weekly commentator on “Under the Radar with Callie Crossley.” She was also awarded the 2014 Associated Press, Edward R. Murrow, and Clarion awards for writing, producing, and co-hosting the radio documentary, “Witness to History: GBH’s 1963 Coverage of the March on Washington.”
Rev. Gregory I. Carlson, S.J., is associate professor of literature and theology at Creighton University and associate director of the Deglman Center for Ignatian Spirituality. Carlson entered the Jesuit order in 1959 and was ordained in 1974. He has previously taught at Georgetown University, John Carroll University and Marquette University and was the holder of their “Jesuit Chair” positions at Georgetown and John Carroll. At Creighton, he has taught in classics, English, the honors program, and the graduate school and currently teaches in the theology department.
He holds a master's degree in classics from St. Louis University, a master’s degree in divinity from Santa Clara University and a doctoral degree in Classics from the University of Heidelberg. An award-winning teacher, Carlson has written and lectured on Homer, Greek tragedy, Vergil, Horace, Catullus, Aesop and Phaedrus. He has been a regular contributor to the Renard Society and the International Beast Fable Society and has written for their journals. He has also published three courses with Learn25Media, including "Fables and Faith: Understanding the Gospel with Aesop's Fables."
For more information, contact the Franklin College Office of Communications at (317) 738-8185.
Founded in 1834, Franklin College is a residential liberal arts and sciences institution located 20 minutes south of Indianapolis. Franklin offers a wide array of undergraduate majors as well as master’s degree programs in Physician Assistant Studies and Athletic Training. The unique curriculum merges classroom instruction with immersive experiences, research opportunities and study away programs. Students participate in 21 NCAA Division III sports, esports, Greek life, musical and theatre productions and more than 40 student organizations. As the first college in Indiana to become coeducational with the admission of women, Franklin welcomes diversity of thought, belief and person into a community that values equity and inclusion. Franklin College maintains a voluntary association with the American Baptist Churches USA. For more information, visit www.FranklinCollege.edu. Find Franklin College on Facebook, follow @FranklinCollege on X, formerly known as Twitter, and watch FranklinCollegeGrizzlies on TikTok.