EUGENE–University of Oregon summer graduates will be challenged by Tim Gleason, UO journalism and communication dean, to consider what a free press means in today’s Information Age at the 1999 UO summer commencement exercises at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 14.

More than 1,000 degree candidates are eligible to participate in the ceremonies, which will be held outdoors, rain or shine, at the Memorial Quadrangle on the west edge of the UO campus. Tickets are not needed for the free public event.

Gleason’s topic, "Freedom of the Press in the Information Age," will ask the graduates and audience to consider what are the responsibilities of the professional journalist and the citizen today and in the future.

"In today’s Information Age we are instantly inundated with information and everyone who has a computer and a modem can be a publisher. What are the obligations of the citizen publisher? Of the traditional press?"

"As we recognize and embrace the increasing importance of multiculturalism–making room for and representing the widest possible array of ethnic and cultural values and ways of communicating–what are our shared values, that core set of values that will continue to unite us in such a diverse society?"

Gleason says that how we answer these questions will profoundly affect our ideal of a democracy supported by an educated citizenry.

Summer term’s 1,007 UO degree candidates include 684 slated to receive bachelor’s degrees, 25 certificate recipients, 252 master’s degree candidates and 44 completing doctoral degrees. Two law students also are slated to receive doctor of jurisprudence degrees.

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