Sen. Zaffirini to speak at UT Austin Graduate School Convocation Saturday

December 3, 1997

AUSTIN, Texas — Texas State Sen. Judith Zaffirini will be the speaker for The University of Texas at Austin Graduate School Convocation on Saturday (Dec. 6) which is expected to be attended by about 3,000 students, faculty, administrators and guests of the University.

The fall ceremony, which recognizes master's and doctoral August graduates and December candidates for graduation from the Graduate School, will begin at 8 a.m. in the Bass Concert Hall of the Performing Arts Center. More than 250 master's degree candidates will be individually recognized and about 200 doctoral candidates will be hooded. UT Vice President and Graduate School Dean Teresa A. Sullivan will preside, and Zaffirini will present the address titled, "From Scholarship to Leadership."There is no university-wide graduation ceremony in December. Each school holds a convocation.

Zaffirini, an alum of the UT Austin Graduate School, is the first Hispanic woman senator in Texas and represents Senatorial District 21, a 19-county district which includes several border counties and portions of Bexar, Comal and Guadalupe counties.

Zaffirini has been a member of the Texas Senate since 1987 and currently is chair of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, and serves on the Committees on Education, Finance, and Legislative and Congressional Redistricting.

In Laredo, Zaffirini owns and operates a communications consulting business, Zaffirini Communications. She is the only senator with career-long 100 percent attendance and voting records. She has cast 18,457 consecutive votes during six regular and 12 special sessions.

For additional information, contact Assistant Dean of Graduate Studies Jean Griffith at (512) 471-4511.