Wofford College President Emeritus to Address MUSC Grads

May 5, 2017

CHARLESTON, SC – Wofford College President Emeritus Benjamin Dunlap, Ph.D., will deliver the commencement address to graduates of the Medical University of South Carolina on May 19, 2017.

Approximately 625 graduates will receive degrees from the Medical University of South Carolina’s six colleges during the ceremony scheduled for 9 a.m. at the Horseshoe on the MUSC campus.

Dunlap served as Wofford’s president from 2000 to 2013, during which time the college maintained a reputation as one of the leading liberal arts colleges in the South. Prior to his position as president, he served on the Wofford faculty as Chapman Family Professor in the Humanities.

A native of Columbia, South Carolina, Dunlap graduated summa cum laude from Sewanee: The University of the South and attended Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. He continued his graduate studies at Harvard University, earning a doctorate in English language and literature. Dunlap served on the Harvard faculty before returning to his hometown to join the faculty of the University of South Carolina, where he was cited as USC Teacher of the Year and received the Russell Award for Distinguished Scholarship.

Deeply versed in the humanities, Dunlap’s interests are widespread and diverse, ranging from literature, intellectual history, Asian studies, film history, and criticism to fiction writing and the fine arts. He is a popular lecturer, and was named one of “Fifty Remarkable People” at the 2007 TED Conference in Monterrey, California, along with former President Bill Clinton, NBA Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul Jabbar and award-winning singer-songwriter Paul Simon. Dunlap has been affiliated with the Aspen Institute since 1985 and has served as moderator for many of the nonprofit organization’s seminars on leadership.

Dunlap is a prolific author and is an award-winning contributor to more than a hundred programs and series, primarily for public television. He also performed for the Columbia City Ballet for 4 ½ years. He will receive an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters.

S.C. State Sen. John Matthews Jr. of Orangeburg and Timothy Keating, senior vice president of government operations for The Boeing Company, also will receive honorary degrees of Doctor of Humane Letters.

Pamela Cipriano, Ph.D., RN, president of the American Nurses Association and a former administrator for MUSC, will receive an honorary degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa.

About MUSC

Founded in 1824 in Charleston, MUSC is the state's only comprehensive academic health system, with a unique mission to preserve and optimize human life in South Carolina through education, research and patient care. Each year, MUSC educates more than 3,200 students in six colleges – Dental Medicine, Graduate Studies, Health Professions, Medicine, Nursing, and Pharmacy – and trains more than 900 residents and fellows in its health system. MUSC brought in more than $300 million in research funds in fiscal year 2023, leading the state overall in research funding. MUSC also leads the state in federal and National Institutes of Health funding. Learn more about our academic programs.

As the health care system of the Medical University of South Carolina, MUSC Health is dedicated to delivering the highest-quality and safest patient care while educating and training generations of outstanding health care providers and leaders to serve the people of South Carolina and beyond. Patient care is provided at 16 hospitals (includes owned or governing interest), with approximately 2,700 beds and four additional hospital locations in development, more than 350 telehealth sites and nearly 750 care locations situated in all regions of South Carolina. In 2023, for the ninth consecutive year, U.S. News & World Report named MUSC Health University Medical Center in Charleston the Number 1 hospital in South Carolina. Learn more about our patient services.

MUSC has a total enterprise annual operating budget of $5.9 billion. The nearly 26,000 MUSC family members include world-class faculty, physicians, specialty providers, scientists, students, affiliates and care team members who deliver groundbreaking education, research, and patient care.