Pitt’s Lantern Night to Be Held Aug. 28

A University of Pittsburgh tradition continues as “flame-bearers” bestow the symbolic “light of learning” on more than 400 incoming freshman and first-year transfer women during the 91st annual Lantern Night Ceremony at 7:35 p.m. Aug. 28 in Heinz Memorial Chapel.

The student participants will gather at 7 p.m. in the Cathedral of Learning Commons Room to receive a lantern and prepare for the 7:25 p.m. procession to the chapel.

With unlit lanterns, the women will process on the parallel sidewalks located between the cathedral’s Bellefield Avenue entrance and the chapel to the 7:35 p.m. ceremony. During the event, Pitt alumni “flame-bearers,” including several mothers and grandmothers of incoming students, will light the lanterns, which will remain lit for the remainder of the program. Carrying the burning lanterns, the new students will process back to the Commons Room for a reception.

Susan M. Dunmire (MED ’85), a professor of emergency medicine in Pitt’s School of Medicine and a member of the UPMC Presbyterian Emergency Department staff, will deliver the Lantern Night Address. Other program participants will include Juliana Shayne (NURS ’73), Lantern Night chair, who will offer a greeting and history of Lantern Night, and Pitt students Lauren Jentleson, president of Pitt’s Panhellenic Association, and Crystal Orr, treasurer of the National Panhellenic Association, who will provide the student welcome. Pitt Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor Patricia E. Beeson will deliver the University welcome. Following the remarks, Shayne will lead “flame-bearers” in lighting the lanterns.

A Pittsburgh native, Dunmire attended Winchester Thurston High School. She received a BA in drama from Chatham University and entered Pitt’s School of Medicine in 1981, graduating in 1985. While at Pitt, Dunmire was an Alpha Omega Alpha Honors Society member. She completed a residency in Pitt’s Department of Emergency Medicine in 1988 and was the only woman for the first seven years in Pitt’s Affiliated Residency in Emergency Medicine program.

Among her numerous teaching awards are the Golden Apple Award in 2001 and 2008, the Faculty Recognition Award from 2004 to 2011, and The Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award in 2007. She also has received the Charles G. Watson Award for excellence in teaching and the Pitt Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award. Dunmire serves as executive director of Pitt’s Medical Alumni Association and is a member of Pitt School of Medicine’s Admissions Committee.

Lantern Night is one of the University’s oldest traditions. The Alumnae Council of the Pitt Alumni Association and Pitt’s Division of Student Affairs cosponsor the ceremony; Student Affairs sponsors the reception.

For more information on Lantern Night, call 412-624-8215 or visit www.alumni.pitt.edu/traditions/lanternnight.php. An online donation to the Lantern Night Endowed Fund also can be made at that site by clicking on Pitt Giving.