Paul Kirby is reporting for the Daily Freeman Bard College has announced David Byrne, founder and former lead singer and guitarist of the Talking Heads, will serve as commencement speaker at the school's 116th graduation ceremony, Sat., May 23. At that event Bard President Leon Botstein will confer 445 undergraduate degrees and 163 graduate degrees. Byrne will be presented with an honorary doctorate of fine arts. Honorary degrees will also be awarded to multimedia artist Laurie Anderson, physicist Steven Chu, composer Gao Xiaosong, curator Thelma Golden, Brooklyn Public Library President Linda E. Johnson, educational historian Ellen Condliffe Lagemann, and biophysicist George D. Rose, a Bard alumnus. Read the full story in the Daily Freeman.