The 2018 Barnard Women Poets Prize has been awarded to Karen Skolfield, a lecturer in the UMass Amherst College of Engineering and a 1998 graduate of the MFA for Poets and Writers program. A U.S. Army veteran who lives in Amherst, Skolfield won the prize for “Battle Dress,” her second collection of poems.

CNN anchor and chief Washington correspondent Jake Tapper and Pearl Harbor veteran Leonard Gardner will be awarded honorary degrees during Undergraduate Commencement at UMass Amherst on Friday, May 11 at 4:30 p.m. at McGuirk Alumni Stadium.

A new program created with a gift from UMass Amherst alumnus William “Bill” A. Lee, executive vice president of research at Gilead Sciences, will broaden opportunities for underrepresented and first-generation UMass Amherst students who aspire to be scientists.