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NJIT To Award Honorary Degrees

A distinguished New Jersey state senator and the president of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities will both receive honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degrees at NJIT’s 115th commencement exercises, Friday, Jan. 12, 10 a.m., in Prudential Hall, at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, at One Center St., in Newark.

Senator Robert E. Littell and Herbert H. Tate Jr. will be honored during the winter ceremony, when NJIT awards some 800 bachelorís, masterís and doctoral degrees.

For more than 45 years, Littell has served his community, state and nation as a member of the United States Marines, the Franklin Borough Council and the New Jersey Legislature. In 1967, after many years of community service at the municipal level, Littell was elected to the New Jersey General Assembly. Twelve times, the people of District 24 reelected him to the General Assembly. In 1990, he was elected to the New Jersey Senate and quickly rose to the rank of chair of the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee. He has been a force in support of funding for transportation, for domestic violence programs, for abused children, the elderly and the disabled.

Littell also has been an advocate for funding for school reform and higher education facilities and equipment. He is one of the leading proponents of the use of technology to address a wide range of societal problems from healthcare to infrastructure to New Jerseyís environment.

As president of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, Tate works to ensure the quality of services related to telephone, electricity, gas, water and wastewater. Appointed by Gov. Christine Todd Whitman to her cabinet, in 1994, Tate directs policy related to public utilities involving fiscal, personnel, legal and legislative issues. He also deals with mergers and acquisitions of companies in these varied sectors.

Tate has spearheaded initiatives to create an open competitive marketplace within the stateís public utilities industry. During his tenure, the board has taken a leadership position on issues such as environmental disclosure and air emissions portfolio standards. His leadership on the board was instrumental in establishing New Jerseyís Water Privatization Act. Recognized as the architect of the 1999 Electric Discount/Energy Choice Act, Tate helped make New Jersey the first state in the nation to deregulate both electric and natural gas industries for residential homes and business consumers. He also was pivotal in the development and passage of the 1997 Energy Tax Reform Act, which lowered energy taxes 45 percent for all business and residential gas customers. He successfully negotiated a local toll initiative, opening New Jerseyís $700 million local telephone market to competition.

Tate also was responsible for the development and implementation of an agreement that accelerated deployment of advanced telecommunications for ìdistance interactive learningî in both urban and suburban school districts in New Jersey.

For More, Click: http://www.bpu.state.nj.us/; http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/html/littell.htm

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