If you go     * UA's 129th commencement.   l Who: President Peter Likins will confer 2,731 undergraduate, 690 master's, 318 doctoral and 14 juris doctor degrees.   l Speaker: Toni Massaro, dean of the James E. Rogers College of Law   l Where: McKale Center on campus, Enke Drive, west of Campbell Avenue.   l When: Today. Procession begins at 9:30 a.m.   Honorees   Bachelor's:   Master's:   Doctorate:     * Paolo Blasi, who helped develop the international studies program between the University of Florence and the UA, will also receive an honorary degree. He taught in the department of mathematics, physics and natural sciences, served on the board of directors and was president at the University of Florence in Italy.   * Frances H. McClelland will receive the Alumni Achievement Award. McClelland is treasurer of Shamrock Foods, which she helped turn from a small family dairy into a regional corporation. McClelland has also been a leader in community service.   * UA Centennial Awards go to students who have overcome great obstacles to complete a college education:   l Sheila Liezel Contapay-Tabilin, College of Nursing   l Long Trinh, College of Science.   l William Broussard, College of Humanities   l Valerie M. Kading, College of Nursing   l Karletta Chief, College of Engineering and Mines   l Gabriel Ramon Sanchez, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences

Two UA alumni who are helping rebuild their country as part of Afghanistan's executive Cabinet have returned to campus to receive honorary degrees at today's winter commencement. "I'm very optimistic. That's why I am there," said Sherief Fayez, a scholar and teacher who earned his doctorate in American literature from the University of Arizona in 1978. He has been the minister of higher education under President Hamid Karzai for nearly two years. "I strongly feel Afghanistan is moving in the right direction toward democracy. It has come out of international isolation," Fayez said. Yusuf Nuristani, who received two degrees from the UA, was Karzai's spokesman for six months before becoming Afghanistan's minister of irrigation and the environment. The men, close friends for 35 years, said they consider Tucson a second home. But while they have enjoyed touring the campus and visiting with old friends and former professors, they also hope to build relationships during this visit that will help restore their war-torn homeland. The loss of trained workers and professionals after decades of oppression and destruction is the biggest problem in Afghanistan today, Nuristani said. Many were killed or fled the country, and those who remain can earn more money working for the United Nations or private companies than the government can pay, he said. Nuristani said he hopes UA departments, such as hydrology, would be able to share the expertise and knowledge Afghans desperately need to rebuild their infrastructure. The country has suffered from drought and serious deforestation. Fayez is forging links with universities throughout America and abroad to help rebuild Afghanistan's universities, which have already started to draw thousands of students - male and female. "It's both a real honor for the university and a real privilege for us to be able to welcome and honor them. But we hope that it will go beyond this and lead to opportunities for rebuilding Afghanistan," said Anne Betteridge, director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, which sponsored a reception for the men Thursday night with the UA department of Near Eastern studies. Friday night Fayez and Nuristani were guests of honor at the president's commencement dinner in the new Student Union. Among those in attendance was Afghanistan-born UA librarian Atifa Rawan, who returned last month from her second trip to Kabul, where she is helping rebuild the library system. Many of the University of Kabul's books were destroyed under Taliban control, and during the civil war desperate residents turned to the books for fuel and heat. Nuristani and Fayez will tour the UA's main library today before commencement. The hope is that the UA will also support efforts to train Afghan students and faculty so they can rebuild the country's academic libraries. The men also toured the UA's Center for English as a Second Language, where Nuristani was once a student. A variety of UA departments are working together so that an Afghan undergraduate will be able to study English at the center next semester, Betteridge said. An earlier student has already returned to Afghanistan and is teaching English. Fayez earned an undergraduate degree in English from the University of Kabul and a master's degree from the University of Colorado before he arrived at the UA, where he wrote his dissertation in 1978 on "Mystic Ideas and Images in Jalal al-Din Rumi and Walt Whitman." He returned home after the Soviet invasion, but after two weeks of watching terror and harassment on campus he escaped to Iran. There, he said, he gained a deep understanding of Islamic extremism under the post-revolutionary ayatollahs as he waited for the opportunity to return to the United States. Fayez wrote in support of the resistance to the Taliban while he taught college and worked as a translator in Virginia. But, he said, it was not an easy decision to return to Afghanistan, where he found much in ruin. Nuristani received his master's degree in cultural anthropology from the UA in 1975. While pursuing his doctorate in Near Eastern studies at the UA, Nuristani returned to his homeland, but then went to Pakistan to work with Afghan refugee and resistance groups. He returned to the UA in 1992 to complete his dissertation - "Emergence of Ulama as Political Leaders in the Waigal Valley: the Intensification of Islamic Identity." Both say the UA prepared them well for their current jobs. And they were happy to return. "It's like a homecoming for us," Nuristani said. If you go * UA's 129th commencement. l Who: President Peter Likins will confer 2,731 undergraduate, 690 master's, 318 doctoral and 14 juris doctor degrees. l Speaker: Toni Massaro, dean of the James E. Rogers College of Law l Where: McKale Center on campus, Enke Drive, west of Campbell Avenue. l When: Today. Procession begins at 9:30 a.m. Honorees Bachelor's: Master's: Doctorate: * Paolo Blasi, who helped develop the international studies program between the University of Florence and the UA, will also receive an honorary degree. He taught in the department of mathematics, physics and natural sciences, served on the board of directors and was president at the University of Florence in Italy. * Frances H. McClelland will receive the Alumni Achievement Award. McClelland is treasurer of Shamrock Foods, which she helped turn from a small family dairy into a regional corporation. McClelland has also been a leader in community service. * UA Centennial Awards go to students who have overcome great obstacles to complete a college education: l Sheila Liezel Contapay-Tabilin, College of Nursing l Long Trinh, College of Science. l William Broussard, College of Humanities l Valerie M. Kading, College of Nursing l Karletta Chief, College of Engineering and Mines l Gabriel Ramon Sanchez, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences