April 25, 2007

Cowley College to hold commencement on May 5

More than 650 students will be candidates for graduation Saturday, May 5 when Cowley College holds its 84th commencement exercises.

According to the Registrar’s Office, 660 students are candidates for graduation and will be recognized during the 84th Commencement exercises, to be held at 10:30 a.m. Saturday inside W.S. Scott Auditorium. A reception for graduates, family members and friends will be held immediately following the ceremony in the Earle N. Wright Community Room inside the Brown Center.

More than 280 of the 660 students are expected to participate in Saturday’s ceremony. Along with the conferring of degrees, College alumnus J.C. Louderback will be presented with this year’s Outstanding Tiger Alumni Award. Louderback, a member of the college’s Tiger Athletic Hall of Fame, is a 1954 graduate of Cowley. He is retired and lives in Arkansas City.

The featured speaker is Marlys Cervantes, an instructor in Cowley’s Humanities Department and fourth recipient of the Endowed Chair for Teaching Excellence and Student Learning.

Members of Cowley’s faculty also will be recognized, including Pam Smith, who was presented the Paul Stirnaman Award, and Chris Cannon, Tom Mason, and JoLynne Stalnaker, who will be honored later this month as Excellence Award recipients at the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development in Austin, Texas.

A member of Cowley’s Student Government Association also will address the class. Krista Dopfel, a sophomore bio-chemistry major from Belle Plaine, Kan., served as SGA president during the 2006-2007 academic year.

Students listed in the official Commencement program on Saturday, May 5 are candidates for the associate of arts degree, the associate degree of applied science, the associate degree of general studies, the associate degree of science, or the college certificate.

The 660 students include summer 2006 graduates, December 2006 graduates, and May 2007 graduates. Students who graduated last summer and last December have received their diplomas. May 2007 graduates will receive their diplomas in June.

The Sid Regnier Bookstore at 207 W. Fifth Ave. will be open until 12:30 p.m. Saturday, May 5.