[028] 863 Graduates Set to Participate in MTSU's 101st Summer Commencement

FOR RELEASE: Aug. 8, 2011
EDITORIAL CONTACT: Office of News and Media Relations, 615-898-2919

863 GRADUATES SET TO PARTICIPATE IN MTSU’s 101st SUMMER COMMENCEMENT
President of MTSU Faculty Senate to Speak at Ceremony

MURFREESBORO—About 863 degree candidates are expected to graduate during MTSU’s 101st Summer Commencement ceremony, according to a report from Cathy Kirchner of the University’s Registrar’s Office.
The ceremony will begin at 10 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 13, in Murphy Center. Of the 863 set to graduate during the event, 591 are undergraduates and 272 are graduate students, including 237 master’s candidates, 28 education-specialist recipients and five doctoral candidates. Two graduate students also will be receiving graduate certificates.
Dr. Warner Cribb, the 2010-11 president of the MTSU Faculty Senate, is the scheduled speaker for the 2011 Summer Commencement ceremony. Cribb joined the University family in 1993 as an assistant professor of geology.
He earned his doctorate in geology from The Ohio State University after receiving his master’s and bachelor’s degrees from George Washington University and Vanderbilt University, respectively. A full professor at MTSU since 2002, Cribb represented the Department of Geosciences as a faculty senator from 2006 to 2009.
A member of numerous state and national science and science-teaching organizations, Cribb teaches multiple levels of earth science, mineralogy, geology and geochemistry courses at MTSU. He also is a member of Sigma Gamma Epsilon, the National Earth Science Honorary Society, and has been widely published in his field since 1996.
During his years at MTSU, Cribb has developed and managed the University’s analytical geochemistry labs and acquired National Science Foundation funding for equipment for and construction of x-ray fluorescence and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometer laboratories. He also has served as faculty supervisor of MTSU’s analytical geochemistry labs, which instruct students and faculty on using of XRF and ICPMS and developing sample-preparation techniques and analytical methodologies.
Cribb also is quite proud of the accomplishments of his former students at MTSU, especially the 26 who have gone on to seek advanced degrees in science. Currently, eight of those students are working on their master’s degrees, and another four are in doctoral programs in universities such as Northern Arizona, Notre Dame, Vanderbilt and Oklahoma.
Graduation committee members emphasized that students who participate in commencement will be required to stay for the entire ceremony. The ceremony should last about two hours, so graduation candidates planning celebrations should be aware of this time commitment.
Graduation information—including maps and driving directions to Murphy Center, instructions on watching the ceremonies via streaming video on commencement day, cap-and-gown information and how to order a DVD of the ceremonies— is available online. Go to www.mtsunews.com and click on the “Graduation Info” link.


MTSU SPRING 2011 COMMENCEMENT AT A GLANCE

Who: 863 graduates* (591 undergraduates, 272 graduate students)
What: 2011 MTSU summer commencement
When: 10 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 13
Where: Murphy Center on the MTSU campus.
Commencement speaker: Dr. Warner Cribb, the 2010-11 president of the MTSU Faculty Senate

For more information, go to www.mtsunews.com and click on the “Graduation Info” link.

*— Approximate number as of Aug. 4, 2011.


Founded in 1911, Middle Tennessee State University is a Tennessee Board of Regents institution located in Murfreesboro and is the state’s largest public undergraduate institution. In September 2011, MTSU will celebrate its 100th year anniversary with special events and activities throughout the year kicked off by a Blue-Tie Centennial Gala on Friday, Sept. 9.