[024] Almost 1,000 Grads Expected for MTSU's Summer 2012 Commencement

Almost 1,000 grads expected for MTSU’s summer 2012 commencement

FOR RELEASE: Aug. 3, 2012

EDITORIAL CONTACT: Gina E. Fann, 615-898-5385 or gina.fann@mtsu.edu

MURFREESBORO — Almost 1,000 degree candidates are expected to graduate during MTSU’s summer 2012 commencement ceremony on Saturday, Aug. 11, according to a report from the university’s Registrar’s Office.

The ceremony will begin at 10 a.m. Aug. 11 in Murphy Center. Of the 981 set to receive their degrees, 725 are undergraduates and 256 are graduate students, including 238 master’s candidates, six education-specialist recipients and 10 doctoral candidates. Two graduate students also will be receiving graduate certificates.

Professor Kim Neal Nofsinger, the 2011-12 president of the MTSU Faculty Senate, is the scheduled speaker for the 2012 summer commencement ceremony. Nofsinger joined the university family in 2004 and is the director of dance in MTSU’s Department of Speech and Theatre.

Nofsinger also is the artistic director of Shelter Repertory Dance Theatre, which he founded in 2001. His choreography has been produced throughout the United States and in Spain, France, Belgium, Germany and Austria. His work "Holding Patterns" was selected for the Breaking Ground Dance Festival in Tempe, Ariz., and in March 2006, he performed in the Modern Atlanta Dance Festival.

Nofsinger's choreography runs the gamut of modern dance expression. He specializes in teaching technique and choreography and is an advocate for the development of multicultural and interdisciplinary curricula. He was chosen by his peers at MTSU to receive the university’s Distinguished Creative Activity Award in 2008.

Nofsinger has a Master of Fine Arts degree in performance and choreography from Arizona State University, where he holds the distinction of being the first graduate student to receive a grant from the Institute for Arts and Technology. During his tenure at MTSU, Nofsinger has received approximately 30 grants. He also has taught at Ohio University, University of Minnesota Duluth, the State University of New York at Geneseo, Illinois State University, Winona State University and Connecticut College.

 On the day of commencement, MTSU’s graduation committee emphasized that graduating students are required to stay for the entire ceremony. The ceremony should last about two hours, so students 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, and cap-and-gown information — is available online at www.mtsunews.com/graduation-info.

Live streaming video of the summer 2012 commencement will start about 15 minutes before the ceremony begins at 10 a.m.

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