Monday, September 09, 2013

[043] 860-plus grads expected for MTSU’s summer 2013 commencement Aug. 17



MURFREESBORO An estimated 869 degree candidates are expected to graduate during MTSU’s summer 2013 commencement ceremony on Saturday, Aug. 17, according to a report from the university’s Registrar’s Office.

Dr. Michael Arndt, the 2012-13 president of the MTSU Faculty Senate and a professor in the university's School of Music, is the scheduled speaker for the 10 a.m. ceremony in Hale Arena inside Murphy Center.

MTSU's 2012-13 recipients of the Distinguished Alumni and Young Alumni Achievement Awards also will be recognized at the event.

Of the 869 set to receive their degrees, 665 are undergraduates and 204 are graduate students, including 182 master’s candidates, five education-specialist recipients and 11 doctoral candidates. Six graduate students also will be receiving graduate certificates.

Speaker Arndt, who joined the university family in 2002 as a professor of trumpet, also coaches and directs the MTSU Symphonic Brass Ensemble, the award-winning MTSU Trumpet Ensemble and numerous other brass chamber ensembles. He has also guest-conducted both the MTSU Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Band.

In addition to presenting and performing at conferences across the United States and in Bangkok, Thailand, Arndt performs as a soloist and with the Stones River Chamber Players and the MTSU Faculty Brass Quintet.

He is a regular addition to the Nashville Symphony Orchestra trumpet section and plays principal trumpet with the Bowling Green Chamber Orchestra as well as performing with symphony orchestras in Huntsville, Ala., Chattanooga, Cincinnati and others. Arndt is active in Nashville recording studios and has played for many of Nashville's best-known performers for Fourth of July celebrations, benefit concerts and the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival.

Arndt received his Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music, a master's degree in music from the University of Minnesota and a Doctorate of Music Arts degree from Arizona State University.

The alumni honorees will be formally recognized during the Aug. 17 ceremony as well. They include:

  • The late Dr. Larry Needham (B.S. ’68) of Lilburn, Ga., a renowned chemist who spent 34 years working for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. He is the posthumous recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award for Professional Achievement.
  • Maria Salas (B.S. ’85) of Nashville, a former MTSU Lady Raider basketball player who owns her own bankruptcy law firm. She is the recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award for Service to Community.
  • Deanna Meador (B.S. ’04), of Gallatin, Tenn., a noted research coordinator who has developed a money-saving, paperless data collection system at Vanderbilt’s Peabody Research Institute. She is the recipient of the Young Alumni Achievement Award.

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 contacts for the Registrar’s Office — is available at www.mtsunews.com/graduation-info.

Live streaming video of the summer 2013 commencement will be available about 15 minutes before the ceremony begins at 10 a.m. Aug. 17.

The official program for the Aug. 17 ceremony also is available online at http://www.mtsu.edu/records/docs/commencementprogram.pdf.

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