[025] Nearly 875 MTSU students ready for degrees at Aug. 6 commencement

           

MURFREESBORO — Almost 875 MTSU students are ready to accept their hard-earned degrees at the university’s summer 2016 commencement ceremony, set for Saturday, Aug. 6.

The ceremony, which will begin at 10 a.m. Aug. 6 in Hale Arena inside Murphy Center, will feature a special commencement address from MTSU professor Tricia Farwell, the 2015-16 president of the university's Faculty Senate and a professor of advertising and public relations in the School of Journalism in the College of Media and Entertainment.

On Aug. 6, according to a report from the university’s Registrar’s Office, 871 students are set to graduate from MTSU.

Of that number, 598 are undergraduates and 273 are graduate students, including 229 master’s candidates, 10 education-specialist degree recipients and 34 doctoral candidates. Three graduate students also will receive graduate certificates.

Candidates from all nine of MTSU’s colleges — the College of Graduate Studies, Basic and Applied Sciences, Jones College of Business, College of Education, College of Behavioral and Health Sciences, College of Liberal Arts, College of Media and Entertainment, the University College and the University Honors College — will receive their degrees during the summer ceremony.

MTSU’s commencement ceremonies are always free and open to the public; a printable campus map with parking details is available at http://tinyurl.com/MTSUParkingMap.

Friends, families and supporters who can’t attend in person can watch the Aug. 6 ceremony live online via streaming video. You can visit http://ow.ly/rwxOz for a link to the video feed and more details. The video feed will not be live until about 9:45 a.m. Aug. 6. 

Speaker Farwell, who earned her bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from Arizona State University, joined the MTSU faculty in 2008. She directs the journalism school’s advertising concentration of study and teaches media writing, advertising campaigns, public relations principles and related courses.

She taught public relations at her alma mater and advertising and PR at Morehead State University before coming to MTSU and has held offices in both the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication and Public Relations Society of America.

Farwell serves as the internship coordinator for the School of Journalism and is also about to complete a yearlong stint on the Tennessee Board of Regents, serving as the representative for all faculty across the TBR’s 46 institutions. Gov. Bill Haslam appointed Farwell as faculty regent last July.

Summer ceremony tips

Students, friends, families and community supporters who attend the Aug. 6 ceremony should be aware that the event could last more than two hours. Graduating students are required to stay for the entire ceremony.

Guests attending each ceremony are being asked to arrive early to ease traffic congestion around Murphy Center and to help ensure comfortable seating for everyone inside Hale Arena. Motorists should avoid Middle Tennessee Boulevard because of ongoing construction; route suggestions are available at http://www.mtsunews.com/graduation-info.

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 — also is available online at http://www.mtsunews.com/graduation-info.

The university’s 2016-17 academic year begins Monday, Aug. 22, with the first official day of fall 2015 semester classes. University Convocation, a public ceremony welcoming new freshmen into the MTSU family, is set for Sunday, Aug. 21, at 2 p.m. in Murphy Center.

MTSU Summer 2016 Commencement at a Glance

Who: A projected 871 graduates* (598 undergraduates, 273 graduate students)

What: 2016 MTSU Summer Commencement ceremony

When: Saturday, Aug. 6

Where: Hale Arena inside Murphy Center on the MTSU campus

Commencement speaker: Dr. Tricia Farwell, advertising and public relations professor and 2015-16 president of the MTSU Faculty Senate.

*— Approximate numbers as of July 29, 2016.