MURFREESBORO,
Tenn. — A trio of leaders will help 2,543 new MTSU graduates reach their educational goals in three spring
2017 commencement ceremonies set
Friday and Saturday, May 5 and 6.
MTSU industrial/organizational psychology professor
and Career Achievement Award winner Michael
Hein, former state commissioner of Tennessee Economic and Community
Development Randy Boyd and Williamson
County Schools Superintendent Mike
Looney are the guest speakers for this spring’s commencement ceremonies
inside the university’s Murphy Center.
Hein, who also serves as director of MTSU’s Center for Organizational and Human
Resource Effectiveness, will address the university’s separate ceremony for
students earning their doctorate, master’s and education specialist degrees.
The College of Graduate Studies event
is scheduled for 3 p.m. May 5.
Boyd, a Knoxville, Tennessee, businessman and
higher education advocate, is the guest speaker for the university’s 9 a.m. undergraduate
commencement ceremony May 6.
Looney, a Brentwood, Tennessee, resident and the
2016 Tennessee Superintendent of the Year, will speak at the 2 p.m. May 6
undergraduate ceremony.
Students
from the College of Basic and Applied
Sciences, the Jones College of
Business, the College of Education,
and the College of Media and
Entertainment will receive their degrees in the May 6 morning ceremony.
Students
in the College of Behavioral and Health
Sciences, College of Liberal Arts, and the University College will receive their degrees in the May 6 afternoon
event.
MTSU’s
commencement ceremonies are always free and open to the public. Friends,
families and supporters who can’t attend in person can watch each ceremony live
online May 5 and 6 via streaming video.
The
live commencement coverage will begin about 15 minutes before each ceremony
starts; visit http://ow.ly/rwxOz for details
about the video feed.
Guests
attending each ceremony should arrive early to ease traffic congestion
around Murphy Center and 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.
MTSU’s Registrar’s Office reported this week
that 2,171 of the 2,543 students set to receive their degrees May 6
are undergraduates, while 372 students will be presented with graduate
degrees May 5, including 332 master’s candidates, 12 education-specialist
degree recipients and 28 doctoral candidates. Five graduate students also will
receive graduate certificates, and one undergraduate degree will be awarded posthumously.
An
official program, listing all the graduates, is now available at http://ow.ly/dfWk30bgTyW.
Graduate ceremony speaker Hein, a psychology
department faculty member since 1990, came to MTSU to improve the master’s
program in industrial/organizational psychology and has raised it to a model
national curriculum with a focus on strong recruitment, a cohort class
structure and improving student internships. He also developed one of the few
stand-alone undergraduate industrial/organizational psychology majors in the
country.
In addition to his university and community
service, Hein also works as a consultant for industries on job preparation,
employee training and leadership development. He received the MTSU Foundation’s
2016 Career Achievement Award, considered the pinnacle of recognition for the
university’s finest professors, last August.
Undergraduate morning speaker Boyd is the founder
and executive chairman of Radio Systems Corp., the company known for the
Invisible Fence, PetSafe and SportDOG brand pet containment products.
He joined Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam’s
administration in 2013 as a special adviser to the governor for higher
education, helping create the state’s Drive to 55 initiative, the Tennessee
Promise and Reconnect programs and other plans to increase the number of
Tennesseans with a postsecondary degree or certificate to 55 percent by 2025.
He then served as state economic development commissioner from 2015 until he
returned to private life this January.
Undergrad afternoon speaker Looney has been a
public educator since 1994, serving as a classroom teacher, assistant principal
and principal. He was appointed to lead Williamson County schools in 2009 after
serving as superintendent of the Butler County School District and as assistant
superintendent for the Montgomery Public Schools, both in Alabama.
He also served as a corporate finance manager
before entering the education field and is a military veteran and retired
member of the U.S. Marine Corps.
MTSU’s
Graduation Committee noted that all graduating students must stay for their
entire commencement ceremony. Each ceremony may last up to two hours.
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