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More than 2,600 degrees will be conferred Saturday

April 23, 2008

KALAMAZOO--Western Michigan University will grant degrees to more than 2,600 students during four commencement ceremonies Saturday, April 26, in Miller Auditorium.

WMU President John M. Dunn will preside over the ceremonies.

Leading off the day's graduation exercises will be a ceremony at 9 a.m. for graduates of the College of Education and Extended University Programs. The second ceremony, set for noon, will be for graduates of the College of Aviation and Haworth College of Business.

The third ceremony will start at 3 p.m. and is for graduates of the colleges of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Fine Arts, and Health and Human Services. The final ceremony will be at 6 p.m. for graduates of the College of Arts and Sciences.

During the four ceremonies, WMU will confer some 2,600 degrees: 2,128 at the bachelor's level, 455 at the master's level and 17 at the doctoral level.

The April exercises will feature music by the Western Brass Ensemble, conducted by Steve Wolfinbarger. The national anthem and the alma mater will be sung by the University's chapter of the Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia professional music fraternity, conducted by Marcus Jordan. Graduates will be welcomed as new alumni of the University by Kirk Hoffman, president of the WMU Alumni Association.

Tickets are required for guests to attend commencement, and each participating student is eligible to reserve up to four guest tickets. Should there be extra tickets, students who are participating in one of the exercises may request up to two more tickets on a first-come, first-served basis from the Miller Auditorium box office beginning 8 a.m. Friday, April 25.

After all ticketed guests have been seated in Miller, any remaining open seats will be offered to those without tickets. Guests without tickets may view the commencement ceremonies live on a large screen in Room 3512 Knauss Hall, which is near Miller.

All of the April ceremonies will be broadcast live on Channel 28 of EduCABLE, the University's cable television system, and throughout the Kalamazoo area on one of the Community Access Cable channels (channels 19-22) on the Charter Communications cable system.

A live Webcast of the ceremonies will be available online to a limited number of people the day of graduation. Those planning to view the Webcast will need to install Windows Media Player on their computers.

The University will be providing professional recordings of the ceremonies on DVD and VHS videotape through its TotalTech office. The recordings will cost $25 each, plus shipping and formatting fees if any, and may be ordered by mail calling (269) 387-3930.

In addition, a professional photographer will be taking pictures of each graduating student. Color proofs will be sent to the students, but purchase of prints is optional.

Complete information about the upcoming graduation exercises, including how to obtain tickets, recordings or student photos, is available at www.wmich.edu/commencement. A final list of April 2008 graduates is expected to be posted on that Web site this summer.

Media contact: Jeanne Baron, (269) 387-8400, jeanne.baron@wmich.edu

WMU News
Office of University Relations
Western Michigan University
1903 W Michigan Ave
Kalamazoo MI 49008-5433 USA
(269) 387-8400
www.wmich.edu/wmu/news