USI Commencement back on campus after 21 years

This year, the University of Southern Indiana’s Commencement will be held on campus for the first time since 1991. Five ceremonies will be held over two days, April 27-28, in the Physical Activities Center (PAC), with a reception in University Center East following each ceremony.

“Since we have held the fall Commencement on campus, graduates and their families have responded enthusiastically to being at USI for degree conferral,” said President Linda L. M. Bennett. “With spring Commencement now on campus, more families will experience a memorable connection to the University at the time of great achievement for our graduates.”

More than 1,400 students are eligible to participate in Commencement, including 16 summa cum laude graduates, 100 magna cum laude graduates, 128 cum laude graduates, and 51 University Honors Scholars. Participation in spring 2012 Commencement is up by almost 10 percent over spring 2011.

A ceremony for graduate students will be held at 6:30 p.m. Friday, April 27.

Undergraduates will participate in four ceremonies on Saturday, April 28. The College of Business and Division of Outreach and Engagement ceremony will be held at 9 .am.; College of Liberal Arts at noon; Pott College of Science, Engineering, and Education at 3 p.m.; and College of Nursing and Health Professions at 6 p.m. The doors to the PAC will open one hour prior to the start of each ceremony.

Speakers at each Commencement ceremony will be USI alumni who have excelled in their professional lives. They will come from Chicago, Evansville, Henderson, Nashville, and Princeton, New Jersey. “We celebrate our alumni and are pleased to have alumni representatives address our graduates,” Bennett said. “They are resounding models for today’s graduates.”

FRIDAY

Dr. Sheila Lynn Hauck, executive director of Professional Practice for Oncology and Palliative Care at St. Mary’s Medical Center, will deliver the Commencement address during the 6:30 p.m. Friday, April 27, ceremony. In 1997, she was a member of USI’s first graduating class in the master’s level nursing program when she completed a post-master’s certificate in the family nurse practitioner track. In 2011, she was among the first graduates of the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program. Also during the ceremony, USI President Emeritus H. Ray Hoops and his wife Linda will receive honorary Doctor of Laws degrees.

SATURDAY

New Jersey resident Valerie McKinney, who earned a Master of Business Administration degree from USI in 2005, will be the speaker for the College of Business and Division of Outreach and Engagement ceremony at 9 a.m. on Saturday, April 28. She is the global serialization operations lead for Bristol-Myers Squibb and directs a cross functional global team to implement pharmaceutical serialization through the company, including all third party manufacturers and logistics partners.

College of Liberal Arts graduates will hear Joycelyn Winnecke, who earned a Bachelor of Science degree in communications from USI in 1982, during the noon ceremony. Winnecke is vice president and associate editor of the Chicago Tribune and is the sister of Evansville Mayor Lloyd Winnecke. In 2004, she received USI’s Distinguished Alumni Award. She earned a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Chicago.

Dr. Joey V. Barnett is the vice chair and director of Graduate Studies in Pharmacology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from USI in 1981. Barnett will address graduates in the Pott College of Science, Engineering, and Education at 3 p.m. Dr. Paul A. Kuban, associate professor of engineering, will receive the 2012 Distinguished Professor Award during this ceremony. The President’s Medal, the highest honor presented to a USI graduate, will be presented to Phillip H. Behrens.

J. Wayne Meriwether will be the speaker at the 6 p.m. ceremony for the College of Nursing and Health Professions. He is the chief operating officer at Methodist Hospital in Henderson, Kentucky. He earned a Master of Health Administration degree from USI in 2008.

Guests of graduates participating in the College of Liberal Arts and the College of Nursing and Health Professions ceremonies will need tickets. For more information, go to www.usi.edu/commencement.