BGSU Zoom News

Monday, December 12, 2016

Trustees approve honorary namings, new degree | Commencement scheduled Dec. 16, 17

Accepting a certificate of appreciation from President Mary Ellen Mazey are (left to right) Scott Slater and his daughters Elizabeth Lorenz and Sarah Slater and son Todd Slater.

TRUSTEES APPROVES HONORARY NAMINGS, NEW SOFTWARE ENGINEERING DEGREE

The BGSU campus continues to change and improve, both aesthetically and functionally, thanks in part to the support of alumni and friends. The BGSU Board of Trustees at its year-end meeting Dec. 9 approved the naming of a number of campus spaces and facilities in honor of donors as well as initial funding for the next stage of major building upgrades. In addition, student academic and career opportunity will be enhanced with the board’s approval of a new major in software engineering, which will be the only program of its kind among pubic colleges in northwest Ohio and one of only two in Ohio.

“We are deeply thankful to our donors who generously help to create learning environments that allow our students and faculty to do their best work,” said President Mary Ellen Mazey. “Their selfless giving will help in changing lives.”

Chief among the renamed spaces is the Slater Family Ice Arena.

The upcoming retirement this month of Bill Schurk, sound recordings archivist at the Music Library and Sound Recordings Archives, presented the opportunity to name the facility for the one whose name has become synonymous with it. With the trustees’ approval, the archives will be named the Bill Schurk Sound Archives. Since joining the popular culture library in 1967 following his 1966 graduation from BGSU, Schurk has built the archive into the most significant resource of its kind in an academic library in North America, earning BGSU and himself an international reputation. He has accomplished this through careful curation, donor management and content expertise, along with his own substantial lifetime giving to expand the archive’s focus and holdings.

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Commencement speakers Mark Sirower (left) and D.C. Crenshaw (right)

COMMENCEMENT CEREMONIES SLATED DEC. 16, 17

More than 1,000 BGSU students will start the new year as degree holders, following commencement ceremonies this weekend. The University will hold two events, on Friday (Dec. 16) and Saturday (Dec. 17) in the Stroh Center.

Commencement for the Graduate College and the colleges of Business Administration, Health and Human Services; Musical Arts; Technology, Architecture and Applied Engineering; and BGSU Firelands will be held at 7 p.m. Friday. The colleges of Arts and Sciences and Education and Human Development will hold commencement at 10 a.m. Saturday.

Addressing the Friday candidates will be BGSU alumnus Mark Sirower, who received a bachelor’s degree in finance in 1983. He is a principal at Deloitte Consulting in New York and U.S. leader of the firm’s merger and acquisition strategy practice.

Addressing the Saturday candidates will be BGSU alumnus D.C. Crenshaw, who received a Bachelor of Science in biology in 1991. He is a food and lifestyle expert and a two-time Emmy-nominated television personality and executive producer. He is the CEO of Fete Business Group and publisher/editor-in-chief of Fete Lifestyle Magazine.

Of the 1,002 degree candidates, 201 are from the Graduate College, of whom 175 are candidates for master’s degrees and 26 for doctoral degrees. Among the undergraduates, 57 will be presented associate degrees and 727 will receive bachelor’s degrees. Of those, 159 have received honors for their high grade-point averages.

The graduating class also includes 66 international students representing 21 countries.