Dr. Cartwright to preside over last commencement

BOWLING GREEN, O.—Bowling Green State University's May commencement ceremonies, the 270th graduation at the University, represent both a beginning and an end. For graduates, it is the first step in the next stage of their lives. For the University, it will be last time President Carol Cartwright presides over the ceremonies and the final time the events will be held in Anderson Arena. December's graduates will receive their diplomas in the new Stroh Center.

Of the 1,958 degrees to be awarded Friday and Saturday, May 6 and May 7, 374 will be granted through the Graduate College. Four hundred thirty undergraduate students will graduate with honors, signifying meritorious academic achievement.

Four separate ceremonies are planned on the Bowling Green campus.

This year’s speakers are biochemist Dr. Lee Kroos of Michigan State University; Dr. Conrad Allen, an exploration geologist who has served in several national posts; graduating senior David Cullen of Sandusky; graduating senior Stephanie Winner of New Bremen; SSgt. Joshua Falso, an active duty computer and network technician for the United States Air Force who will be physically on the BGSU campus for the first time at commencement, and Dr. Kathryn Metz, an ethnomusicologist, educator and community activist.

Graduate College commencement will be held at 7 p.m. May 6 in Anderson Arena in Memorial Hall. Speaking will be 1981 alumnus Kroos, a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology. His research on signaling and gene regulatory mechanisms during bacterial development has been supported by the National Institutes of Health and by the National Science Foundation.

The College of Arts and Sciences commencement will be the first of three ceremonies on May 7, beginning at 9:30 a.m. Degree candidates will hear from Allen, whose oil exploration for major oil companies has taken him around the world, from the Congo to Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea and Far East Russia. Saudi Arabia hired him to find the largest oil field on earth. During the Clinton and G.W. Bush administrations, he was appointed to the National Petroleum Council where his expertise helped shape America’s national energy policy.

The colleges of Business Administration, Health and Human Services, and Technology will hold ceremonies at 1 p.m.

Sharing his BGSU experience with the business college will be Cullen, a bachelor of science in business administration degree candidate specializing in marketing. A member of the Honors Program, he was in the first cohort of the BizX Entrepreneurial Leaders Program, and is the chief financial officer and a founding member of the humanitarian business association Net Impact. He has taken second and first place in consecutive years at Xavier University’s annual Business Simulation Competition.

Winner will address degree candidates in the College of Health and Human Services. A bachelor of science in communication sciences and disorders candidate, she has been an active member of the National Student Speech Language and Hearing Association and has studied autism spectrum disorders. As a member of the BGSU Women’s Club Volleyball team, she served twice as president.

Degree candidates in the College of Technology will hear from SSgt. Falso, who transferred to BGSU in the fall of 2009 from the Community College of the Air Force through the College of Technology’s membership in the Air University Associate to Baccalaureate Consortium. As a Bachelor of Science in Technology candidate in the Advanced Technological Education program, Falso has attended BGSU online from various states and countries including Germany and Iraq. Despite his travels and extensive military responsibilities, his grade point average is 3.9.  

Speaking at the 4:30 p.m. ceremonies for the College of Education and Human Development and College of Musical Arts will be Metz, who focuses on connecting music education to social justice. She is the education instructor at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, where she teaches core subject areas using popular music to at-risk students on-site and others through distance learning. She also teaches students at Case Western Reserve University and researches popular music in the urban Amazon of Peru.

The ceremony at BGSU Firelands will take place at 7:30 p.m. May 6 in the Cedar Point Center. Richard Smith, an alumnus and longtime supporter and advocate of BGSU Firelands, will deliver the commencement address

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(Posted April 27, 2011 )