NOTE: See the Commencement News Web Site at FresnoStateNews.com for general info about Commencement. Parking is free at the Save Mart Center and on campus parking lots for all commencement activities. Media parking is in the Bulldog Lot on Chestnut and Shaw. Routine bag inspection will be conducted at the Save Mart Center entrances. Helium balloons and signs will not be allowed into the center. Concession stands in the arena will be open for water and soft drink purchases only. See names and portraits of Graduate Deans Medallists through links at FresnoStateNews.com
More than 500 students will receive their graduate master’s or doctoral degree hoods at California State University, Fresno’s annual Graduate Degree Hooding Ceremony on Friday, May 21, at 7:30 p.m. in the Save Mart Center.
Fresno State also will present the University Graduate Medal that will be bestowed upon a student chosen from nine Dean’s Graduate Medallists being honored for their academic accomplishment and nominated for the university’s top academic honor.
The name of this top graduate student is kept under wraps until the Hooding Ceremony, just as the President’s Medal for undergraduate students is not revealed until Commencement on Saturday morning.
Hosted by the Division of Graduate Studies, Friday’s Graduate Degree Hooding Ceremony caps a day of convocations and celebrations.
The Hooding Ceremony annually draws more than 5,500 persons to the event and is unique in academia, said Dr. Vivian Vidoli, Graduate Studies dean.
Fresno State offers 40 master’s degrees, and a joint doctorate in educational leadership with the University of California, Davis. Administrative representatives from the University
of California will join more than 100 Fresno State graduate faculty for the ceremony.
In addition to the University Graduate Medallist Award, two other honors will be announced: the Outstanding Thesis Award and the Phyllis Watts Eudy Memorial Award for the Outstanding International Graduate Student.
After the awards are presented, the graduates from each college or school will be called and they will be hooded on stage as their names are read.
Conducting the ceremony along with Vidoli will be Dr. John D. Welty, university president; and Dr. Jeronima Echeverria, provost and vice president for academic affairs. T
The university’s 93rd Commencement ceremonies follow on Saturday, May 22, at 10:00 a.m. also at Save Mart Center, where the president will formally confer the bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees on the Class of 2004.
For more information about the Hooding Ceremony, call (559) 278-2448 or for Commencement, 278-2741.
EDITORS and NEWS/PUBLIC AFFAIRS DIRECTORS: Press releases can be downloaded at www.fresnostatenews.com. University Relations also provides releases for news media companies via e-mail. To be added to the distribution list, send your email address to tomu@csufresno.edu.
