New this year is a photo contest sponsored by the California State University system. Graduates are invited to tweet a picture to @calstate or share it at www.facebook.com/calstate.  All pictures will be added to a special Facebook album in celebration of commencement and the picture with the most “likes” will be featured on the Facebook and CSU website.

Commencement activities begin Friday, May 18, with 18 college and school convocations in addition to department and program celebrations throughout the day at multiple locations.  View the commencement Schedule here.

Another new feature this year is that hooding ceremonies for students earning graduate degrees will be included in the students’ respective college, school and department convocation celebrations on Friday. The traditional all-university hooding ceremony the night before Commencement will not held.

As a result, the Graduate’s Medalist will be announced Saturday during Commencement along with the President’s Medalist by President John D. Welty. They are the university’s top graduate and undergraduate students selected from among 18 Dean’s Medalists representing each college and school and the Student Affairs Division and Athletics. The announcement will be posted on the university’s special Commencement web page at www.fresnostatenews.com/commencement  that will be activated Thursday with stories and photos.

Live streaming – with captioning – also will be available online Saturday for the morning University Commencement and for the 1 p.m. International Graduation Celebration in the Music Building Concert Hall where 135 graduating international students will be recognized. The broadcasts will be available on the Fresno State You Tube page next week.

Commencement events are held at various locations on campus and some of the smaller venues require tickets due to limited seating. The Commencement schedule contains ticketing and contact information for each event

On Saturday, seven events are scheduled beginning with the University Commencement and ending at 6 p.m. with the Latino Commencement Celebration, both at the Save Mart Center.

Selena Farnesi, president of the Associated Students, Inc., will welcome students and their families and guests to the 101^st Commencement, where 29 candidates for doctoral degrees will be individually introduced: 19 from the independent Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership and 10 in the Joint Doctorate in Physical Therapy program.

This marks the 20th year Fresno State is awarding doctoral degrees.

Eleven individuals will receive the Education Specialist Degree, approved in 2008 for the continuing education of school psychologists working in grades K-12.

The Class of 2012 includes 3,780 students who completed their baccalaureate studies and 1,018 students who have earned master’s degrees. The number of bachelor’s degrees is down slightly but master’s degrees are up.

Twenty-two baccalaureate students achieved perfect 4.0 GPAs and 150 earned summa cum laude (with highest praise) distinction for a GPA of 3.9-4.0. Eighteen students are graduating with special majors and 57 Smittcamp Family Honors College President’s Scholars are graduating with university honors.

A Master of Arts degree in International Relations will be conferred posthumously to Mr. Michael Bodily.

The Fresno State Air Force ROTC will present colors. Shannon Alexis Mills will sing the National Anthem and Joel Allee will close the ceremony by leading the new alumni in singing the Alma Mater. Both soloists are graduating music majors. The flags of 36 countries represented by Fresno State’s graduating international students will adorn the Save Mart Center stage.

After the degree conferral, Clyde Ford, the president-elect of the Fresno State Alumni Association,   welcomes the Class of 2012 grads as official alumni.

To accommodate those students who have not had photographs taken, appointments are available May 16 and 17 for Commencement portraits at the Smittcamp Alumni House Jensen Library.

The Fresno State Alumni Association has arranged for flowers to be sold at the University Commencement ceremony. Prices range from $10-$30.

Cary Edmondson/University Communications

Parking will be free in the Save Mart Center lots for all commencement events on campus. Guests are encouraged to arrive early (see specific information below). For the University Commencement, students begin lining up at 8 a.m. at the loading dock on the east side of the arena. The procession starts at 8:30 a.m.

Events are organized by the University Commencement Planning Committee, coordinated by the Division of Student Affairs under the guidance of Commencement coordinator Gary Nelson in the Office of Student Activities and Leadership Development.

For more information, call 559.278.2741 or see updates online at:

• Commencement schedule and general instructions for grads
• A Guide for Seniors Handbook
• Graduation attire and merchandise
• Portraits

Related Links:

• Commencement at FresnoStateNews.com
• Graduate Medalists
• Undergraduate Medalists
  
• CSU Facebook Photos

Fourteen students are set to graduate from the program with bachelor’s degrees this year. Eight of them will continue their educations at health professional programs in the fall.

Located on the Fresno State campus, HCOP provides academic and social support services to educationally disadvantaged students who want to pursue careers in medicine, dentistry, pharmacy and other allied health professions.  The program prepares students to become competitive applicants to health professional schools with the expectation that they will return to the San Joaquin Valley to provide care to the medically underserved.

First-generation college student Carlos Cassillas is among the graduates. Cassillas always dreamed of becoming a doctor. Lacking the role models and support needed to navigate the college-going process, he put his aspirations on hold and went to work full time. Then he discovered HCOP, where he met with advisors and developed a strong network of peers also interested in health and medicine. He received science tutoring and gained local physician Juan Bautista, M.D., a UCSF Fresno faculty member, as a mentor. In addition, Cassillas visited health professional schools and participated in leadership conferences. Thanks to HCOP, this fall, Cassillas will attend the UCLA Geffen School of Medicine, where he will participate in the school’s Program in Medical Education, which prepares physicians to work in urban underserved communities.

HCOP is under the leadership of Katherine A. Flores, M.D., director of the UCSF Fresno LaCMER in partnership with Fresno State HCOP Faculty Advisor Joseph Gandler.

All students will be recognized at the May 18 ceremony.

The following HCOP students in the Class of 2012 will be going on to health professional schools:

• Tigon Abalos – University of California, Los Angeles School of Dentistry
• Carlos Cassillas – University of California, Los Angeles Geffen School of Medicine
• Shereen Dimes – University of Southern California School of Pharmacy
• Cheree Jones – University of California, San Francisco School of Pharmacy
• Anna Koblik – University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine
• James Ros – University of California, San Diego School of Pharmacy
• Michelle Scire – University of California, Irvine School of Medicine Postbaccalaureate Program
• Bessie Yang – Fresno State Master of Public Health degree program

For more information, please contact Cassandra Gomez, UCSF Fresno LaCMER program coordinator, at 559.917.9118.

The UCSF Fresno Medical Education Program, established in 1975, plays a substantial role in providing healthcare services to residents of California’s San Joaquin Valley and training medical professionals in the region. The medical education program has trained approximately one-third of Central San Joaquin Valley physicians. Annually, UCSF Fresno currently trains approximately 245 medical residents in eight specialties, 45 fellows in 12 subspecialties and about 250 medical students on a rotating basis.

For further information, visit http://www.ucsf.edu.

The Home of Hope fundraiser was introduced in 2006 by residential builder Grandville Homes to raise money for food, shelter, health care and education in the central San Joaquin Valley. The initiative has benefited more than one million families by raising over $2.1 million since its inception.

The Renaissance Scholars program at Fresno State is designed to help the transition for foster children into independent adulthood by steering promising students through a special program of economic and personal support aimed at success in college.

The program, administered through the Division of Student Affairs, offers students health care, mentoring, academic guidance, career advice and other services.

All of the proceeds from ticket sales go to local organizations. In addition to Renaissance Scholars, ticket sales also benefit the Community Food Bank, Poverello House, Hinds Hospice, Assistance League and the foundations for Clovis, Central and Sanger school districts.

The grand prize winner will receive a new, 2,029-square-foot, three-bedroom, 2.5-bath Granville home located in the Sunnyside area of southeast Fresno.

Home of Hope tickets are $100. Purchase information is available at http://gvhomeofhope.com.

For more about Fresno State’s Renaissance Scholars program visit www.fresnostate.edu/rsp.

For more information, contact Kizzy Lopez, Renaissance Scholars program coordinator, at 559.278.5055 or kizzyl@csufresno.edu.

Fresno State’s share of the cut would be $12.8 million, said President John D. Welty.

“The most immediate impact of such a reduction will be enrollment consequences,” he said. “We have already determined that no new students will be admitted for spring 2013, which is a distressing course of action at a time when record numbers of applicants are applying to Fresno State.

“In addition to impact of a cut in 2012-13 — which would follow previous years’ reductions in our budget — I am deeply concerned about 2013-14 and beyond. Our faculty and staff are already stretched to the limit and we may have to determine what programs will have to be curtailed.

“The November election will be defining moment for public higher education in the state of California,” Welty said.

With voter approval of the tax measure, the CSU would receive an essentially flat budget with $2.06 billion in state funding.  Last year state support for the CSU was reduced by $750 million.  If the tax measure is defeated, CSU’s state funding would fall to $1.8 billion, the lowest amount of state funding the university has received in 17 years.

“We very much appreciate the Governor’s hard work to avoid further direct cuts to higher education despite the steep growth in the size of the state deficit.  Nevertheless, all Californians should be concerned about the serious long-term damage to student access to the California State University that is posed by the $250 million trigger cut,” said CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reed.

“Combined with last year’s $750 million cut, no easy options remain.  It will be extremely difficult to avoid impacts to program quality at our 23 campuses or impacts to access for students and the ability to serve them, with long-term consequences for workforce development and job growth in the state.  The November election will be critical to preventing this.”

The governor’s January budget proposed flat funding for the CSU and a $200 million trigger cut if the tax measure was not approved by voters. The May Revision increases the possible reduction to $250 million which would reduce CSU’s state funding to $1.8 billion, the lowest level of state support allocated to the university since 1996, when the CSU was serving 90,000 fewer students.  If the additional cut is triggered, it will represent an approximate 39 percent reduction in state funding since state support peaked in the 2007-08 fiscal year.

At the May Board of Trustees meeting, CSU officials presented trustees with a wide variety of revenue enhancement and cost cutting strategies to manage upcoming budget cuts.  A more focused list of these strategies is expected to be presented to the board in future meetings.  Additionally, to deal with cuts from previous years, the CSU has already engaged in cost saving measures including decreasing enrollment, employee layoffs and furloughs, deferred maintenance, travel restrictions, better use of information technology and other efforts.  For the spring 2013 term, CSU will reduce enrollment to match available funding, and the admission of new students for that term will be limited only to those who have received an associate degree for transfer from a California Community College.  For the fall 2013 term, the CSU will waitlist all students applying for admission pending the approval or rejection of the tax measure with a rejection and the subsequent $250 million budget cut leading to the possibility of further reductions in enrollment.