Four hundred eighty-two students, 370 undergraduate, 109 graduate, and three associate degree students, will be candidates for graduation at Viterbo’s spring commencement ceremony at 2 p.m. Saturday, May 7 at the La Crosse Center.
Included in the number of students earning a graduate degree are the first five graduates of Viterbo’s Doctor of Nursing Practice program.
Glena Temple, vice president for academic affairs, will serve as Master of Ceremonies, and Jacob Hart, a management and leadership business major from Marengo, Ill., will give the student address. Kathy Duerwachter ’10, director of alumni relations, will give the alumni welcome. Viterbo President Rick Artman will confer the degrees and Kent Handel, chair of the Board of Trustees, will provide congratulatory remarks. Temple and Sara Cook, assistant vice president for academic affairs and associate professor of business, will present the candidates. The diplomas will be awarded by President Artman, Handel, and Liza Ware, associate professor of psychology and chair of the faculty council. Alumni board member Margaret Hammell ’87 will lead the Prayer of St. Francis and Fr. Conrad Targonski, OFM, will give the benediction.
Receiving the title of Professor Emeritus are retiring faculty members Judy Anderson, nursing, Carl Bargabos, nursing, Jan Janiszewski, business, Jean Saladino, music, and Michael Smuksta, history.
All faculty and employees are invited to participate. Faculty and other participants should line up in the lower level north side hallway (through the lobby and to the right, and down the stairs; look for the signs) no later than 1:40 p.m. There will not be secure storage for personal items, so leave handbags and other personal items in your vehicle.
The same tips for graduates also apply to wearing the faculty regalia—gowns should be pressed and worn with dark slacks or hosiery and dark shoes, caps should be worn level (not tipped back), no jewelry or other adornments should be worn with the gowns, and faculty tassels are worn on the left side.
After the ceremony, the faculty will be led out after the stage party. The marshals will stop the faculty to form two lines along the edges of the aisle, so the graduates can pass between them as they exit. Faculty members are encouraged to applaud the graduates as they pass.
A Baccalaureate Mass will be held that morning at 11 a.m. in San Damiano Chapel. Fr. Targonski will preside at the liturgy.
The nursing pinning ceremony will be held at 7 p.m. Friday, May 6 in the Fine Arts Center Main Theatre. The BSN Completion program pinning ceremony will be held at 8:30 a.m. May 7 in the Fine Arts Center Recital Hall. A ceremony in which master’s degree candidates receive their academic hoods will be held at 9:45 a.m. May 7 in the Fine Arts Center Main Theatre.