Four hundred-eight students, 308 undergraduate, 87 master’s degree, and 13 doctorate degree students, will be candidates for graduation at Viterbo’s spring commencement ceremony at 1 p.m. Saturday, May 11 at the La Crosse Center.
Tracy Stewart, vice president for academic affairs, will serve as Master of Ceremonies, and Allison Stoeffler, a community medical dietetics student from La Crescent, Minn., will give the undergraduate student address. Master of Business Administration student Sulaimon Adewale Elegbede will deliver the graduate student address. Viterbo President Glena Temple will confer the degrees and Don Weber, member of the board of trustees, will provide congratulatory remarks. Liza Ware, chair of the faculty council, and Carol Page, faculty member and program specialist for the Master of Arts in Education program in Iowa, will present the candidates. The diplomas will be awarded by President Temple, Stewart, and Sue Christopherson, chair of the board of trustees. Viterbo director of alumni relations Kathy Duerwachter 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 Alida Herling, nutrition and dietetics, Jackie Kuennen, nursing, and David Waters, business.
All faculty and employees are invited to participate. Faculty and other participants should line up in the north lobby no later than 12:40 p.m. Enter through the main doors on 2nd Street and look for the signs. There will not be secure storage for personal items.
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 10 a.m. in San Damiano Chapel on the Viterbo campus. Fr. Targonski will preside at the liturgy. The BSN nursing pinning ceremony will be held at 7 p.m. Friday, May 10 in the Fine Arts Center Main Theatre. The BSN Completion program pinning ceremony will be held at 9 a.m. May 11 in the Fine Arts Center Nola Starling Recital Hall.