SWT prepares for spring commencement

SAN MARCOS — The Texas attorney general and two internationally recognized professors will serve as the keynote speakers during three commencement ceremonies to be held May 9 and 10 at Southwest Texas State University.

Commencement ceremonies will be held at 7 p.m. Friday, May 9, for degree candidates from the colleges of Liberal Arts and Fine Arts and Communication. Candidates from the colleges of Science, Education and Health Professions will attend the 9:30 a.m. ceremony on Saturday, May 10. Candidates from the colleges of Applied Arts and Business Administration will attend the 2 p.m. ceremony on May 10. All three graduation exercises will be held in SWT’s Strahan Coliseum.

There are 2,375 candidates for bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees at SWT this spring.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott will be the featured speaker at the 2 p.m. ceremony on May 10. Abbott was elected attorney general of Texas in 2002. He is a former district judge in the 129th District Court in Houston and a former justice of the Texas Supreme Court. In addition to his experience as a judge and lawyer, he has served as an adjunct professor at the University of Texas Law School.

Richard G. Boehm, holder of the Jesse H. Jones Distinguished Chair in Geographic Education at SWT, will speak during the 7 p.m. ceremony on May 9. In addition to his teaching duties at SWT, Boehm is also the director of the Gilbert M. Grosvenor Center for Geographic Education and co-coordinator of the Texas Alliance for Geographic Education. In 1990, he was one of the first four geography teachers to earn the Distinguished Geography Educator Award from the National Geographic Society.

Gene Stouder, holder of the Roy F. and Joann Cole Mitte Chair in Semiconductor Research and Education in the SWT departments of Physics and Technology, will speak during the 9:30 a.m. ceremony on May 10. Stouder is known internationally for his expertise in semiconductor manufacturing and has serve as corporate vice president of Motorola’s Microcontroller Group, where he established organizations throughout the world capable of the most advanced semiconductor manufacturing. Before coming to SWT, he was a visiting professor in the Texas A&M University School of Engineering and assistant director of the Semiconductor Initiative there.

Student speakers will be graduating seniors Justin Bell of the College of Liberal Arts for the May 9 ceremony, Vincent Demayuga of the College of Science for the May 10 morning ceremony and Robert Doerr of the College of Business Administration for the May 10 afternoon ceremony.