Office of External Communications

Houston, TX 77204-5017 Fax; 713/743-8199

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 12, 2004

Contact: Eric Gerber
713/743-8189 (office)
713/617-7130(pager)
egerber@uh.edu

HOUSTON, May 12, 2004 – Nearly 6,500 University of Houston students are about to have their lives changed this weekend – and it will happen by degrees.

Commencement Weekend at UH takes place Friday, May 14, through Sunday, May 16, with a dozen academic colleges and the multi-disciplinary Honors College conferring degrees at graduation ceremonies held at various sites on and off campus. This year, in an effort to make the ceremonies more personal and meaningful for the graduates, there will be no general commencement exercise, just the individual college observances.

“We want to focus Commencement Weekend on the people who deserve special recognition for reaching this milestone in their lives – the students,” said Jerald Strickland, interim senior vice president for academic affairs and provost. “College-based graduation ceremonies provide a stronger sense of accomplishment and celebration, since the graduates will share the ceremony with those who are closest to them – their teachers, their fellow students, and their families and friends.”

All told, some 6,446 degrees are scheduled to be awarded, with 4,254 of them bachelor’s, 1,547 master’s, 194 doctoral and 451 special/professional. There are 1,282 students graduating with honors – 280 summa cum laude, 422 magna cum laude and 580 cum laude.

Roughly 55 percent of the graduates are female, 45 percent male. The graduates include residents from 41 states other than Texas and from 82 countries. The average age of a bachelor’s degree recipient is 26, a master’s 32, a doctoral 35 and a special/professional 33. The youngest person receiving a degree is 19 (bachelor’s) and the oldest are 60 (a master’s and a doctoral).

Speakers for the various commencement ceremonies range from a high-powered attorney and a major corporation’s auditor to a celebrated architect and a noted culinary entrepreneur. Specifically, they include:

• Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture – Charles Gwathmey, architect
• C.T. Bauer College of Business – Gerald McElvy, general auditor, Exxon Mobil
• Cullen College of Engineering – Stephen A. Szygenda, dean, School of Engineering, SMU
• The Honors College – Student speaker Sarah Ohmer
• Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management – Tony Vallone, restaurateur
• UH Law Center – Richard “Racehorse” Haynes, lawyer
• College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences – Student speakers Ron Milam and Erin Dorris
• College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics – Arthur Vailas, UH vice president for research
• College of Optometry – Clark Newman, optometrist
• College of Pharmacy – Laura Cranston, executive director, Institute for the Advancement of Community Pharmacy
• Graduate School of Social Work – Vicky Hansen, executive director, National Association of Social Workers, Texas
• College of Technology – Valerie Freeman, CEO, Imprimis

For a complete schedule of individual college commencement ceremony sites and times, visit the Web site http://www.uh.edu/news/commencement/sched.html.

About the University of Houston

The University of Houston, Texas’ premier metropolitan research and teaching institution, is home to more than 40 research centers and institutes and sponsors more than 300 partnerships with corporate, civic and governmental entities. UH, the most diverse research university in the country, stands at the forefront of education, research and service with more than 35,000 students.

For more information about UH visit the university’s ‘Newsroom’ at www.uh.edu/admin/media/newsroom.