Nila Priyambodo
News Editor
With January coming, the University of La Verne only has three more months to plan for the winter commencement. Scheduled for 3 p.m. Jan. 30 in the Student Center gymnasium, this will be the University’s first winter graduation ceremony.
According to Associate Dean of Student Affairs Ruby Montaño-Cordova, this year’s winter commencement speaker will be President of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities Antonio Flores.
Flores will speak to approximately 200 to 500 students, which are bachelor and master students who have completed all the degree and program requirements during the preceding summer or fall terms or enrolled in all final courses during the current January interterm.
The number of students graduating in the winter commencement is comparably smaller than those graduating in the May commencement. There were more than 2,000 students during this year’s May commencement, Associate Registrar Mark McKellip said.
“Hopefully the mid-year ceremony will lower the number of eligible participants in the spring ceremony,” McKellip said. “With the reduced size of the mid-year ceremony, we should be able to better accommodate parking and service to all students.”
The University is currently working on the physical planning for the commencement, including preparing the stage, the list of students participating in the commencement, the commencement Web site, the caps and gowns, the announcements and the script for the speaker.
“I’ve still got three more months,” Montaño-Cordova said, “But everything is on schedule.”
This weekend, memos will be sent to the University faculty for them to request to hold a reception or any other event during the winter commencement.
Many students, like senior behavioral science major Angela Black, is excited about being able to graduate in January.
“This is great,” said Black, who will use the free time from the spring semester to work and look into several graduate schools. “I know a lot of students who needed that extra semester to graduate, but don’t want to wait around until May before it is official.”
Black also believes the ceremony will just be a smaller version of the May commencement and that it will run smoothly despite it being the University’s first winter commencement.
Nila Priyambodo can be reached at npriyambodo@ulv.edu.
