Commencement ceremonies, Ivy Day this week

Ivy Day, which pays tribute to the outstanding graduates of winter 2011 and this spring, will be Friday, May 4, at 7 p.m. The college will confer master’s degrees at 8 a.m. Saturday, May 5, in Memorial Hall and bachelor’s degrees at 10 a.m. in the Armstrong Physical Education Building. There are a total of 318 candidates for commencement – 244 for bachelor’s degrees and 74 for master’s degrees.

CSC College Relations will broadcast the ceremonies live on Chadron cable channel 20 and on the Internet at this link.

The speakers for the commencement ceremonies are the Nebraska State College System’s top administrator and a professor of business who has worked at CSC for nearly three decades. The undergraduate commencement address will be delivered by Nebraska State College System Chancellor Stan Carpenter, who has led Chadron State and the other two NSCS institutions for 12 years. Dr. James Wright, CSC professor of business, will speak during the graduate ceremony. Wright, who has served periods as both a faculty member and an administrator since coming to CSC 1983, teaches courses in business and economic statistics, quantitative methods, production and operation management and professional ethics.

Select graduates will present opening and closing moments of reflection during their respective commencement ceremonies. They are Leslie Caswell of Chadron, Kevin Haberman of Mitchell, Christine Aye of Rangoon, Burma, and James Bahensky of Anselmo. The latter ceremony also will feature military commissioning by the ROTC.

Ivy Day, organized by CSC’s Blue Key and Cardinal Key honor societies, is one of the institution’s longest standing traditions, evolving from a May Day program dating back to 1920.

Deb Stewart, a retiring member of the CSC social work faculty, will serve as the faculty greeter at Ivy Day. The student orators are Nisha Durand of Salisbury, Dominica, Kyle Klammer of Ainsworth, and Riley Machal of Gretna.

Friday’s event also will feature the presentation of the Platinum Eagle, awarded annually to a student who displays outstanding campus involvement, and the Ivy Day royalty, selected by a vote of the student body.

The candidates for queen are Durand, Chrissy Black of Newton, Kan., Chloe Olson of Oshkosh, Bridget Scherbarth of Alliance and Stacee Wright of Hamlet. King candidates are Klammer, Jeff Alcorn of Chadron, Paul McGowan of Kingston, Jamaica, Dalton Nelsen of Callaway, and Luke Wright of Hamlet.