More than 900 grads expected to attend 171st ceremony

HUNTINGTON -- More than 2,600 students will receive degrees from Marshall University at the end of the academic year.

More than 900 of those graduates are expected to take part in the university's 171st commencement Saturday, university officials said.

And Huntington will be a bit more crowded as visitors come to town for the ceremony.

"It's mostly the families of the graduates," said Marshall spokesman Dave Wellman. "There will be a lot of relatives who come in."

Out of the 2,622 receiving degrees,1,529 are undergraduates, 946 graduate students, 43 from the school of medicine, and 104 students earning associate degrees, according to a release from Marshall.

Based on projections, 15 undergraduates will graduate with perfect 4.0 grade-point averages. 591 will graduate with honors, with 90 graduating summa cum laude, 177 magna cum laude and 306 cum laude.

One of those 4.0 students is Lauren Mikaela Perry, of Proctorville, who is receiving her bachelor's degree in political science.

"It was a lot of studying, hard work and extremely supportive professors," Perry said of her accomplishment.

The 22-year-old said she is looking forward to Saturday's ceremony, especially since her family will be there.

"People sort of trivialize it now, because so many more people go to college than they did 20 years ago," she said. "But it's still a major accomplishment to earn a degree from an accredited university."

The speaker will be West Virginia Senate President Earl Ray Tomblin, who received his master's degree from Marshall in 1975. Tomblin is the state's longest serving senate president, having held the post since 1995.

The ceremony includes graduates from the late summer and fall terms.

Each Marshall graduate will be recognized by name during the ceremony, as has been the practice at the school since 2006.

The main commencement begins at 9 a.m. Saturday at the Big Sandy Superstore Arena, while numerous separate graduations and receptions for graduating students will follow. The main ceremony will stream live at www.marshall.edu and will be televised on the university's instructional channel 25.