Mississippi Public Universities to award more than 11,000 degrees at spring ceremonies
Mississippi Public Universities will award 11,326 bachelor's, master's, specialists and doctoral degrees during spring commencement exercises. The system total for Spring 2018 represents an increase of 641 graduates from Spring 2017, when the total number of degrees awarded was 10,685.
"I am extremely proud of our students and universities for raising the bar in degree production," said Commissioner of Higher Education Glenn Boyce. "Earning a degree makes a tremendous difference in the lives of the graduates and having a more educated workforce has an incredible impact on the state's economy by enabling Mississippi to attract and retain business and industry."
College graduates earn more and are less likely to be unemployed, providing a more stable future for the graduates and their families. The College Payoff: Education, Occupations, Lifetime Earnings, a report from The Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce, finds that earning a bachelor's degree makes a significant difference in lifetime earnings. Nationally, the median annual income of those with a bachelor's degree is $56,700, which equates to earning $2.3 million over a lifetime. Bachelor's degree holders earn 31 percent more than workers with an associates degree and 74 percent more than those with just a high school diploma.
The median household income in Mississippi for a high school graduate is $26,240. The median household income in Mississippi for a college graduate is $41,282, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2012-2016 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates. The unemployment rate for Mississippians with a bachelor's degree is only 3.2 percent, compared to an unemployment rate of 9.3 percent for high school graduates and 16.3 percent for those without a high school diploma.
2018 SPRING COMMENCEMENT SCHEDULES
Alcorn State University
Time/Date: 8:30 a.m., Saturday, May 5, 2018
Location: Davey L. Whitney Health and Physical Education Complex
Speaker: Christy L. Pickering, Member of the Mississippi Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning
Delta State University
Time/Date: 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m., Saturday, May 5, 2018
Location: Bologna Performing Arts Center
Speaker: Glendell Jones, President, Henderson State University
Jackson State University
Graduate Commencement Exercises
Time/Date: 4:00 p.m., Friday, April 27, 2018
Location: Lee E. Williams Athletics and Assembly Center
Speaker: Leonard N. Moore, Interim Vice President for Diversity and Community Engagement and the George Littlefield Professor of American History at the University of Texas at Austin
Undergraduate Commencement Exercises
Time/Date: 8:00 a.m., Saturday, April 28, 2018
Location: Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium
Speaker: Chokwe Antar Lumumba, Mayor of the City of Jackson
Mississippi State University
Meridian Campus
Time/Date: 11:00 a.m., Thursday, May 3, 2018
Location: MSU Riley Center
Speaker: Scott Elliott, President of Meridian Community College
Starkville Campus
College of Business and Adkerson School of Accountancy, College of Education
Time/Date: 3:30 p.m., Thursday, May 3, 2018
Location: Humphrey Coliseum
Speaker: Frank J. Williams, Chief Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court (Retired) and Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant Scholar
College of Arts & Sciences, College of Architecture, Art & Design, College of Veterinary Medicine
Time/Date: 9:30 a.m., Friday, May 4, 2018
Location: Humphrey Coliseum
Speaker: Frank J. Williams, Chief Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court (Retired) and Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant Scholar
Bagley College of Engineering and Swalm School of Chemical Engineering, College of Agriculture & Life Sciences and School of Human Sciences, College of Forest Resources, General Studies
Time/Date: 3:30 p.m., Friday, May 4, 2018
Location: Humphrey Coliseum
Speaker: Frank J. Williams, Chief Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court (Retired) and Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant Scholar
Mississippi University for Women
College of Arts, Sciences & Education and College of Business & Professional Studies
Time/Date: 10:00 a.m., Saturday, May 5, 2018
Location: Rent Auditorium, Whitfield Hall
Speaker: Tom Richardson, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Mississippi University for Women
MUW College of Nursing & Health Sciences
Time/Date: 2:00 p.m., Saturday, May 5, 2018
Location: Rent Auditorium, Whitfield Hall
Speaker: Tom Richardson, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Mississippi University for Women
Mississippi Valley State University
Time/Date: 8:00 a.m., Saturday, May 5, 2018
Location: Rice-Totten Stadium
Speaker: Sean Suggs, President, Toyota, Mississippi
University of Mississippi
Time/Date: 9:00 a.m., Saturday, May 12, 2018
Location: The Grove
Speaker: Walter Isaacson, Acclaimed Biographer and Historian and former CEO of CNN and Time Magazine
University of Mississippi Medical Center
Time/Date: 10:00 a.m., Friday, May 25, 2018
Location: Mississippi Coliseum
Speaker: No Speaker
University of Southern Mississippi
Time/Date: 9:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m., Friday, May 11, 2018
Location: Reed Green Coliseum, Hattiesburg, MS
Speaker: Douglas W. Rouse, Jr., Member of the Mississippi Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning
Time/Date: 10:00 a.m., Saturday, May 12, 2018
Location: Mississippi Coast Coliseum, Biloxi, MS
Speaker: Christy L. Pickering, Member of the Mississippi Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning
The Mississippi Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning governs the public universities in Mississippi, including Alcorn State University; Delta State University; Jackson State University; Mississippi State University including the Mississippi State University Division of Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine; Mississippi University for Women; Mississippi Valley State University; the University of Mississippi including the University of Mississippi Medical Center; and the University of Southern Mississippi.
Learn more at www.mississippi.edu.
