WSU awards more than 2,600 diplomas

By Robert Strenge, WSU News

PULLMAN, Wash. – Family members and friends Saturday packed into Washington State University’s Beasley Coliseum, where more than 2,600 graduating students crossed the stage in three ceremonies to receive diplomas during spring commencement.

By the end of the day, WSU President Elson S. Floyd had handed out 88 doctoral degrees, 149 master’s degrees and 2,406 undergraduate degrees.

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Photos by Robert Hubner and Shelly Hanks, WSU Photo Services

The speaker for WSU’s 8 a.m. ceremony for graduates of the College of Agricultural, Human & Natural Resource Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine and College of Engineering & Architecture was Orlin Reinbold, a third-generation Cougar who owns and manages Landmark Turf and Native Seed of Spokane, a reclamation grass seed company his grandfather began in 1945 to supply farmers with grass seed for soil conservation.

The College of Arts & Sciences 11:30 a.m. ceremony’s featured speaker was Floyd, who became the 10th president of Washington’s land-grant research university in May 2007, after serving as president of the University of Missouri.

Katey Koehn, director of program management for Yahoo, was the featured speaker for the 3 p.m. commencement ceremony for the College of Business, College of Education and the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication. Koehn is a WSU Global Campus student graduating with the class of 2014 with a B.A. in social sciences. She joined Yahoo in 2010 after 10 years with eBay and was recognized last year as one of Yahoo’s top 100 managers.

The two-hour ceremonies were broadcast live through Cable 8 TV and videostreamed live at http://www.experience.wsu.edu, where they are also archived for future viewing.