Pullman, Spokane campuses honor graduates May 6 and 7

Washington State University Pullman and WSU Spokane will honor graduates on May 6 in a series of commencement ceremonies.

Pullman— Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire will address graduating Washington State University students in business and economics, education and nursing during a 3 p.m. ceremony Saturday, May 7 at Beasley Performing Arts Coliseum. The ceremony will be the third of three commencement ceremonies to be held Saturday on the Pullman campus.

About 2,100 students — 1,900 undergraduates and 200 graduate and professional — are expected to take part in the three ceremonies, said Teri Nelson, university commencement coordinator.

Before becoming the state’s governor in January, Gregoire served three terms as Washington’s attorney general, the first woman elected to the position in state history. She is a University of Washington graduate and earned a law degree from Gonzaga University.

For the first time since 1995, the university also will be awarding an honorary doctoral degree Saturday. Clarence A. “Bud” Ryan, a pioneer researcher in plant biochemistry and the first WSU faculty member to be admitted to the National Academy of Sciences, will receive the degree at the 8 a.m. ceremony on Saturday.

WSU graduate Christopher Nelson, president of Kemin Industries, Des Moines, Iowa, will speak at that ceremony, during which graduates in agricultural, human, and natural resource sciences; engineering and architecture; pharmacy; sciences; and veterinary medicine will receive degrees. Nelson earned a WSU biochemistry and biophysics doctoral degree in 1980. Ryan was his doctoral adviser.

Nelson’s company is a global nutritional ingredient firm specializing in improving human and animal health through molecular innovations. Kemin operates manufacturing facilities on six continents and has more than 45 offices worldwide.

WSU education graduate Wendell Jim, general manager of the education branch of the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon, will speak to graduates at the 11:30 a.m. liberal arts ceremony on Saturday.

An Indian education issues and rights advocate, Jim is helping develop government-to-government collaboration models, interagency partnerships and legislation on tribal sovereignty, treaty rights and education. Representing the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation, he is a member of the WSU Native American Advisory Board to the WSU president.

WSU President V. Lane Rawlins will preside at each of the three ceremonies.

Spokane— Washington State University Spokane will celebrate its 15th class of graduates May 6, when diplomas are handed out at 2 p.m. at the Spokane Opera House. The program will include graduates of the WSU Intercollegiate College of Nursing and some Eastern Washington University programs.

The ceremony will honor 349 students earning undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees in architecture, computer engineering, construction management, criminal justice, engineering management, exercise science, health policy and administration, human nutrition, interior design, landscape architecture, nursing, pharmacy, social sciences, speech and hearing sciences, teaching, and technology management, including 19 who will receive postgraduate school psychology certification from WSU and EWU.

The graduating class includes 73 students receiving baccalaureate degrees in nursing from the WSU Intercollegiate College of Nursing and its consortium partners EWU, Gonzaga University and Whitworth College. All baccalaureate nursing graduates in Spokane receive joint degrees from WSU and from the institution at which they completed their first two years of study. Eight students will receive a Master of Nursing degree from WSU.

Statewide, a total of 161 undergraduate and graduate students will earn nursing degrees this spring, including 94 with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree, 38 with a BSN for RNs, and 29 with a Master of Science in Nursing.

Another 13 EWU students earning master’s degrees in communication disorders who have studied in the joint WSU-EWU program will be granted their EWU degrees.

Walking at this commencement ceremony will be Douglas Orr, recipient of the first-ever doctoral degree in criminal justice from WSU. Established in 1941 as the Department of Police Science and Administration, the WSU Criminal Justice Program is the second oldest in the country. Orr, who is a Spokane Police Department detective, received recognition as Officer of the Year in 2003.

The Rev. Stephaine (Stephy) Nobles Beans will serve as the commencement speaker. Rev. Beans is assistant pastor of the Church of Berachah, as well as a published writer, poet and singer. She serves Whitworth College as the coordinator of ministry and multicultural affairs.

The founder and executive director of a program called “Wings,” a sexual assault and domestic violence educational and awareness program, Rev. Beans has been in prison ministry since 1998. As part of that service, she started a program called “Story Time Telling,” which provides new books and tapes to prisons so that inmates can record themselves as they read children’s stories, then send their children a copy of the tape and book.

Ryan Rieger, who will receive a master’s degree in health policy and administration, will serve as student speaker. He serves as president of the Associated Students of WSU Spokane, and as a member of the Chancellor’s Student Advisory Council. He has received a nationally competitive two-year administrative fellowship at the Portland Veteran’s Administration Medical Center, which he will complete after graduation. Rieger was also selected by the health policy and administration program for one of the competitive full-time U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration Health Administration Traineeships for the past two years.

For more information on WSU Spokane, visit www.spokane.wsu.edu. To learn more about the WSU Intercollegiate College of Nursing, visit www.nursing.wsu.edu.