EAST LANSING, Mich. – More than 8,000 candidates for undergraduate and advanced degrees from Michigan State University will gather Friday, May 5, at the Jack Breslin Student Events Center to celebrate their graduations and hear addresses from Motown Records founder Berry Gordy and Paul Ehrlich, author and president of the Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford University.

The MSU undergraduate convocation will be held at 1 p.m. at the Breslin Center. Gordy will be the featured speaker and will receive an honorary doctor of humanities.

Of the 6,252 undergraduate degree candidates, 4,518 are spring semester students and 1,734 are summer session students.

The advanced degree ceremony will be at 7 p.m. in the Breslin Center. A total of 1,367 master’s, 458 doctoral, and 338 other advanced degree students are candidates for degrees.

Ehrlich is the featured speaker for the advanced degree ceremony and will receive an honorary doctor of science.

Also receiving honorary degrees are former MSU professor, Robert Grubbs, a 2005 recipient of the Nobel Prize for chemistry and a professor at the California Institute of Technology, who will receive an honorary doctor of science; and Ellen Zwilich, recipient of the 1983 Pulitzer Prize in music and former composer-in-residence at Carnegie Hall in New York, who will receive an honorary doctor of fine arts.

Admission tickets are not required for either ceremony. Seating is reserved for graduating seniors in academic apparel; general seating will be available for family and other guests of the graduates on a first-come, first-served basis.

Doors will open to the public at 11 a.m. Guests are encouraged not to bring large bags into the facility; all bags will be subject to search. Bottled water will be available for purchase at beverage carts on the concourse level.

Guests are encouraged to use a free shuttle service. Buses will start running at 10:30 a.m. from the commuter lot on Mt. Hope Road and Farm Lane, the Spartan Stadium lot on Shaw Lane, and the Communication Arts and Sciences ramp on Trowbridge and Red Cedar Roads.

The convocation ceremonies will be carried live on several media outlets through MSU Broadcasting Services.

The address may be heard online live at http://www.WMSU.org and available for on-demand viewing the following day. Subscribers of Comcast Cable Services in the Greater Lansing/East Lansing/Meridian areas can see the address live on ‘KAR3, a service of WKAR-TV.

Individual colleges will be holding ceremonies throughout the weekend. For more information on the college ceremonies and other convocation- and commencement-related activities, visit the Web at www.msu.edu/unit/acadevnt/commencement/.

Spring 2006 Commencement Information

Following are date, time, location, speaker, and number of degrees being granted:

• Undergraduate convocation, Friday, May 5, 1 p.m., Breslin Center. Danielle Lab, a senior from Bowling Green, Ohio, will present student remarks. She is an Honors College student, majoring in communication and English.
  
• College of Social Science, Saturday, May 6, 9 a.m., Breslin Center. Student remarks will be given by Diana Shkreli, a senior from Clarkston. 1,155 degrees will be conferred.

• The Eli Broad College of Business, Saturday, May 6, 4 p.m., Breslin Center. Student remarks will be given by senior Adanma Chinemerem Okoro from Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Susan J. Unger, senior vice president and chief information officer at DaimlerChrysler AG, will speak. 1,045 degrees will be conferred.
  
• College of Communication Arts and Sciences, Friday, May 5, 3:30 p.m., Breslin Center. Student remarks will be given be Sarah Schultz, a senior from Royal Oak. 859 degrees will be given.
  
• College of Natural Science, Saturday, May 6, 12:30 p.m., Breslin Center. The address will be given by Robert H. Grubbs, Ph.D. 797 degrees will be given.
  
• College of Arts and Letters, Friday, May 5, 4 p.m., Auditorium. Student remarks will be given by Veronica Fitzpatrick, a senior from Alexandria, Va. 579 degrees will be given.
  
• College of Engineering, Sunday, May 7, 1:30 p.m., Breslin Center. Student remarks will be given by Kevin O’Beirne, a senior from Canton. 377 degrees will be granted.
  
• College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Saturday, May 6, 7:30 p.m. Breslin Center. Student remarks will be given by Jessica Greene from Lansing and Caleb Kelly from Mt. Pleasant, both seniors. 555 degrees will be given.
  
• College of Education, Saturday, May 6, 9:30 a.m., Auditorium. Student remarks will be given by Ashley Moritz, a senior from Royal Oak, and Lucas VanEtten, a senior from Adrian. The address at the ceremony will be given by Michael Flanagan, Michigan's state superintendent of schools. 406 degrees will be given.
  
• James Madison College, Saturday, May 6, 3 p.m., Wharton Center. Student remarks will be given by Bradley Wilson, a senior from Hale. The commencement address will be given by Angela Lovasco, a teacher at Our Lady of Guadalupe Middle School for Girls in southwest Detroit, and a James Madison College alumna. 188 degrees will be given.
  
• College of Nursing, Saturday, May 6, 9 a.m., Wharton Center. Student remarks will be given by Lyndsey Barrow, a senior from Hartland. 67 degrees will be given.
  
• College of Veterinary Medicine, Friday, May 5, 7 p.m., Veterinary Medical Center, E-100. The speaker will be Lisa Freeman, associate dean of research and graduate programs, Kansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine. 28 degrees will be given.
  
• College of Osteopathic Medicine, Thursday, May 4, 11 a.m., Wharton Center. The speaker will be Janet Olszewski, director, Michigan Department of Community Health.111 degrees will be given.
  
• College of Human Medicine, Saturday, May 13, noon, Wharton Center. Raphael Carl Lee, director of the Program for Research in Molecular Cell Repair and professor of surgery at the University of Chicago, will present the address. James Chamberlain Harlan of Holt will present student remarks. 99 degrees will be given.
  
• MSU College of Law, Sunday, May 14, noon, Wharton Center. Karen J. Mathis, president-elect of the American Bar Association, will present the address.

Senior class council members Orna Theboul and Jessica Godell will explain the significance of the senior class gift program at this year’s convocation ceremony. The senior class gift program has been supporting all areas of MSU since 1873. This year the senior class council’s goal is to raise $30,000.

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Michigan State University has been advancing knowledge and transforming lives through innovative teaching, research and outreach for 150 years. MSU is known internationally as a major public university with global reach and extraordinary impact. Its 15 degree-granting colleges attract scholars worldwide who are interested in combining education with practical problem solving.