Commencement 2012

Events

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Mandatory Commencement Rehearsal*
Aquinas Hall Theatre
1:30 pm for traditional undergraduates
6:45 pm for Continuing Education and master's degree candidates.
*All students planning to participate in the commencement ceremonies must attend the rehearsal.

Friday, May 18, 2012

Hooding and Awards Ceremony, 6 pm
Check-in begins at 5:15 pm. Line-up begins promptly at 5:40 pm.
Aquinas Hall Theatre

All graduates participating in the ceremony should check in to Room 109 (AQU) unless you received prior notification through your MSMC email account. 
Description: The Hooding and Awards Ceremony is held the Friday evening before commencement. This is a traditional commencement ceremony where graduates are vested with their academic hoods. The academic hood, which indicates the degree-earned and the degree-conferring institution, is a long-established symbol of the academic life. Awards for scholarship and service—the tenets of the Dominican tradition—are given to deserving graduates. The Hooding and Awards Ceremony will take place in the Aquinas Hall Theatre,and tickets are not required for this event.

Graduate's Reception
Immediately following the Hooding and Awards Ceremony
Kaplan Family Mathematics, Science and Technology Center atrium.
Family and friends are invited to join graduates, faculty, and administration for a final gathering. RSVP by the graduate is required.

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Commencement Liturgy, 9 am
Dominican Center Chapel
Commencement day begins with a liturgy for graduates, their friends and families in the Dominican Center Chapel. Cardinal Turkson, who will speak at Commencement, will celebrate the Baccalaureate Liturgy.

Commencement, Noon
The Dominican Center field, south end of campus.
The academic procession begins promptly at 11:15 am. 

Commencement is the ceremony commonly known as graduation. At this ceremony, degree candidates are recognized. The year 2012 marks the 49th commencement for the bachelor's degrees, and the 27th commencement for the master's degrees. Tickets are required for commencement.

Three accomplished guests will receive honorary doctoral degrees:

Peter Kodwo Appiah Cardinal Turkson.  Cardinal Turkson, a native of Ghana, is president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, located at the Vatican. Purpose: "promote justice and peace in the world, in the light of the Gospel and of the social teaching of the Church.” The primary work of the Pontifical Council is to engage in action-oriented studies based on both the papal and episcopal social teaching of the Church, and contribute to the development of this teaching in the vast fields of justice, peace and human rights. Ordained a priest in the Cape Coast diocese of Ghana in 1975, Turkson was ordained archbishop there in 1993, and elevated to Cardinal in 2003. In 2009, he was appointed president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. Cardinal Turkson will celebrate the Baccalaureate Liturgy and will speak briefly at Commencement.

Elizabeth Ailes  A 20-year veteran of NBC News, CNBC, and America's Talking, the forerunner of MSNBC, Elizabeth Ailes has also brought her intensity of journalistic focus as publisher of two newspapers: the Putnam County News & Recorder, and the Putnam County Courier, New York State's oldest, continually published weekly established in 1841. She began at NBC News Radio and NBC News, was the first producer hired at CNBC when that network launched, later became director of business programming there, before becoming vice president of programming at America’s Talking. In 1998 she married Roger Ailes, chair and CEO of Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network. Mrs. Ailes will give a Commencement address.

Joseph A. Reilly.  Reilly was named the first full-time executive director of the New York State Broadcasters Association in 1980 and became president in 1986, representing the interests of over 750 radio and TV stations in the state. Among his many achievements was his successful leadership to open NY State’s courts to cameras and microphones. He retired in 2011. Reilly has served on the boards of the Broadcasters Foundation of America; Teresian House of Albany; Capital Bank & Trust; New York State Partnership; Chase Lincoln First Bank; Governors Telecommunications Exchange; Governor’s Committee for a Healthier New York; New York State Youth Advisory Board. He is on the Advisory Board of Straus Digital Media, LLC and a Trustee of Christian Brothers Academy.