WWU Celebrates ‘Twos’ with December Commencement

12/10/2012 Mary Ann Beahon
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (573) 592-1127

 

Two seems to be the magic number for William Woods University this week. WWU will hold two commencement ceremonies, featuring two speakers—and awarding the first two doctorates in the school’s history.

The ceremony and hooding of candidates for graduate education degrees will be held at 7 p.m. Dec. 14, while undergraduate and Master of Business Administration degrees will be conferred at 10 a.m. Dec. 15. Both ceremonies will be in Cutlip Auditorium of the McNutt Campus Center.
 
Dr. Lynn Priddy will be the commencement speaker Friday night, and Dr. Julian Hertzog will address the Saturday graduates.
 
Priddy, serves as vice president for accreditation services for the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. Hertzog, WWU professor of education and psychology, was the 2012 recipient of the Dads’ Association-Louis D. Beaumont Distinguished Professor Award for Excellence in Teaching, an award he also won in 1989.
 
Julie Dill, superintendent of Johnson County R-VII School District in Crest Ridge, and Amy James, principal of Southern Boone Elementary School in Ashland, will be awarded doctorates in educational leadership Friday night.
 
A total of 240 December degrees will be conferred over the two-day period. Another 302 graduates whose degrees were conferred in August are eligible to participate in the winter ceremony. A combined total of 777 students in all disciplines have graduated from WWU in the past 12 months.
 
Degrees earned by December and August graduates combined include six associate of arts, six bachelor of arts, 67 bachelor of science, 110 master of business administration, 271 master of education and 77 educational specialist degrees.  
 
In addition to students from the Fulton campus, students from cohorts in 25 communities will receive their diplomas: Blue Springs, Branson, Cabool, Cadet, Caledonia, Cape Girardeau, Chillicothe, Columbia, Dexter, Doniphan, Fulton, Hannibal, Harrisonville, Jefferson City, Joplin, Kirksville, Mansfield, Neosho, Nevada, New Madrid, Popular Bluff, Rolla, Springfield, Warsaw and West Plains.
                                                           
Friday’s commencement speaker, Priddy, joined the Higher Learning Commission in 1999. During her tenure, she has served as assistant director of the Peer Corps, associate director of the Academic Quality Improvement Program (AQIP), director of education and training, and the founding director of the Commission’s Academy for Assessment of Student Learning.
 
In her current position, she is oversees decision-making processes, the peer corps and peer review, the Program to Evaluate and Advance Quality (PEAQ) and AQIP operations, education and training, and the Academy for Assessment of Student Learning.
 
Priddy is a summa cum laude graduate at the baccalaureate, master’s, and doctoral levels. She holds a B. A. in English from the State University of New York, an M.A. in English from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, and a Ph.D. in higher education, general education, with a focus on qualitative research and evaluation, from Capella University.
 
Hertzog, Saturday’s speaker, has been a professor of psychology and education at William Woods University for the last 36 years. He attended the University of Florida, where he received his A.A, B.A., M.Ed. and Ph.D. degrees.

CUTLINES:
Lynn Priddy
Julian Hertzog