Mississippi Public Universities to Award More Than 11,000 Degrees at Spring Ceremonies

Mississippi Public Universities will award 11,326 bachelor's, master's, specialists and doctoral degrees during Spring Commencement Exercises. The system total for Spring 2018 represents an increase of 641 graduates from Spring 2017, when the total number of degrees awarded was 10,685.

“I am extremely proud of our students and universities for raising the bar in degree production,” said Dr. Glenn Boyce, Commissioner of Higher Education. “Earning a degree makes a tremendous difference in the lives of the graduates and having a more educated workforce has an incredible impact on the state's economy by enabling Mississippi to attract and retain business and industry.”

College graduates earn more and are less likely to be unemployed, providing a more stable future for the graduates and their families. The College Payoff: Education, Occupations, Lifetime Earnings, a report from The Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce, finds that earning a bachelor's degree makes a significant difference in lifetime earnings. Nationally, the median annual income of those with a bachelor's degree is $56,700, which equates to earning $2.3 million over a lifetime. Bachelor's degree holders earn 31 percent more than workers with an associates degree and 74 percent more than those with just a high school diploma.

The median household income in Mississippi for a high school graduate is $26,240. The median household income in Mississippi for a college graduate is $41,282, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2012-2016 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates. The unemployment rate for Mississippians with a bachelor's degree is only 3.2 percent, compared to an unemployment rate of 9.3 percent for high school graduates and 16.3 percent for those without a high school diploma.

2018 SPRING COMMENCEMENT SCHEDULES

Alcorn State University

Time/Date:     8:30 a.m., Saturday, May 5, 2018

Location:        Davey L. Whitney Health and Physical Education Complex

Speaker:          Ms. Christy L. Pickering, Member of the Mississippi Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning

Delta State University

Time/Date:     10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m., Saturday, May 5, 2018

Location:        Bologna Performing Arts Center

Speaker:          Dr. Glendell Jones, President, Henderson State University

Jackson State University

Graduate Commencement Exercises

Time/Date:     4:00 p.m., Friday, April 27, 2018

Location:        Lee E. Williams Athletics and Assembly Center

Speaker: Dr. Leonard N. Moore, Interim Vice President for Diversity and Community Engagement and the George Littlefield Professor of American History at the University of Texas at Austin

Undergraduate Commencement Exercises

Time/Date:     8:00 a.m., Saturday, April 28, 2018

Location:        Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium

Speaker:          The Honorable Chokwe Antar Lumumba, Mayor of the City of Jackson, Miss.

Mississippi State University

Meridian Campus

Time/Date:     11:00 a.m., Thursday, May 3, 2018

Location:        MSU Riley Center

Speaker:          Dr. Scott Elliott, President of Meridian Community College

Starkville Campus

College of Business and Adkerson School of Accountancy, College of Education

Time/Date:     3:30 p.m., Thursday, May 3, 2018

Location:        Humphrey Coliseum

Speaker: The Honorable Frank J. Williams, Chief Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court (Retired) and Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant Scholar

College of Arts & Sciences, College of Architecture, Art & Design, College of Veterinary Medcine

Time/Date:     9:30 a.m., Friday, May 4, 2018

Location:        Humphrey Coliseum

Speaker: The Honorable Frank J. Williams, Chief Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court (Retired) and Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant Scholar

Bagley College of Engineering and Swalm School of Chemical Engineering, College of Agriculture & Life Sciences and School of Human Sciences, College of Forest Resources, General Studies

Time/Date:     3:30 p.m., Friday, May 4, 2018

Location:        Humphrey Coliseum

Speaker: The Honorable Frank J. Williams, Chief Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court (Retired) and Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant Scholar

Mississippi University for Women

College of Arts, Sciences & Education and College of Business & Professional Studies

Time/Date:     10:00 a.m., Saturday, May 5, 2018

Location:        Rent Auditorium, Whitfield Hall

Speaker:          Dr. Tom Richardson, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Mississippi University for Women

College of Nursing & Health Sciences

Time/Date:     2:00 p.m., Saturday, May 5, 2018

Location:        Rent Auditorium, Whitfield Hall

Speaker:          Dr. Tom Richardson, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Mississippi University for Women

Mississippi Valley State University

Time/Date:     8:00 a.m., Saturday, May 5, 2018

Location:        Rice-Totten Stadium

Speaker:          Mr. Sean Suggs, President, Toyota, Mississippi

The University of Mississippi

Time/Date:     9:00 a.m., Saturday, May 12, 2018

Location:        The Grove

Speaker: Mr. Walter Isaacson, Acclaimed Biographer and Historian and former CEO of CNN and Time Magazine

The University of Mississippi Medical Center

Time/Date:     10:00 a.m., Friday, May 25, 2018

Location:        Mississippi Coliseum

Speaker:          No Speaker

The University of Southern Mississippi

Time/Date:     9:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m., Friday, May 11, 2018

Location:        Reed Green Coliseum, Hattiesburg, MS

Speaker:          Dr. Douglas W. Rouse, Jr., Member of the Mississippi Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning

Time/Date:     10:00 a.m., Saturday, May 12, 2018

Location:        Mississippi Coast Coliseum, Biloxi, MS

Speaker:          Ms. Christy L. Pickering, Member of the Mississippi Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning