The School of Mass Communications will hold its May 2009 commencement ceremony for BS and MS degree candidates Saturday, May 16 at River Road Church, Baptist. This year, the School will break a record by awarding more than 100 BS degrees. And with the record number of graduates comes a record number of guests.The new location, although off campus, is larger than the university’s Commonwealth Ballroom, where the School’s December ceremony was held and should accommodate everyone.
“The ballroom’s maximum capacity is about 550. With more than 125 degree candidates and guests, we would easily fill the space, said Carol Mawyer, Assistant Director of Student Services and Scholastic Journalism. “By taking our ceremony off campus we won’t have to limit the number of guests each graduate can bring. Some of our students have spent four, five, six years in school; they shouldn’t have to choose only four guests to witness this important event.
River Road Church, Baptist, located at 8000 River Road, [Richmond, VA 23229], is 6 miles from the Monroe Park campus. (Visitors should allow 15-20 minutes travel time.) The church’s sanctuary seats 900 people.
Parking is limited to 275 vehicles. School officials are encouraging graduates to ride to the ceremony with their guests. All graduation candidates need to arrive at River Road Church, Baptist no later than 1:15 p.m. Doors will open at 1 p.m. for family and friends. The ceremony will begin at 2 p.m. Due to the limited about of parking, carpooling is strongly encouraged.
Students planning to participate in the May 16th ceremony, should sign the Intent to Participate list and indicate the number of guests who will attend. This list is located in the Mass Comm front administrative offices, Temple 2216.
Featured at the graduation ceremony will be guest speaker Donna M. Reed, Vice President of News and Multimedia Strategy, Media General, Publishing Division. Reed leads efforts to improve the quality of Media General’s newspaper journalism and focuses on growing the company’s multimedia initiatives.
