MGCCC is expecting another record graduation

Dr. Philip A. Dur, President, Northrup Grumman Ship Systems, 2004 commencement speaker.

A wave of blue mortarboards and gold tassels will wash through Biloxi's Coast Coliseum as Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College celebrates another record-breaking graduation ceremony on May 12. More than 1,460 students from throughout the college’s four-county district have applied for graduation this school year. The ceremony will begin at 7 p.m. at the Coliseum, with nearly 1,000 students and faculty members marching in the processional.

Dr. Willis Lott, Gulf Coast president, says, "The public is invited to this historic ceremony. Graduation is a happy occasion to gather the Gulf Coast family and to recognize the thousands of lives the college touches each year."

According to Coliseum officials, 7,000 people attended last year’s graduation ceremonies, says Colleen Hartfield, chair of the District Graduation Committee. “It’s common for the graduation class to include more than one member of a family who is completing a degree at Gulf Coast,” Hartfield says.

This year’s commencement speaker is Dr. Philip A. Dur, President of Northrop Grumman Ship Systems. Dur oversees shipbuilding operations for the largest builder of non-nuclear ships for the U.S. Navy at its Pascagoula, Gulfport and New Orleans shipyards.

Dur, a decorated rear admiral retired of the U.S. Navy, also holds a bachelor’s degree in government and international studies and master’s degrees in Soviet East European studies from the University of Notre Dame. He earned a second master’s degree in public administration and a doctorate in political economy and government from Harvard University.

Lott says, “Our college and Northrop Grumman Ship Systems, through its Ingalls Operations, have enjoyed a long and beneficial relationship. Our graduates are very fortunate to have the opportunity to hear from the leader of the state’s largest industry.”

This is the fifth consecutive year the college’s graduating class has swelled to a record- breaking number. This growth is being fueled by an increase in full-time student enrollment, which has increased 32 percent since the fall 2000 semester. Last year, almost 60 percent of the college-bound high-school seniors in Jackson, George, Harrison and Stone counties enrolled at Gulf Coast the summer or fall following high-school graduation. In fall 2004, Gulf Coast became Mississippi’s largest community college when enrollment reached 10,231 students.

For more information about graduation, from parking to photos, visit the college’s website at www.mgccc.edu, or call Hartfield at (601) 928-6236.