Tennessee Tech celebrates its largest graduation ceremony in school history with Friday’s Commencement exercises.
News and Public Relations Director Jonathan Frank said more than 1,600 students are eligible to participate in the spring event. Frank said the record-breaking class includes more than 1,500 students graduating this semester along with a group of summer graduates cleared to walk early.
“The word I would use is historic,” Frank said. “We’ve been crunching the numbers and by all accounts, this appears to be the largest commencement in Tennessee Tech history, which is pretty exciting. I mean, here we are more than 110 years later and Tennessee Tech is still setting records.”
Frank said the high number of graduates reflects significant improvements the university has made regarding its student retention and on-time graduation rates. Frank said the achievement represents a major win for the state because the majority of these graduates will remain in Tennessee to contribute their expertise to local communities.
“Well, of course, we’ve had a key emphasis on experiential learning here at Tennessee Tech, and I think what you’ll see is that this is a graduating class that’s going to be career-ready,” Frank said. “They’re going to have a leg up in the workforce because of opportunities that they’ve had at Tennessee Tech, the faculty who have invested in them, the resources like our Center for Career Development.”
Frank said the graduating class is geographically diverse, with students representing 85 Tennessee counties, 32 states, and 22 different countries. Frank said the age range of the class is also notable, with the oldest graduate born in 1957 and the youngest born in 2006.
“I think it’s proof that an education at Tennessee Tech can be accessible for anyone,” Frank said. “The youngest graduate was born in 2006. So they’ll be presumably, you know, they’re 19 or 20 years old and clearly finished their degree very quickly.”
Frank said the university has seen its value increase as a nationally ranked institution for 11 consecutive years. Frank said Tennessee Tech graduates currently earn the highest starting salaries of any public university graduates in the state.
“As Tech continues to enhance and improve, the value of their Tennessee Tech degree improves along with that,” Frank said. “When we talk about that, I’d love to cite the fact that as evidence of how prepared our graduates are, we continue our Tennessee Tech graduates continue to have the highest starting salaries of any public university graduates in the state of Tennessee.”
The university will hold two separate ceremonies at 9am and 2pm to accommodate the large number of graduates. Frank said the events will feature short video messages from multiple speakers, including Tennessee Tech Head Football Coach Bobby Wilder, graduating senior Hannah Grace Boswell, and TheUCNow.Com’s Larry Stone.
“We get great feedback from students and parents about this,” Frank said. “And it’s a way to expose the graduates to multiple voices and perspectives without keeping them in their seats for too long.”