Navy SEAL to speak at Commencement
The speaker for the Spring 2012 Commencement Ceremony was announced in Wednesday’s Faculty Senate meeting in the Merrill-Cazier Library.
Doug Jackson-Smith, senate representative for the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, announced who the commencement speaker would be.
“Our commencement speaker is Eric Greitens. He came to us through a recommendation by one of our trustees,” Jackson-Smith said. “He’s a Truman Scholar, a Navy SEAL, a Purple Heart – all the awards you could possibly have in mind.”
According to his website, Greitens was a Duke Scholar at Duke University, he was selected as a Rhodes and Truman Scholar, and he attended the University of Oxford.
Greitens studies and teaches public service at the Truman School of Public Affairs at the University of Missouri and in the MBA Program at the Olin School of Business at Washington University, his website states.
“Eric donated his combat pay to found The Mission Continues,” Greitens’ website states. “A nonprofit organization, The Mission Continues works with wounded and disabled veterans to build new lives as citizen leaders here at home.”
“He’s the kind of boy, someone said, your grandparents wanted your mother to marry,” Jackson-Smith said. “He’s the whole package. And he’s so young.”
At the beginning of the senate meeting, President Stan Albrecht addressed another upcoming round of tuition hikes.
“The question is: Is tuition going up? And the obvious answer is yes,” Albrecht said. “First of all, comparing ourselves to peer institutions and Western universities, even with the increases, we still remain second lowest. The only one lower is the University of Wyoming.”
Out-of-state tuition at USU is also second lowest when compared to peer institutions, Albrecht said. Even with the increases, out of state tuition will remain near the bottom.
Albrecht said other states experiencing tuition increases included California, Arizona and Washington, citing the recession as the primary reason for the hikes.
Despite the budget cuts the university has taken in past years, Albrecht said the state Legislature is still covering about 59 percent of total costs and tuition covers 41 percent.
“Ten years ago, for every dollar of tuition that we raised, we received $3.50 of state appropriations,” Albrecht said. “Now, for every dollar of tuition that we raise, we receive $1.03 of state appropriations. The cost of higher education is shifting from the state to students.”
Jackson-Smith also listed four individuals who have been nominated to receive honorary degrees.
The honorary degree nominations for 2012 are: Norah Abdullah Alfaiz, the first female deputy minister for education in Saudi Arabia; Quentin L. Cook, a former attorney and current apostle for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; Lars P. Hansen, an internationally known leader in economic dynamics; and John R. Miller, a leader in the U.S. beef industry.
The Faculty Senate also nominated and selected a new Faculty Senate president for the next academic year.
“Most of the meetings, I’ve been encouraging people to think about nominating themselves. I’ve mentioned how good of a gig it is,” said Glenn McEvoy, current Faculty Senate president. “This is a major opportunity for somebody.”
Jackson-Smith nominated Yanghee Kim, who has represented the College of Education and Human Services in the Faculty Senate for one term.
“This is a hard job and a very demanding job,” Jackson-Smith said.
Although Kim was not present at the meeting, the senate elected her as the Faculty Senate president for the next term.
“For the one year that she’s been on the Faculty Senate, I’ve been very impressed with how engaged she’s been. She’s shown a great deal of initiative and interest,” Jackson-Smith said. “She’s interested in faculty and faculty interest and is interested in the work the job takes.”
– cnmoffitt@gmail.com