The University of Central Arkansas will confer over 1,000 degrees at tomorrow’s Commencement exercises, setting an institutional record during a landmark year.
“This class is a significant milestone in UCA’s history and appropriately coincides with the celebration of our 100th anniversary,” said UCA President Lu Hardin. “This large graduating class is due to two factors: First, our extraordinary enrollment growth, and second, our increased graduation rate. I’m proud that, with this extraordinary number, UCA will still hand out each degree individually at tomorrow’s ceremony.”
“This is the largest graduating class in the history of the university, and the first graduating class that was recruited under Lu Hardin’s leadership,” said UCA Registrar Anthony Sitz.
1,008 UCA students will graduate in Spring 2007, as compared to 908 in Spring 2006 and 671 in Spring 2001. UCA has never before awarded over 1,000 degrees to a single class.
It is important to note that tomorrow’s degree ceremony is the first of three that will take place during UCA’s centennial year, and similar increases in the number of graduates are expected at the August and December events.
UCA’s graduation rate is now 55.3 percent — a full nine percentage points better than the average for 4-year public universities in Arkansas (46.3 percent), and an eight percentage point increase over UCA’s rate five years ago.
