Congratulations to the Class of 2013!  The COB Spring Commencement ceremony was held May 17 at the John Q. Hammons Arena. David Stoeffler, Executive Editor of the Springfield News-Leader, delivered the commencement address in which he urged students to “run a few yellow lights.”  Stoeffler encouraged students to express caution, but also take risks. To view the complete address and ceremony, click HERE.

Leading up to graduation festivities at the end of the week, the University provided a Storify website featuring Twitter and Instagram posts with #beargrads.  Many COB seniors were featured in photographs or videos and messages of congratulations on this site.  The complete Storify page can be found HERE.

Graduation day also saw a couple of events unique to the COB. The first was the Technology and Construction Management Hardhat Ceremony, in which graduating TCM majors receive their MSU hardhats.  TCM seniors are allowed to wear their hardhat during the MSU graduation ceremony instead of a traditional graduation cap. The second event was a graduation reception for Entertainment Management seniors.  Students in this program gathered with friends and family at the Juanita K. Hammons Hall for the Performing Arts and enjoyed hors d’oeuvres and a special recognition of each graduate from Dr. Philip Rothschild and Dr. Ben Goss. 

This year’s graduating class saw the conferment of 572 undergraduate and 147 graduate degrees. Because the College of Business is so big, we are the only college on campus that doesn’t share a ceremony with another college. We are proud to be the largest college on campus and the largest public college of business in the Midwest region.