Spring Commencement is Friday. I can’t believe I’m wrapping up my first academic year at Missouri State University. I feel like it was just last week I was helping our first-year students move into the residence halls.

We’ve crammed a lot into the past year: we hired a new provost and dean of libraries, made substantial progress on the new strategic plan, welcomed a new athletics director, announced a new chancellor for our West Plains campus, activated University Council and the list goes on.

Thank you to everyone who made this a successful year!

And now commencement … we’ll celebrate our Missouri State graduates at four commencement ceremonies – three ceremonies Friday on the Springfield campus and one ceremony Saturday at the West Plains campus.

Springfield campus, Great Southern Bank Arena

• 9 a.m. – McQueary College of Health and Human Services and College of Natural and Applied Sciences; the speaker is Susan Hardy, a former student representative on the Board of Governors and graduating senior
• 1 p.m. – Reynolds College of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities; the speaker is Tamia Schiele, Student Body president and graduating senior
• 5 p.m. – Darr College of Agriculture, College of Business and Interdisciplinary Academic Programs; the speaker is Sgt. Major (retired) Lanny Asepermy and he will be presented the honorary doctorate degree

West Plains campus, West Plains Civic Center

• 2 p.m. – All programs; the speaker is Dr. Karla Eslinger, Missouri commissioner of education

Leading up to Friday’s ceremonies, university leadership served the late-night President’s Finals Breakfast to our students last night from 9-11 p.m. at Blair-Shannon Dining Hall. It seems students studying for finals really work up an appetite.

We’ll have our May Board of Governors committee and regular meetings on Thursday. I invite everyone to attend if your schedule allows. It’s a great learning experience on the governance of the university if you haven’t attended in the past. We’ll present the legislative summary for the year and the FY2026 operating budget among other things.

I hope everyone was able to work through the aftermath of last Tuesday’s storm. A big thank you to our grounds and facilities crews who’ve worked hard to restore order to campus in time for commencement.

Thanks for checking in. It’s a great day to be a Bear!

Biff