Office of Media Relations
Phone: (318) 274-2418
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For Immediate Release: May 2, 2008
Annual Spring Commencement set for May 18
GRAMBLING---- The annual Spring commencement
exercises at Grambling State University will be Sunday, May 18 at 10:00
a.m. in the University assembly center on the GSU campus.
Over 400 students will be conferred undergraduate and graduate degrees during
the annual ceremony. Noted Ruston businessman, humanitarian and philanthropist,
James Ellis Davison will receive an honorary doctorate degree. He is a former
member of the University of Louisiana System where he once served as chairman
of that higher education governing body. 
Dr. Charlie Nelms, chancellor of North Carolina Central University will give the keynote address. Nelms, the schools tenth president, is the former vice-president for institutional development and student affairs for the Indiana University System. As vice-president, he was responsible for a combination of duties on the Bloomington campus and the system-wide that spanned university planning, institutional research and effectiveness, enrollment management, student affairs, student retention and diversity and equity. In September 2001, TIME magazine named Indiana University's Bloomington campus the number one student-centered research University in the nation.
A native of Crawford, Arkansas, Nelms received a bachelor's degree in agronomy and chemistry at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff in 1968. He later earned a master's degree in higher education and student affairs in 1971 from Indiana University. A committed educator, Nelms also received his doctorate in higher education administration from Indiana University in 1977. He is involved in numerous civic and professional organizations.
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