A JU Commencement Ceremony Update

January 18, 2018

To our Jacksonville University Community:

Welcome back!

We have hit the ground running this semester as we drive toward further progress at Jacksonville University, creating more ways to better serve our students, faculty, and staff. Thank you for your dedication and hard work.

As we have evolved and matured as an academic institution, for the first time in our 84-year history, our University will celebrate separate baccalaureate (undergraduate) and graduate commencement ceremonies this Spring.

Our goal throughout this thoughtful process has been to maintain the prestige and honor of our Commencement tradition, and to give the full recognition deserved for student academic achievement. These dedicated ceremonies will be identical in format and will allow closer connection between faculty and students; improve logistics, parking and seating; and help foster a more intimate setting for families celebrating our outstanding graduates at all levels.

The implementation of dual ceremonies serves as a natural precursor to our consideration of the establishment of a Jacksonville University Graduate School. To give this proper review, I have charged our Provost with researching options for how to best organize a formal Graduate School (featuring service, support, and focus, not physical structures) which encompasses all of our Colleges, Schools and Institutes, and I look forward to further study and discussion.

Please join us for our inaugural Graduate Commencement at 6 p.m. Thursday, April 26, and our traditional Baccalaureate Commencement at 9 a.m. Saturday, April 28. Both ceremonies will be located outdoors on the Nelms Science Green.

More details regarding the comprehensive line-up of activities during Commencement Week will soon be posted on the JU Commencement page, and students applying for graduation should do so through Webadvisor, as before. Feel free to contact the Registrar’s Office at (904) 256-7090 or registrar@ju.edu for any Commencement-related questions.

As always, please know that I am proud to serve as President of an institution so completely committed to the excellence, wellbeing and outcomes of its students and their enduring relationship with our outstanding faculty. We can be confident that these two celebrations in late April will yield continuing benefits for our faculty, students and University.

Thank you.

Tim Cost
President
Jacksonville University
Class of 1981