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By Larry B. Dendy
ldendy@uga.edu
The university will hold its first summer commencement in 25 years on Aug. 15 when an expected 700 students will receive degrees in Stegeman Coliseum.
 Georgia Secretary of State Cathy Cox will speak at the 10 a.m. ceremony for undergraduate and graduate students who completed degree requirements at the end of summer semester.
This will be the second commencement UGA has added since converting to a semester calendar in 1998. In addition to the traditional May exercises for spring semester graduates, a December commencement ceremony was begun for students who complete degree requirements at the end of fall semester.
Until 1974, a small commencement ceremony was held for students who graduated at the end of summer quarter.
At the request of President Michael F. Adams, University Council reinstated the summer ceremony so students who finish their studies at the end of summer semester don’t have to come back to campus in December to participate in commencement.
Gary Moore, registrar, estimates that approximately 1,200 students completed degree requirements at the end of summer semester. He estimates about 700 will attend commencement, including about 450 candidates for undergraduate degrees, 175 master’s and specialist candidates and 75 doctoral candidates.
The ceremony will include the traditional ritual in which Ph.D. candidates receive the academic hood from their major professor or a member of the graduate faculty. Candidates for master’s and specialist degrees will walk across the stage and shake hands with Adams and Gordhan Patel, dean of the Graduate School. Undergraduate candidates will stand in the audience as their names are called.
Jennifer Annest Middlebrooks will be recognized as a First Honor Graduate. Middlebrooks is receiving a bachelor of science degree in education. First Honor Graduates are undergraduates who have maintained a perfect 4.0 grade point average.
Cox, the commencement speaker, was elected in 1998 as Georgia’s first female secretary of state and the first female Democrat to win a statewide elective post. She previously had been assistant secretary of state for three years and served in the State House of Representatives for three years.
Cox received a journalism degree from UGA in 1980 and was a newspaper reporter in Gainesville and her hometown of Bainbridge before earning a law degree from Mercer University. She was in private law practice in Atlanta and Bainbridge before joining the secretary of state’s office.
Cox was named 1994 Conservation Legislator of the Year by the Georgia Wildlife Federation. The Georgia Commission on Women named her the 2000 Woman of the Year.
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