SEMO TO CONFER 495 DEGREES AT COMMENCEMENT DEC. 12

Southeast Missouri State University will confer degrees on 495 students at fall commencement on Dec. 12.

Dr. Gary Miller, Southeast music professor, will deliver the commencement address. The commencement ceremony is scheduled for 2 p.m. in the Show Me Center.

In all, 442 undergraduates and 53 graduate students are scheduled to receive degrees.

Leading the class of undergraduates are three students with perfect 4.0 grade point averages: Don Carter of Dutchtown, Jessica Nelms of O'Fallon and Terri Wachter of Altenburg.

Also among the graduating class are three honors scholars and three students earning academic distinction in the department of their major.

The honors scholars are Christie Johnson of Cooter, Danielle Morgan of Van Buren and Jessica Wilson of Grain Valley. During their years at Southeast, honors scholars must maintain a minimum grade point average of 3.25 and complete 24 hours of honors course work, six of which must be at the senior level. They also must complete a senior research project.

Those earning academic distinction are Eric Stevenson of Florissant, Dereck Buford of Fredericktown and Maria Dowdy of Bernie.

Students who graduate with academic distinction must complete a special project in conjunction with a faculty committee, department chairman and dean after having completed at least 75 credit hours of course work with a minimum 3.25 grade point average in their major department and a minimum 3.0 overall grade point average.

In addition, 17 members of Phi Kappa Phi international honor society will be recognized during commencement exercises.

To be eligible, graduating seniors must rank in the upper 10 percent of their class and have a grade point average of at least 3.75 on a four-point scale; graduate students who are near graduation, have a grade point average of at least 3.9 and have an outstanding record also are eligible for consideration.

Seventy-nine undergraduates and 31 graduate students will be honored at an honors convocation, scheduled for 11 a.m. in Academic Auditorium.

Ten students will graduate summa cum laude; 17, magna cum laude; and 43, cum laude. The minimum grade point average to be graduated summa cum laude is 3.9, magna cum laude is 3.75 and cum laude is 3.5. Graduate students participating in the honors convocation must have achieved at least a 3.9 grade point average.