UCF Commencement Ceremonies Information

Over 7,500 students will be graduating from the University of Central Florida beginning May 3, at the UCF Arena. Here is a breakdown of the gradtuate numbers provided by UCF:

6,278 – Bachelor’s Degree
1,155 – Master’s Degree
26 – Education Specialist Degree
109 – Doctoral Degree

With this Spring’s graduation, UCF will have given out over 230,000 degrees since classes began in 1968.

There are five ceremonies happening over a three day period. View the times of each ceremony and guest speaker below:

Thursday 9 a.m. – College of Arts and Humanities and the College of Engineering and Computer Science.

Sanford C. “Sandy” Shugart will be the guest speaker. Shugart is the president of Valencia College, which in 2011 was recognized by the Aspen Institute as the top community college in the nation. Shugart earned his Bachelor of Science, Master of Arts in Teaching, and Ph.D. in Education degrees at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Thursday 2:30 p.m. – College of Health and Public Affairs and the College of Medicine.

State Rep. William Proctor will be the guest speaker. Proctor served for 30 years as president of Flagler College in St. Augustine and is now its chancellor. He was elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 2004, where he chairs the Education Committee. Proctor attended classes at the University of Florida and Stetson University before earning his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from Florida State University while serving in the Army Reserve.

Friday’s 9 a.m. – College of Business Administration and the College of Nursing.

The speaker will be Daniel Webster, who was elected in November 2010 to serve as the U.S. representative for Florida’s 8th Congressional District. Webster served in the Florida House of Representatives and the Florida Senate for nearly 30 years before heading to Washington, D.C. Webster graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering.

Friday’s 2:30 p.m. – College of Education and the Rosen College of Hospitality Management.

The speaker will be Jeff Atwater. Atwater is Florida’s chief financial officer, responsible for oversight of consumer services, workers’ compensation, insurance services, risk management and other programs. The fifth-generation Floridian has been in public service for nearly 20 years, having served as vice mayor of North Palm Beach and in the Florida House of Representatives and the Florida Senate. He earned his Bachelor of Finance and his Master of Business Administration degrees from the University of Florida.

Saturday’s 9 a.m. – College of Optics and Photonics, the College of Undergraduate Studies, the College of Graduate Studies, and the College of Sciences.

The speaker will be Belvin Perry Jr., chief judge of the Ninth Judicial Circuit Court of Florida. The court serves Orange and Osceola counties. Perry has served as the court’s chief judge since 1995, with a brief hiatus from 1999 to 2001 when he served as the circuit judge for the Orange County Civil Court. Perry received his Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of History and Master of Education degrees from Tuskegee University in Alabama. He then earned his juris doctorate from the Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University.

For more information, visit the commencement web page at http://www.registrar.sdes.ucf.edu/commencement.