More than 1,500 students participated in the fall 2013 commencement ceremony that took place on Dec. 21, 2013 at the Convocation Center.
At the ceremony, Eastern Michigan University President Susan Martin said this was the largest graduating class for a fall semester in the history of EMU.
Senior and special education major Michelle McTyre said she finds this record breaking statistic inspiring in light of the safety issues Eastern Michigan University had during the fall semester.
“It gives hope and inspiration to students like me who still attend the university,” McTyre said. “It’s good to know there are a lot of hard-working students at EMU. ‘Education First’ is an appropriate slogan.”
An EMU news release published April 26, 2013 declared an increase of more than 27 percent in graduating students since 2007.
According to a study on nces.ed.gov, the retention rate in 2012 for first time undergrads was 75 percent for full-time students and 58 percent for part-time students.
The website also showed that the graduation rate at EMU in 2012 was 37 percent. Since the publication of this study, EMU enrolled a record breaking 2,872 freshman students for the 2013-2014 academic school year, according to an EMU news release published Sept. 17, 2013.
Senior and linguistics major Bram Sanvordenker said he’s happy more students are coming and finishing their degrees at the institute.
“Eastern is a school devoted to the improvement and development of its students despite recent safety concerns,” Sanvordenker said. “I feel that an earnest effort is being made to keep students safe. Safety will be reflected in the graduation and enrollment rates.”
In a message from President Martin for the fall 2013 commencement ceremony, she said “the value of a college degree is more important than ever before. You [the graduates] have earned your place among the university’s proud alumni family, more than 160,000 strong.”
