A record number of St. Edward’s University students are set to graduate May 8 in what university officials promise will be the biggest graduation ceremony in university history.

A total of 649 students are scheduled to walk the stage at the graduation ceremony at the Frank Erwin Center, located on the campus of the University of Texas. Last year, 640 students received degrees at the ceremony.

Of the graduating seniors, 491 are traditional undergraduates, 71 are from the New College and 87 are graduate students.

The university also has plans to make the graduation ceremony bigger in other ways.

“We wanted to make it better in honor the 125th [anniversary] celebration,” university spokeswoman Mischelle Diaz said.

‘Whrrl’wind Ceremony

Normally, St. Edward’s discourages the use of cell phones in classes. At graduation, cell phones are encouraged.

That is because St. Edward’s will be using the social media network Whrrl to capture student perspectives during graduation.

Diaz said she hopes students will sign up for a Whrrl account and use their smart phones to take photos. After the students have all walked the stage, university President George Martin will invite students to upload their notes and photos to the specially created St. Edward’s group.

“Students will be able to see commencement from so many points of view – literally hundreds and hundreds of perspectives,” Diaz said.

Humanities Professor Charlie Fern suggested the network. Fern was familiar with Whrrl through John Kim, Whrrl’s vice president of marketing. The Marketing Office met with Whrrl executives during South-by-Southwest.

Whrrl spokeswoman Heather Meeker said that this is the first graduation ceremony Whrrl has covered. She said Whrrl was chosen because it offers a more real experience than other social networks.

“People are inherently less social because of social networking,” Meeker said. “Our goal is to get them back out in the real world.”

Diaz said that traditionalists will not need to worry about students giving Whrrl a whirl.

“There shouldn’t be any disruption to the tradition of commencement,” Diaz said.

Diaz also said the university will have some monitoring capabilities to keep students from posting obscene photos. But, she added, the university hopes it will not be necessary.

“We realize that this gives anyone the opportunity to post something inappropriate,” Diaz said. “We really hope that people will be respectful.”

Commencement Speaker

Cardinal Theodore McCarrick will be the ceremony’s commencement speaker. He accepted the invitation from Martin after winning the approval of the university’s board of trustees.

McCarrick will also be appearing at the Baccalaureate Mass May 7 alongside recently-named Austin Bishop Joe S. Vasquez.

It is unusual for a commencement speaker to agree to participate in the Baccalaureate Mass, Diaz said. It will also be Vasquez’s first Baccalaureate Mass since he was named as a bishop.

McCarrick was one of the 115 cardinals who helped elect fellow cardinal Joseph Ratzinger to the papacy in 2005. Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, has recently come under fire for his role in the Catholic church sex abuse scandal.

McCarrick, a national human rights activist, has been heavily involved in education and supported the creation of Forward in Faith, a Washington D.C.-based opportunity scholarship program helping children from low-income families to attend private schools. He also serves and directs many organizations devoted to humanitarian causes throughout the world.

In his capacity as Archbishop of Washington, D.C., Cardinal McCarrick was chancellor of The Catholic University of America as well as president of the board of trustees at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

Graduation ceremonies will begin at 10 a.m. May 8.

 

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