Friday, April 28, 2006

Wilmington, N.C. - University of North Carolina Wilmington will hold its 70th commencement exercises on May 13 in Trask Coliseum. Undergraduates in the College of Arts and Sciences will walk at 9:30 a.m. Graduate students and those in the professional schools (Cameron School of Business, School of Nursing and Watson School of Education) at 2 p.m. An estimated 1,420 undergraduate and 225 graduate students are slated to receive degrees.

This year, UNCW will award its first-ever doctoral degree in Marine Biology to David L. Meyer. He will be hooded during the 2 p.m. ceremony. Meyer presented his dissertation, "A comparison of nekton utilization of smooth cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora) marsh based on marsh size and degree of isolation from like habitat: Do size and site location matter?" on April 5. He earned a bachelor's degree in marine biology in 1982 and a master's degree in coastal biology in 1988, both from UNCW.

Each ceremony will be broadcast live in its entirety by UNCW Television over the Learning Network on Time Warner Cable channel 5 and Charter Cable 12. Rebroadcasts will be scheduled and aired at a later date.

Media Contact: Caroline Cropp, UNCW Media Relations Specialist, (t) 910.962.7109 / (e) croppc@uncw.edu

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