UT Knoxville College of Engineering Holds Spring 2011 Commencement
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| Happy faces at the College of Engineering's 2011 Commencement Ceremony on May 11, 2011. |
KNOXVILLE, Tennessee–The College of Engineering Spring 2011 graduation ceremony took place on Wednesday, May 11, with over 253 engineering graduates participating in the ceremony. A group of approximately 2,300 parents, friends and relatives attended the event, which took place in Thompson-Boling Arena on the UT-Knoxville campus at 11:30 a.m.
Dr. Wayne Davis, dean of engineering, led the academic procession that signaled the beginning of the ceremony. The procession included associate deans, department heads and faculty representatives. Dr. Jimmy G. Cheek, chancellor of the UT Knoxville campus, also attended the ceremony.
Mr. Spruell Driver, a 1987 industrial engineering alumnus, was the commencement speaker. Driver, a practicing attorney who received his law degree in 1991 from Duke Law School, is a current member of the UT Board of Trustees and was president of the UT National Alumni Association from 2004-2005. He also served as National Chair of the association’s Annual Giving Program in 2005-2006 and is a former member of the College of Engineering’s Board of Advisors.
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| COE Dean Wayne Davis (right) presents a plaque to the college's 2011 commencement ceremony speaker, industrial engineering alumnus Spruell Driver. |
The college’s top student, David Christopher Flowers, a chemical engineering major, was also recognized.
In addition to the commencement activities, the event also featured a military ceremony, where Lt. Colonel Michael S. Angle, a professor of aerospace studies at UT, officially commissioned four COE graduates into the U.S. Air Force. The new second lieutenants are Joshua Coughenour, Jonathan Crow, Timothy McLerran and Alexandra Pattenn.
A highlight of the event was when Jacob Okumu Oyier, a student from Kenya, and Mark Edmund Tominey, a student from England, received their degrees at the end of the ceremonies. The two civil engineering majors had just been granted status as U.S. citizens in a ceremony that took place at 8:00 a.m. in Greeneville, Tenn. and had to rush back to Knoxville to get to their graduation event.
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| Civil engineering graduates and new U.S. citizens Jacob Oyier (left) and Mark Tominey (right). |
“The coincidence of the two events being on the same day was a very big blessing to me,” Oyier said. “It was exciting.”
“It was a little nerve-wracking, but very exhilarating,” Tominey said. “My parents had traveled all the way from England to see me graduate and my wife and two sons were there too, so I was really happy it worked out so well.”
In recent years, the university’s colleges have been conferring diplomas during smaller, more individualized graduation events.
For more information, contact Kim Cowart, Communications Manager, Office of Engineering Communications, at (865) 974-0686/kcowart@utk.edu.