By Nathan Driskell, Student Reporter

With graduation deadlines behind them, graduation candidates have only to pick up their gown and mortarboards next week, attend their respective commencement rehearsals and walk across the stage May 13.

On May 12, two commencement rehearsals will take place, as opposed to previous years when all candidates participated in a single rehearsal. Registrar Danelle Brand said she thinks this will be an improvement on previous years.

“I think it’s going to work better because each group can actually walk through the rehearsal, whereas that didn’t happen before,” Brand said.

Brand advised all graduating students to check to make sure their hood is the right color for their department when they pick up their gowns and mortarboards at The Campus Store next week.

“Usually one is mispackaged, and if [students] could just catch it while they are there, it would save time,” Brand said.

Rehearsals on May 12 will take place at 3 p.m. for the College of Biblical Studies, the College of Business Administration and the Patty Hanks Shelton School of Nursing; and at 4 p.m. for the College of Arts and Sciences. All candidates for graduation are expected to attend, along with their escorts.

Brand said the rehearsals are divided this year to accommodate the college awards ceremony for the College of Biblical Studies and the College of Business Administration. During the college awards ceremony, the College of Arts and Sciences will rehearse.

“The College of Arts and Sciences doesn’t have the college awards like the other departments,” Brand said. “Because they’re so large, they have departmental awards, and those have already been done at other occasions.”

The undergraduate processional line-up on May 13 will take place in Teague Special Events Center at 10:30 a.m. for the College of Biblical Studies, the College of Business Administration and the Patty Hanks Shelton School of Nursing, and at 2:30 p.m. for the College of Arts and Sciences. Two separate commencements will take place for the two groups of colleges – at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.

Brand said she expects the morning commencement, which includes the Graduate School of Theology, to last longer than in previous years because of the high number of graduate students in the college. Kacey Higgins, assistant to the dean of the graduate school, said she attributes the higher number to a steady enrollment increase over the past several years. Eighteen candidates for the Master of Divinity degree will graduate this year, as opposed to four last May and eight in May of 2004, Higgins said.