NSU Spring Commencement Ceremony Announced

Northwestern State University’s will hold its Spring Commencement Exercises Friday, May 4 in Prather Coliseum.

Undergraduate and graduate students from the College of Arts and Letters and the College of Education and Human Development will receive diplomas at 10 a.m.  Undergraduate and graduate students from the College of Nursing and Allied Health and undergraduate students from the College of Science, Technology and Business will graduate at 3 p.m.  Dr. Randy Moffett, president of the University of Louisiana System, will be the commencement speaker.

Members of the Class of 1962 will receive second diplomas in recognition of the 50th anniversary of their graduation at the 3 p.m. ceremony. Commencement will be streamed online at nsula.edu. 

Those wishing to get the best available seating should plan to arrive at least an hour prior to the ceremony.  Seating on the arena floor is available for those who are mobility impaired. Prather Coliseum is located at 350 S. Jefferson St. at the corner of S. Jefferson St. and Caspari St. on the Northwestern State campus. 

Moffett is president of the University of Louisiana System, a nine-university system that includes Northwestern State and enrolls more than 90,000 students and offers more than 600 degree programs. He has been system president since 2008.  Over the past four years, Moffett oversaw the search and selection of four university presidents and guided the System's universities through a series of budget reductions while improving operational efficiency, accountability and performance.  Under his leadership, the UL System increased admission standards, enhanced access to community college students, expanded online degree offerings, implemented a 120-hour degree standard, increased retention rates, reduced time to degree, increased the number of degrees awarded and raised graduation rates. 

From 2001 until 2008, he was president of Southeastern Louisiana University. Prior to his campus presidency, he worked at Southeastern in various staff, faculty and administrative positions for more than 25 years.  Moffett oversaw Southeastern's transition from being an open-admissions institution to one that embraced admission standards ahead of the state's time schedule. In spite of this move, the university maintained a strong enrollment of approximately 15,000 students, making it the third largest university in the state of Louisiana. 

Moffett received a bachelor’s degree from Louisiana Tech, a master’s from NSU and a doctorate at LSU. He was a 2011 inductee into the Northwestern State AlumniHall of Distinction, the Long Purple Line.