UA to Hold Spring Commencement Exercises May 4-6

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The University of Alabama will hold its spring commencement exercises May 4-6 at Coleman Coliseum on the UA campus.

UA has more than 5,700 pending degree candidates.

Graduates will participate in five different ceremonies over that weekend, with graduates from the College of Communication & Information Sciences, College of Human Environmental Sciences and School of Social Work leading commencement weekend at 4:30 p.m., Friday, May 4.

Students from the College of Arts & Sciences will participate in a 9 a.m. ceremony Saturday, May 5, followed by the Culverhouse College of Business at 1:30 p.m. and the College of Education, College of Engineering and Capstone College of Nursing at 6 p.m.

The UA School of Law will hold its commencement ceremony at 2 p.m., Sunday, May 6.

Three longtime UA faculty members will serve as commencement marshals May 4-5. Dr. Steve Miller, who coordinates and teaches in the master of fine arts’ book arts program in the School of Library & Information Studies, will lead the platform party to the stage during the  afternoon ceremonies May 4, 5. Miller has taught at UA since 1988 and has been elected UA’s Faculty Senate president four times. He has collaborated with Cuban artists and authors for a series of books and has worked with numerous Nobel Prize honorees and U.S. poet laureates. In 2012, Miller received the Distinguished Career Award from the College Book Art Association.

Dr. Kathryn Oths will lead the morning ceremony May 5. Oths is a medical anthropologist with specialization in Andean Latin America. She began teaching at UA in 1990 and was awarded the Distinguished Teaching Fellow in 2014 and both the Morris Lehman Mayer Award and the A&S Leadership Board Outstanding Commitment to Teaching in 2005.

Dr. Kenneth Clark Midkiff, who has served as head of the department of mechanical engineering since 2011, will lead the evening ceremony May 5. He joined UA in August 1986 and has also served as director of the Center for Advanced Vehicle Technologies since 2002. Midkiff has held the offices of secretary, vice president and president of the UA Faculty Senate, and he worked on one presidential and two provost searches. He received the National Outstanding Advisor Award of Theta Tau Professional Engineering Fraternity and the College of Engineering’s T. Morris Hackney Endowed Faculty Leadership Award.

Frank S. James, who was a shareholder for 25 years at the law firm of Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell and Berkowitz, P.C., will deliver the University of Alabama School of Law commencement address May 6. James, a UA alumnus, began his legal career as a law clerk for U.S. District Judge Virgil Pittman. He served as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Alabama and assistant dean and professor of law at the School of Law.

For more information about commencement and links to live broadcasts of each ceremony, visit https://www.ua.edu/commencement/. Videos will be archived on this site for 30 days following the ceremony.