Spring commencement ceremonies set for Saturday

The University of West Georgia's spring commencement ceremonies will be held on Saturday, April 28 at UWG's Coliseum.

There will be two ceremonies, at 9:30 a.m. and 2 p.m.

The speaker for both will be Hank Huckaby, chancellor of the University System of Georgia.

Huckaby began serving as chancellor in July 2011. His career has focused on a long record of public service to the state of Georgia in many areas of government, including the University System, where he earned both his undergraduate and graduate degrees. He has headed up at various times in his career the Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget, the Georgia Department of Community Affairs, and the Georgia Residential Finance Authority.

Huckaby also served in the Georgia House of Representatives in 2011, prior to taking the helm at the USG, representing Georgia House District 113 as a Republican. His legislative experience also includes a stint as the director of the Georgia State Senate Research Office.

UWG also proudly announces that it will award an honorary doctorate to Bob Stone, a former faculty member who is founder and chairman of Systems and Methods Inc., a data processing firm.

Stone, who earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Georgia Institute of Technology, began his career at Lockheed Aircraft – Georgia Division, followed by stints at Southern Railway and Georgia State University. In 1969, Stone came to West Georgia as an assistant professor of business, where he would become chairman of the computer center committee and director of the business internship program.

In 1971, while still at West Georgia, he founded SMI, a computer service bureau that offered payroll, accounting and consulting servicing. His company automated a food stamp process and donated it to Carroll County. Shortly thereafter, SMI was serving all 159 counties in Georgia. The company would grow to deliver over $1 billion in food stamp services to 15 states. In the 1980s and 1990s, SMI was the largest private issuance provider of food stamps in the nation. SMI has since developed and supported information systems for tracking data for Health and Human Services agencies and processing child support payments and check imaging.

Here are the approved order and times for University of West Georgia Spring Commencement on Saturday:

9:30 a.m.
College of Arts and Humanities
College of Education
School of Nursing

2 p.m.
Richards College of Business
College of Science and Mathematics
College of Social Sciences