Nebraska to grant 600 degrees at August commencement

The ceremony will begin at 9 a.m., with doors opening to the public at 7:30 a.m. The university will award doctoral, Juris Doctor, master’s and baccalaureate degrees.

Interim Chancellor Katherine S. Ankerson will preside over the ceremony. Susan Sheridan — founding director of the Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families and Schools and George Holmes Professor of educational psychology, who recently retired — will deliver the keynote address. The university also will bestow a posthumous Doctor of Education on Louise Pound, a Husker alumna and longtime professor who blazed many trails in her lifetime.

Sheridan earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in psychology from Western Illinois University and a doctorate in educational psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She joined the faculty in the Department of Educational Psychology at Nebraska in 1998 after beginning her career at the University of Utah. Over the course of her career, she received more than $75 million in grant funding and authored more than 230 books, chapters and articles. She was the first Husker faculty member to be elected to the National Academy of Education.

Sheridan’s primary research area was a model of service delivery known as Teachers and Parents as Partners, which focuses on bringing parents, teachers and other care providers together to develop positive relationships and address concerns they share for children. Her work also examined early childhood education and development, children’s social-emotional skills, rural education and parental engagement.

Shortly after arriving at Nebraska, Sheridan began building what would become the Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families and Schools, which was officially founded in 2004 as an interdisciplinary research center within the College of Education and Human Sciences.

Pound (1872-1958) was a distinguished literary scholar, athlete, musician and advocate for women’s sports. She devoted her career to preserving Nebraska’s native folklore and pioneered studies in philology, a combination of literary criticism, history and linguistics used to study language in written and historical contexts. Born in Lincoln, she graduated from the University of Nebraska with a bachelor’s degree in 1892 and a master’s degree in 1895. When American universities would not admit her for graduate study, Pound went on to earn a doctorate at the University of Heidelberg in Germany. She returned to NU and taught in the English department for 48 years.

As a scholar, Pound crusaded for the serious study of American English and helped found the field’s leading journal. She also fought to open athletic and professional opportunities for women. Pound established the Black Masque, a senior women’s honor society, later known as Mortar Board. She also helped NU become the first university in the nation to allow women cheerleaders.

Pound was a star tennis player, winning the Lincoln city tennis championship in 1890 and the university’s men’s singles and doubles titles in 1891 and 1892. She also served as captain and played center on NU’s first women’s basketball team. She is the only woman in the university’s history to receive a men’s varsity letter, in tennis. In 1897, Pound won the Women’s Western Championship and was rated the top tennis player in the country. She was also a cyclist, figure skater, skier and golfer.

Two buildings on the university’s City Campus have been named in her honor — a high-rise dormitory, which stood from 1969 to 2017; and a multi-use building, former home of the College of Business, which was renamed in 2018. A bronze sculpture of Pound, riding a bicycle with a tennis racket and a stack of books, is set to be unveiled near Pound Hall on Sept. 18. Learn more about the project.

To maintain a secure environment, the arena enforces a clear-bag policy that limits the size and type of bag that may be brought into the venue. Details are available here. To avoid inconveniences, guests and graduates are encouraged to arrive early and travel light.

No tickets are required for the ceremony, and there is no limit to the number of guests per graduate. The public may sit in any non-reserved seats other than on the main floor, which is set for graduates, faculty and dignitaries. Accessible seating is available on the concourse level in Sections 106, 107, 110, 112, 114, 117 and 118. Beverage stands will be open. Open captioning for people with hearing impairment will be provided through the ribbon screens at the corners of the arena concourse level. Guest services and first aid will be on Level 3 at Gate 112.

Paid parking, including accessible spaces, is available in Haymarket area garages and on the street. For more information, go here. Street closures in the Haymarket area will be in effect Aug. 15 due to a farmers market. Street congestion may occur.

A drop-off area for mobility-restricted guests will be available on R Street, just south of Pinnacle Bank Arena.

Graduating students are to check in no later than 8:20 a.m. for the ceremony. Graduates should enter the south lobby, off R Street. A graduate-only entrance sign will be posted. Participants should bring their NCard, or a photo ID and NU ID number, for check-in. Graduates will be given a name/number card to find their place in the processional lineup. They should bring this card to the stage to receive their diploma. Limited coat room space will be available, so graduates are encouraged to leave personal items with family or friends.

Graduates with accessibility concerns should contact the Office of the University Registrar at gradservices.registrar@unl.edu.

The ceremony is expected to last two-and-a-half hours. Graduates and their guests are asked to stay for the entire ceremony.

The ceremony will be streamed here and broadcast live on Spectrum channel 1303 and Kinetic channel 1080.