UALR celebrates spring commencement Saturday, May 21, with traditional pomp and circumstance. But this year, new age tools will help friends and family across the globe watch the ceremony in real time and post congratulations as their grad receives his or her degree.

During the ceremonies, UALR Chancellor Joel E. Anderson will present honorary doctorates to Dr. Joseph Francisco, the 2010 president of the American Chemical Society, and to Cheryl Chapman, founding director of UALR Children International.

Graduates of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences; the College of Education; and the College of Professional Studies will receive their degrees at a 9:30 a.m. ceremony at the Jack Stephens Center.

Graduates of the Donaghey College of Engineering and Information Technology (EIT), the College of Science and Mathematics, and the College of Business will receive their degrees at 3 p.m. at the Jack Stephens Center.

Those ceremonies will be streamed live over the internet.

In between the two events at the Stephens Center, the graduation and hooding ceremony for graduates of the William H. Bowen School of Law will begin at 12:30 p.m. at the Wally Allen Ballroom of the Statehouse Convention Center. Minnijean Brown Trickey, a member of the Little Rock Nine who helped integrate Central High School in 1957, will address the graduates. The ceremony will be one of a handful of commencements aired nationally by C-SPAN this graduation season.

This year’s commencement will encourage even more social media participation than ever before. The main campus ceremonies will be streamed live over the internet.

Both the live audience and home audience can follow and contribute to the Twitter stream as we live-tweet using the hashtag “UALRgrad.” A Facebook guestbook will also be available to congratulate graduates on their accomplishments. And as the graduates become alums, they will be invited to join the UALR Alumni Association via text message.

Registrar Joyce Hail said 1,467 seniors will graduate this spring.

The black-robed graduates who will participate in commencement will be led in the processional by silver-robed Suzanne Garcia of Little Rock, the winner of the Edward L. Whitbeck Memorial Award, UALR’s top academic prize. The Whitbeck Award is the greatest distinction UALR bestows on a graduating student based on citizenship, scholarship, and leadership.

Garcia, a Donaghey Scholar who will receive a B.A. degree in English, is the middle child of a single father from Peru. She finished her first two years of college at Pulaski Tech.

At UALR, Garcia was a participant in the Ronald E. McNair Program and recipient of the Benjamin Gilman Scholarship for study abroad. Garcia has maintained a 4.0 grade point average and served as an ambassador for the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, co-editor of the Equinox literary publication, vice president of the international English honor society, co-chair of the Donaghey Scholars Program Council, and volunteer at the Bryant Animal Control Shelter.

Zabelle Stodola, who coordinates the Cooper Honors Program in English, remembers Garcia coming to her office even before classes began, asking what she could do for the Cooper program.

“Dr. Stodola said she’s had students ask about the program before but can’t recall ever hearing a student ask ‘What can I contribute?,’” Provost David Belcher said at the event honoring the Whitbeck Scholar. “And that is the ‘Difference of Degree’ that the UALR television ads are talking about.”