Tarleton to award more than 1,200 degrees, including honorary doctorate

3328 — Tarleton State University will present an honorary doctorate of humane letters to alumnus Lance Crosby during the spring commencement ceremonies.

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STEPHENVILLE (April 21, 2015) — Tarleton State University anticipates awarding 1,205 degrees during spring commencement exercises at Wisdom Gymnasium on May 9 and 10, including an honorary doctorate to alumnus Lance Crosby, founder of the SoftLayer Technologies cloud services company.

Six ceremonies, one for each of the university’s academic colleges, are scheduled, with the first set to begin at 9 a.m. on Saturday, May 9, for bachelor’s degrees from the College of Liberal and Fine Arts. The College of Education will award undergraduate degrees at 11:30 a.m., followed by the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at 2 p.m. and the College of Business Administration at 4:30 p.m.

On Sunday, May 10, the College of Science and Technology will hold its ceremony at 1 p.m., followed by the College of Graduate Studies at 3:30 p.m., when all master’s and doctoral candidates will receive their diplomas. All master’s candidates also will receive their hoods upon crossing the stage at commencement.

Tarleton President F. Dominic Dottavio will preside as 985 bachelor’s 209 master’s and 10 doctoral degrees will be awarded.

The university will award an honorary doctorate of humane letters to alumnus Lance Crosby, who earned bachelor’s degrees in finance and management (1995) and a master’s of business administration (1996) from Tarleton. He later attended Texas Wesleyan University and earned a juris doctorate in 1999 from that institution’s school of law. Crosby is a licensed attorney in the state of Texas and an active member of the State Bar of Texas.

SoftLayer Technologies, Inc., which Crosby led for eight years as a privately held company, was acquired by IBM in mid-2013 for $2 billion. Crosby continues to manage SoftLayer, responsible for the overall success and growth of the company.

In the years since IBM acquired SoftLayer, Crosby has circled the globe touting IBM’s lofty cloud ambitions, while overseeing SoftLayer’s expanding capabilities and integration with the rest of IBM’s cloud offerings.

In 2011, Crosby was named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year and a commissioner on the TechAmerica Foundation’s Commission on the Leadership Opportunity in the U.S. Deployment of the Cloud (CLOUD2). In 2012, he was honored as the Outstanding Young Alumnus by the Tarleton Alumni Association and was named the Metroplex Technology Business Council’s 2013 Corporate CEO of the Year.

The presentation of Departmental Outstanding Graduates will precede each college’s processional. The graduates, selected by the administration and faculty in the student’s major department, are chosen for excelling in leadership as well as academics.

This spring’s honorees include: Gene Collum of Kerrville, criminal justice; Azia Branson of Keller, communication studies; Caitlin Rose of Weatherford, fine arts; Penny Romine of Arlington, social work; Kaytlin Strande of Gillette, Wyo., counseling psychology; Aubrey Brieger of Helotes, curriculum and instruction; Robert Creech of Dublin, kinesiology; Haley Tennes of Pantego, psychology; Raven Crawford of San Antonio, agricultural and consumer sciences; and Sara Mappes of Tucson, Ariz., animal science and veterinary technology.

Also named outstanding graduates this spring are: Bradley Kubecka of Flatonia, wildlife, sustainability and ecosystem sciences; Lisa DeLuca of Frisco, accounting, finance and economics; Monica Medina of Weatherford, marketing and computer information systems; Charles Adams of Weatherford, management; Ashley Musgrave of Decatur, biological sciences; Todd Byers of Coleman, chemistry, geosciences and physics; Caleb Fuchs of Hico, engineering and computer science; Jayden Stewart of Brownwood, engineering technology; Madison Pickrell of Arlington, mathematics; and Kelsie Gray of Cibolo, nursing.

For directions to Wisdom Gymnasium and maps of the Stephenville campus, visit www.tarleton.edu/campus. More information about Tarleton’s upcoming commencement ceremonies may be found online at www.tarleton.edu/graduation.

All graduation proceedings will be video-streamed live online on the Tarleton website, www.tarleton.edu. Specific link information will be posted prior to the event.