UW’s Winter Grads Retire Field House as Commencement Site

The commissioner of the U.S. Naturalization and Immigration Service will join some 2,500 UW–Madison students eligible for mid-year graduation, their families and friends in closing out the UW Field House’s more than 60 years of history as the site of winter commencement.

The Field House has hosted every UW winter commencement since the facility opened in 1931. Since 1991, the university also has held spring exercises in the Field House, since unpredictable weather and the huge number of participants at spring commencements made the traditional outdoor location at Camp Randall no longer feasible. Starting in May 1998, all UW–Madison graduations will take place in the new Kohl Center.

UW–Madison Secretary of the Faculty David Musolf, whose office coordinates commencement, says this December’s exercises are bound to be bittersweet for all concerned.

“There are a great many memories connected with the Field House,” he says. “This commencement will serve as a sort of torch-passing to the Kohl Center. Graduates and their friends and families will be helping to mark a significant point in the history of the university.”

The two 1997 ceremonies on Dec. 21 will feature Doris Meissner of the INS as commencement speaker. Meissner, a Milwaukee native, earned both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the UW. Active in Washington organizations since 1971, Meissner was sworn in as INS commissioner in 1993.

All professional, Ph.D., master’s and master of fine arts degrees, along with bachelor’s degrees in agriculture, education, human ecology, medicine, nursing and pharmacy, will be awarded at 1 p.m. At 4 p.m., candidates for bachelor’s degrees in the School of Business and the Colleges of Engineering and Letters and Science will have their turn.

In addition to the regular commencement ceremonies, the ROTC will commission its December graduatess at a cermonies Dec. 21 at 6 p.m. in the Capitol’s Senate chambers.

No tickets will be required for the ceremonies. Parking will be available on the street, and in adjacent university lots on a first-come, first-served basis. Alcohol is strictly prohibited.

For more information, call the university’s commencement hotline, 262-9076.