Issue: Summer 2015 | Posted: June 8, 2015
1050 U.U. Drive
Record-high 718 students graduate from Union at spring commencement
Robbie Pierson, Christian studies graduate, hugs Dub Oliver, president of the university, after he receives his diploma at the Spring Commencement Services.
As she marched in the graduation ceremony, Sandra Williams couldn’t help but reflect on her memories of Union through the years.
Union University’s 190th annual spring commencement on May 16 marked the 50th anniversary of Williams’ graduation from Union in 1965. She taught at Union for more than 20 years before her retirement in 2003, and since then has still been teaching as an adjunct instructor.
“Union has been so very good to me,” Williams said. “I just wanted to celebrate the fact that I’m still able to be at Union and to say that I’m thankful for the many years that I’ve had this kind of relationship with the school.”
To celebrate the occasion, Williams got special permission to march with the faculty in Saturday’s ceremony. Dressed in their academic regalia, the faculty led the way for the 718 students who received their degrees in Oman Arena— the largest graduation in Union’s history. Because of rain and the large size of the graduating class, the university held two separate ceremonies—one for graduate and adult studies students and one for undergraduate students.
Steve Gaines, pastor of Bellevue
Baptist Church in Cordova, Tennessee,
and a Union alumnus, delivered the
commencement address, challenging
graduates to devote themselves to prayer,
to the power of God’s Spirit and to the
proclamation of the gospel – three traits
that characterized the early Christian
church in Acts.
“We’re on a downward slope,” Gaines said about the moral and spiritual climate of the day. “You’re graduating in serious days. Serious days require serious Christians.”
Gaines’ daughter Bethany Gaines Golding received her bachelor’s degree in teaching and learning as part of the ceremony.
School of Pharmacy graduates line up before the spring commencement services begin.
Union presented the Elizabeth Tigrett Medal to Phillip Richard Kurtzweil, a biochemistry major from Wichita, Kansas. The award honors the mother of Isaac B. Tigrett, a former interim president at Union, as well as a benefactor and trustee. The medal has been awarded since 1912 by vote of the entire Union faculty to an outstanding member of the senior class.
Earlier in the day, Union held a commissioning service for graduates in G.M. Savage Memorial Chapel. Union President Samuel W. “Dub” Oliver encouraged graduates to heed the simple two-word command that Jesus so often repeated: “Follow me.”
“We bless you as you graduate from Union and are praying for you as you courageously and faithfully follow God’s call on your lives,” Oliver said. “And, we hope you will be incredibly successful. But we only want that as you faithfully follow Jesus.”
Oliver said the first step in the Christian life is obedience to those two words.
“And, the whole pathway of the
Christian life is traveled in obedience
to those two words,” he said. “It’s not
complicated. When Jesus says, ‘Follow
me,’ he demands submission of the whole
being, and from that moment we don’t get
ahead of him, we go after him.”
Commissioning Service for Graduates
Commencement for Adult & Graduate Students
Commencenment for Undergraduate Students