By Kristina Goetz
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Spring commencement ceremonies in the Tristate will boast a variety of local and national speakers as thousands of graduates are sent into the real world.

Miami University will see the first parade of robes and diplomas at 3 p.m. May 3 in Yager Stadium in Oxford. Andy Rooney (60 Minutes correspondent) will speak to about 3,000 graduates and their families.

"I am absolutely thrilled for it to be over," said Stephanie Haren, a 22-year-old from Canton, Ohio. "I am doing the ceremony. It is the one time my parents are going to see me graduate."

The event is free and open to the public; tickets are not required.

Elsewhere in the Tristate:

• The University of Dayton will hold its ceremony for 1,606 graduates at 10 a.m. May 4 at the University of Dayton Arena. There is no speaker, but a baccalaureate Mass will be said at 4:30 p.m. May 3 at the same location. Both events are free and open to the public; tickets are not required.

• The College of Mount St. Joseph in Delhi Township will hold two ceremonies May 10 to confer degrees upon 462 students - 10 a.m. for graduate and adult students and 3 p.m. for traditional students. Both will be in Harrington Center. A baccalaureate Mass will be said 6 p.m. May 9 in Mater Dei Chapel.

The morning speaker will be Thomas G. Cody, vice chairman of Federated Department Stores Inc. Cody is also co-chairman of Cincinnati Community Action Now (CAN), a task force charged with identifying and implementing actions to provide greater equality, opportunity and inclusion for all races.

The afternoon speaker will be Mary Anne Gardner of Annandale, Va., a 1970 graduate of the Mount and retired deputy director of the U.S. Navy Nurse Corps. During her 30-year career, she received the Meritorious Service Medal with two gold stars and the Navy Commendation Medal.

Neither ceremony is open to the public.

• At Thomas More College in Crestview Hills, Ky., 290 graduates will gather at 1:30 p.m. May 10 on the lawn of the Holbrook Student Center to hear speaker David B. Dick, a veteran television correspondent for CBS News. In case of rain, the event will be in the Connor Convocation Center. The event is not open to the public.

• Northern Kentucky University in Highland Heights will confer degrees upon 1,165 students at a 10 a.m. ceremony May 17 at the U.S. Bank Arena, downtown. Featured speaker is inventor Dean Kamen, who holds more than 150 U.S. and foreign patents, many of them for medical devices, including the first insulin pump for diabetics, as well as the Segway scooter. The event is free and open to the public; tickets are not required.

• Xavier University will hold two ceremonies May 17 at the Cintas Center, one for undergraduates and the other for graduate students. The 1,868 students receiving degrees include summer and winter 2002 graduates and May 2003 graduates. Ross Love, president/CEO and owner of Blue Chip Enterprises - a Roselawn company he founded in 2001 - will speak to undergraduates at 9 a.m. Graduate students will hear a speech from Edmund Pellegrino, a Georgetown University professor of medicine and medical ethics, at 2 p.m. Both events are free and open to the public; tickets are not required.

• Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion will award Masters of Hebrew Letters and Ph.D. degrees at 8 p.m. May 29 at Wise Temple in Amberley Village. C. Hassell Bullock, professor of Old Testament and the Franklin S. Dyrness Chair of Biblical Studies at Wheaton (Ill.) College, is the commencement speaker. The college will award 17 Master of Hebrew Letters degrees, one Master of Arts degree, five Master of Philosophy degrees and three Doctor of Philosophy degrees.

Nineteen students will be ordained at a ceremony to be held 9:30 a.m. May 31 at Plum Street Temple, downtown. Rabbi Uri Regev, executive director of the World Union for Progressive Judaism, is the speaker. Both events are free and open to the public; guests must present photo identification.

• University of Cincinnati's commencement for nearly 5,000 graduates is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. June 13 at Shoemaker Center. A speaker has not been named yet. Tickets are required, and will go to students first.

• Cincinnati State Technical and Community College will hold its ceremony at 10 a.m. June 21 in Parking Lot C of the school's campus on Central Parkway in Clifton. There is no speaker. The event is free and open to the public, but a ticket is required. Tickets can be obtained through graduating students.

E-mail kgoetz@enquirer.com