by Matt Koesters
513-556-5279
Photos by Joseph Fuqua II, Andrew Higley, Lisa Ventre and Jay Yocis/UC Creative Services

April 24, 2018

Just two years after setting a new spring graduation record, the University of Cincinnati appears poised to once again rewrite the record books. UC is set to confer 6,578 degrees to 6,496 students during its spring commencement ceremonies on Friday and Saturday, April 27 and 28.

“Knowing that our spring commencement is slated to be our largest graduating class in the University of Cincinnati’s history makes a very joyous time for our campus even more jubilant. We are delighted to generate more college graduates than ever to meet workforce needs,” said President Neville Pinto.

“The 2018 Spring class represents one of the largest communities of creative artists, thinkers and innovators the University of Cincinnati has ever before graduated,” added UC Provost Kristi A. Nelson. “This achievement is a testament not only to the hard work of our students, but to the transformational opportunities and academic support services provided by our faculty, staff and community partners. The real-world experiences these students earned as Bearcats have prepared them for careers and life-long learning.”

All undergraduate commencement exercises and the master’s degree recognition ceremony will be held at Nippert Stadium, while the doctoral hooding ceremony will be held in the UC Campus Recreation Center. Each ceremony is expected to last between two and three hours. Doors open one hour prior to the ceremonies. The doctoral hooding ceremony is a ticketed event.

Learn more about the spring 2018 graduating class.

At Saturday morning’s commencement exercises, President Pinto will confer an honorary doctoral degree — the university's highest honor — to Dr. Alvin Crawford, the longtime director of orthopaedic surgery at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. As a clinician, Dr. Crawford performed more than 27,000 procedures and became one of the nation’s foremost authorities on video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery. He went on to become a professor emeritus in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and an attending physician with UC Health. He is the founding director of the Crawford Spine Center at Cincinnati Children’s and in 2004 was honored with the dedication of the Crawford Chair in Pediatric Orthopaedics and a subsequent chair in spine surgery. But by the time he arrived in Cincinnati, Dr. Crawford had already established himself as a trailblazer.

He became the first African-American to attend a southern medical school when he enrolled at the University of Tennessee in the early 1960s, and graduated at the top of his class. His accomplishments opened doors and created opportunities for underrepresented minorities in the medical field, a cause to which Dr. Crawford remains dedicated. In 2017, the Crawfords created an introductory Alvin H. and Alva J. Crawford Scholarship to support underrepresented minority UC medical students who are academically strong and demonstrate a financial need. An endowed Eminent Visiting Scholar in orthopaedic surgery has also been created. Learn more about Dr. Crawford’s distinguished career here.

About the graduates

• Students from the Spring 2018 graduating class hail from 49 states — plus Washington, D.C. —  and 76 countries. For sake of comparison, last year's spring commencement had graduates from 51 countries. 
• More than 73 percent of all graduates hail from Ohio, and 81 of Ohio's 88 counties are represented in this year's class. 
• The degree breakdown is as follows: 529 associate degrees; 4,145 bachelor’s degrees; 1,404 master’s degrees; 262 doctoral degrees and 238 professional degrees.
  
• Of those graduating with bachelor's degrees, 498 began their UC careers at a UC regional campus, and 519 of them transferred to UC from other institutions.
• STEMM degrees will be awarded to 50.5 percent of graduates.
  
• Nearly 16 percent of graduates — 1,019 students — are first-generation college students.
  
• More than 11 percent of this year's class are graduating from Distance Learning programs. 
• The average age of all graduates is 26, with students ranging from 18 to 70 years old.
• Twenty-two graduates will celebrate their birthdays on their commencement days.