CWU To Hold Westside Commencement In New Location

May 4, 2004

Contact: Robert Lowery (509-963-1487/fax 509-963-2301/e-mail: loweryr@cwu.edu)

ELLENSBURG, Wash.-- Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels will present the commencement address at Central Washington University's westside graduation ceremony Sunday, June 13, at 6:30 p.m. in Benaroya Hall in downtown Seattle. The title of his address is "Making a Difference in People's Lives."

Nickels, 48, became the 51st mayor of Seattle when he took office on Jan. 1, 2002. He also served for 14 years on the King County Council, chaired the U.S. Conference of Mayors transportation and communications committee and was a founding member of the board of directors of the Central Puget Sound Transit Authority (Sound Transit), on which he continues to serve.

Nickels' wife Sharon is a CWU alumna, receiving her bachelor of science degree in 1977.

This will be the first time the university's commencement will be held in the 2,500-seat S. Mark Taper Foundation Auditorium, located in Benaroya Hall, home of the Seattle Symphony.

More than 200 graduates from CWU-Lynnwood, CWU-SeaTac and CWU-Pierce County, along with friends and family members, will hear Nickels' address.

They are among the students who will earn degrees from the CWU centers in western Washington during the 2003-04 academic year, taking upper-division academic courses leading to degrees in a variety of majors including accounting, business administration, business education, early childhood education and law and justice.

The CWU centers are designed primarily to serve students whose professional or family obligations prevent them from leaving their communities.

Bachelor's and master's degree programs are also offered at university centers in Wenatchee, Moses Lake and Yakima. More than 20 percent of CWU's graduates earn their degrees at university centers.