Former Governor Nigh To Address College Centennial Commencement
(Press Release 05-01-09)
Hank Mooney, Office of Public Information

Former Oklahoma Governor George Nigh is slated to address the 100th anniversary Eastern Oklahoma State College spring commencement exercises 7 p.m. Friday (May 8) in the C.C. Dunlap Field House on the Wilburton campus.

More than 2,500 guests and graduates are expected to attend the graduation exercises.

As a McAlester native who attended Eastern from 1946 to 1948, Nigh earned the distinction of being the first governor in Oklahoma history to be elected to more than one term, serving from 1979-1987. He also was the first gubernatorial candidate to carry all of the state’s 77 counties, winning the 1982 election in a landslide.

He served eight years in the Oklahoma House of Representatives and 16 years as lieutenant governor. He was elected to his first term in the House in 1950 while a senior in college at East Central University, Ada.

Nigh became president of the University of Central Oklahoma July 1, 1992. He had been Distinguished Statesman in Residence at the university for the previous five years. Nigh was inducted into the Eastern Oklahoma State College Alumni Hall of Fame in 1988.

If early estimates hold true, Oklahoma may have more graduates receiving master’s degrees this year than did last spring.

About 4,225 students will earn master’s degrees, an 8 percent increase from last academic year, according to State Regents for Higher Education.

The state regents estimate that approximately 30,000 students will earn degrees during the 2008–09 academic year at Oklahoma’s public colleges and universities.

Of those 30,000 graduates the most popular fields of study are business and education, as it was last year.

Nursing, business and general studies are the programs most frequently selected by the projected 7,000 students earning associates degrees. That estimated is down some from two years ago, when 8,600 students earned the associate degree.

This academic year Eastern will have granted just over 270 degrees and certificates of completion not counting other agencies including the Department of Corrections Academy and the Oklahoma Miner Training Institute also located on the Wilburton campus.

According to Eastern Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Karen Harrison, the majority of students earning associate degrees from Eastern will be in the fields of general studies, agriculture and nursing.

Eastern graduates will represent 28 of Oklahoma's 77 counties, 7 different states and two foreign countries.

Ninty-nine Eastern students will receive Associate in Arts with 93 earning the Associate in Science. Eighty-six graduates will receive the Associate in Applied Science with three students earning One Year Certificates in Child Development.