MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Middle Tennessee State University is preparing to celebrate the 2,439 members of the first class of 2024 with a trio of commencement ceremonies set for Friday and Saturday, May 3 and 4.

Graduate and undergraduate students in the university’s College of Behavioral and Health Sciences and College of Liberal Arts kick the festivities off with a 3 p.m. Central Friday, May 3, ceremony inside Murphy Center’s Hale/Earle Arena.

Those graduates will hear from Cary E. Holman, MTSU alumnus and director of the Franklin County School District. Previously Holman served as a middle school principal at two different schools in the Rutherford County School System for 17 years.

Then at 9 a.m. Central Saturday, May 4, students in the College of Basic and Applied Sciences and University College will cross the stage at Murphy Center after hearing from alumnus Bob Freeman, president of real estate company Freeman Webb and Tennessee state representative for District 56.

Ceremonies conclude at 2 p.m. Central Saturday, May 4, when country/rock singer-songwriter and alumnus Michael Hardy, known professionally as HARDY, addresses students in the Jones College of Business, College of Education and College of Media and Entertainment.

MTSU President Sidney A. McPhee will briefly address each group of graduates after welcoming them and their guests.

All ceremonies will be open to the public. For those unable to attend in person, the ceremonies will all be airing live across town and the world both days on the university’s livestream channel, on True Blue TV and on the university’s Facebook page and YouTube channel.

The spring 2024 ceremonies will celebrate an estimated 2,439 students set to graduate, according to latest count from the MTSU Registrar’s Office. Of those set to graduate, 2,036 are undergraduates and 403 are graduate students, including 366 master’s candidates, 21 education-specialist recipients and 16 doctoral candidates. In addition, 29 graduate students will be receiving graduate certificates.

Three alumni speakers

• Now in his 28th year in education, Franklin County School District Director Cary Holman, Ed.D., has served as a classroom teacher (first, fifth, and sixth grades), assistant principal, elementary principal, middle school at-risk coordinator, middle school principal, and adjunct faculty member at Draughons Junior College and Middle Tennessee State University.

Holman received his educational training at Motlow State Community College, University of Tennessee–Chattanooga, Tennessee State University, MTSU, and American College of Education. He has been a presenter at the National Youth At-Risk Conference and the Nuts and Bolts: Ready to Lead Conference, and he served as a TEAM evaluation trainer for the Tennessee Department of Education. Holman is also an ordained and licensed minister and serves as associate pastor at Believers Faith Fellowship.

• Bob Freeman was born and raised in Tennessee House District 56 he now represents. During the day, he serves as president of Freeman Webb, a full-service real estate company. He graduated from MTSU with a degree in construction management and land development and went on to earn his master’s at Lipscomb University’s Institute for Sustainable Practice.

Freeman currently serves on the boards of the Tennessee Environmental Council and the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy; the U.S. Green Building Council’s Tennessee Market Leadership Advisory Board; and the Nashville Homelessness Commission, which brings together advocates, business leaders, government agencies, and the general public to collaborate on solutions for homelessness in Nashville.

• A 2013 MTSU Recording Industry graduate, Michael Hardy is a five-time Academy of Country Music award winner and two-time Country Music Association award winner. HARDY has also won three CMA Triple Play awards, was named the 2022 BMI Country Songwriter of the Year, and is a three-time Association for Independent Music Publishers Songwriter of the Year. The Mississippi native’s latest releases are “QUIT!!,” an autobiographical and referential spoken word track that recaps his journey to becoming “Nashville’s nü-metal king” (Los Angeles Times), and “Rockstar,” a rock single. 

HARDY soared to new heights in 2023 with the release of critically acclaimed half-country, half-rock sophomore album, “The Mockingbird & the Crow.” He has written 15 No. 1 singles, including his own two-time Platinum chart topper “One Beer” featuring Lauren Alaina and Devin Dawson, the platinum Dierks Bentley and Breland collaboration “Beers On Me,” and game-changing two-time Platinum duet “wait in the truck” featuring Lainey Wilson.

More commencement details

The spring 2024 graduates will push the number of MTSU degrees presented since 1911 to more than 185,491.

Friends, families and supporters who can’t attend in person can watch the ceremonies free and live on True Blue TV, at www.mtsu.edu/live and https://facebook.com/mtsublueraiders. Online commencement coverage will begin about 15 minutes before each ceremony starts.

The university will provide closed-captioning services for the live video streams as well as American Sign Language interpretation on-site at the ceremonies.

A campus map with parking information is available at http://bit.ly/MTSUParking. A seating chart of Murphy Center, including access for guests with disabilities, is available at http://ow.ly/TCkd30ld2PQ.

Driving directions, along with more extensive graduation details for students and guests, are available anytime at https://mtsu.edu/graduation. 

MTSU’s spring semester ends Thursday, May 2. The summer semester begins May 20 and ends Aug. 9.

For updates on MTSU anytime, visit https://mtsu.edu or https://mtsunews.com. 

— Jimmy Hart (Jimmy.Hart@mtsu.edu)