The 850-plus graduating members of Middle Tennessee State University’s August Class of 2022 will celebrate their decades of life-changing dedication and determination when they and their supporters gather Saturday, Aug. 6, for the university’s summer 2022 commencement.

The summer ceremony, which is set for 9 a.m. Aug. 6 in Hale/Earle Arena inside Murphy Center at 2650 Middle Tennessee Blvd., is open to the public. The event also will stream live at www.mtsu.edu/live and on the university’s Facebook channel, http://facebook.com/mtsublueraiders, and will be broadcast on MTSU’s True Blue TV station on local cable channels and at https://mtsu.edu/TrueBlueTV.

Graduates and their guests will hear a special commencement address from MTSU professor Robert Gordon, the 2021-22 president of the university’s Faculty Senate and an associate professor in the Department of Media Arts in the College of Media and Entertainment.

The August 2022 graduating class at MTSU, totaling 857 students as of Aug. 1, comprises 564 undergraduates and 293 graduate scholars, according to the university Registrar’s Office.

The graduate student group includes 265 master’s candidates, seven education-specialist degree recipients and 21 doctoral candidates. Twelve students also will receive graduate certificates.

Students from all MTSU’s colleges — Graduate Studies, Basic and Applied Sciences, Behavioral and Health Sciences, the Jones College of Business, the College of Education, Liberal Arts, Media and Entertainment, the University College and the College of Media and Entertainment — will receive their degrees during the ceremony.

This graduating group will bring the total degrees MTSU’s awarded since its 1911 founding to more than 176,500.

The official summer 2022 commencement program, listing all the graduates by college and noting their honors, is available at https://bit.ly/MTSummer2022GradProgram.

MTSU will provide closed-captioning services for the live video streams as well as American Sign Language interpretation at the ceremony. The live coverage will begin about 15 minutes before commencement starts.

Creating professional experiences for students

Gordon, a member of MTSU’s faculty since 2007, also boasts a four-decade-plus national career as an award-winning television producer, first producing and directing news, talk and sporting events for broadcast TV stations, then creating entertainment programming for networks including Cinemax, PBS, CMT, TNN, GMC, The Family Channel, Time Warner and syndication.

Holder of both a Bachelor of Fine Arts in broadcasting and an MBA in marketing from the University of Cincinnati, he coordinates the live production and multi-camera concentration of the Department of Media Arts’ Video and Film Production Program. He also serves as executive producer for Media Arts Productions, MTSU’s live TV production company, and faculty advisor for MT10, the student-run TV station.

Gordon’s students manage, produce, direct and crew live sports, election specials, dance and theater performances, in-house series, award shows and concerts. He’s led the university’s coverage of the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival since 2015, expanding it into Hulu’s livestreams for the first time this summer, and coordinated MTSU’s once-in-a-lifetime “Great Tennessee Eclipse” 2017 live event.

In December, Gordon, a two-time winner of MTSU’s Outstanding Experiential Learning Faculty Award, and his students produced their first international project: “The Transatlantic Sessions,” a live-streamed concert special with the University of Salford in Manchester, England.

Gordon also produces and directs the university’s first national series for PBS, the WNPT interview/performance show “The Songwriters,” for the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Ceremony lasts about two hours

MTSU’s Aug. 6 summer commencement ceremony is expected to last about two hours. All graduating students must remain for the entire event.

A campus map with parking details for guests is available at http://bit.ly/MTSUParking. A seating chart of Murphy Center, including access for guests with mobility issues, is available at http://ow.ly/TCkd30ld2PQ. (This information also is available at the university’s official graduation page at https://mtsu.edu/graduation/ceremony.php under “Information for Guests.”)

Driving directions, along with complete graduation details for students and guests, are available anytime at https://mtsu.edu/graduation and https://mtsunews.com/graduation-info.

The university’s 2022-23 academic year begins Monday, Aug. 22, with the first official day of fall 2022 classes.

MTSU will formally welcome its new freshman class of 2026 and new transfer students at University Convocation in Murphy Center on Sunday, Aug. 21, at 1 p.m. Central.

That special event will feature writer, speaker and peace activist Andrew Forsthoefel, author of the university’s 2022 Summer Reading Program selection, “Walking to Listen,” as guest speaker. It also will air live at www.mtsu.edu/live, https://facebook.com/mtsublueraiders and https://mtsu.edu/TrueBlueTV.

— Gina E. Fann (gina.fann@mtsu.edu)