An Eye Toward the Skies as Commencement Weekend Approaches

May 17, 2017

Links: Commencement Page; Webcast; DVD Order Form; Weather

The weather forecast for DePauw University's 178th Commencement Sunday morning suggests it could be soggy. As of 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, The Weather Channel's outlook calls for a 90% chance of morning showers and a possible thunderstorm, with a high of 73 degrees. Rain is also in the forecast for Friday and Saturday.

The event is scheduled to take place outdoors at 10:30 a.m. in Holton Memorial Quadrangle. It will be moved indoors to DePauw's Lilly Physical Education and Recreation Center should conditions require it. The program will be webcast live via this link.

Crews have begun the process of transforming the entrance to Roy O. West Library to the commencement stage (seen in photo at top).

Jim Alling (seen at left), chief executive officer of TOMS and 1983 graduate of DePauw, will deliver the primary address. He has led TOMS since April 2016 and was previously chief operating officer of T-Mobile and president of Starbucks International and Starbucks USA. An economics and Spanish double-major at DePauw, Alling has more than 30 years of general management and marketing experience in consumer packaged goods and consumer retailing.

Alling, rock legend Todd Rundgren, and Jesse Kharbanda, executive director of the Hoosier Environmental Council, will receive honorary doctorates at the ceremony (read more here).

Graduates and their families can order a DVD of May's Commencement. The disc will include a multi-camera shoot of the ceremony and an array of extra features and will include footage of each graduate receiving their DePauw diploma. The DVDs are $19.95 for the first disc; additional DVDs sent to the same address will be $8 each (shipping to domestic addresses is included; 7% sales tax will be added to Indiana orders).