Northern's graduates celebrate commencement

Students celebrated Saturday as Montana State University-Northern held its graduation ceremony in the Armory Gymnasium, with U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke serving as this year's commencement speaker.  

In all, 332 degrees were awarded in a variety of programs including diesel technology, business, education, health, automotive technology, welding and community leadership.

The ceremony began at 10 a.m. when Northern Chancellor Greg Kegel and Zinke led a line of administrators down the aisle and onto a dais within the gym. Faculty and students dressed in black graduation gowns and mortarboards followed close behind and took their seats.  

Pastor Tanner Howard of the First Lutheran Church gave the invocation.

"This day as names are read and achievements are recognized may these graduates and all of us see this not merely as the end of a remarkable experience but as the beginning of new adventures to come," Howard said.

Kegel said that, this year, the campus had to endure some growing pains as construction got underway on the new building that will house Northern's much-celebrated diesel technology program and related courses.

He said that in the long run, the temporary inconvenience would be worth it because the new building, once completed, will allow Northern's School of Technical Sciences to do things it otherwise wouldn't be able to do.

The new building will be where Northern's automotive technology, a 60-year old building once stood. That building was out of code when it was first built in the 1950s.

Kegel recognized retirees Katherine Williams, Arlyss Williams, Bob Jonke, Janice Star, Kathy James and Pam Civiletti and Northern Provost William Rugg, who will retire in June when his contract expires.

Nine alumni from what was then Northern Montana College from the classes of 1951, 1966 and 1967, known as Golden Grads, sported yellow caps and gowns and were recognized at the ceremony. This year's Golden Grads were Robert Boettcher of the class of 1951; John Dallum of the class of 1966; and Robert Patera, Jim Magera, Marge Ward Matzke, Michael Wojtowick, Richard Watson, Arnold Frank and Myrle Gollaher, all of the class of 1967.

Saturday evening, students held the Bow Tie Ball, a formal event hosted by the Associated Students of Montana State University-Northern in the commons of Donaldson Hall. The building, which opened in 1936, was used as a residence hall for female students and had other uses in subsequent decades before the building was shuttered in 2008 due to structural and maintenance issues.

The  student senate cleaned up the building's commons, the large living room in Donaldson Hall that had once been used to host social events, for the ball. Proceeds from tickets to the ball went toward a fund for the Donaldson Hall restoration project.