Members of the Class of 2009,

Congratulations on your pending graduation. I want to explain briefly how the University's Public Relations Office sends graduation announcements to local newspapers.

In May, the University will graduate about 1,500 bachelor's, master's and doctoral degree recipients. The Public Relations Office will distribute the names of those graduates in announcements to 850 newspapers around the country. Our news announcement will consist of a brief article about the ceremony and a list of the names and hometowns of all graduates from the county(s) the newspaper serves.

Unfortunately because we need to get information out about all of our graduates, we are not able to do longer stories on individual students. I want to encourage you, or your parents, however, to contact the editor of your local newspaper directly if you wish to have a longer graduation story appear in your hometown paper or if you wish to submit a graduation photograph.

Most smaller daily and nearly all weekly newspapers routinely publish photographs and longer stories about graduates from their circulation area. I encourage you to call the editor of your local paper to learn more about the newspaper's policies and procedures and to make arrangements to submit your story and/or photograph.

If you have any questions, please call the Public Relations Office at (570) 941-7669.

Thank you, and best of luck in these final months before graduation.

Take Care,

Stan Zygmunt
Director of News and Media Relations