WKU News
WKU to recognize Class of 2025 during Commencement on May 8
- WKU News
- Monday, April 28th, 2025
Western Kentucky University will celebrate more than 3,400 graduates and recognize top scholars during 2025 Commencement on May 8 at Houchens Industries-L.T. Smith Stadium.
WKU will confer 3,420 degrees and certificates to spring and summer 2025 graduates -- 97 associate, 2,108 bachelor’s, 598 master’s, 50 doctoral, 15 specialist degrees, 442 undergraduate certificates and 110 graduate certificates.
Commencement will begin at 6:30 p.m. with Topper Walk along the Avenue of Champions from the Charles Hardcastle Kentucky Building to the stadium. The ceremony will begin once students have been seated on Feix Field. During the ceremony, each college will acknowledge its graduates, and President Timothy C. Caboni will present the graduates to the Board of Regents for the conferral of degrees.
The ceremony will include remarks from President Caboni; recognition of honor graduates and award winners – Brett Phelps, who earned dual degrees in Visual Journalism & Photography and Strategic Marketing and is from Bardstown, as the Ogden Foundation Scholar (top undergraduate award) and Uthman A. Rasaq, a December graduate from Saki, Oyo State, Nigeria, who earned his master’s degree in Mathematics with a concentration in Computational Mathematics, as the John D. Minton Award recipient (top graduate award); and the commissioning of WKU ROTC cadets.
The ceremony will be broadcast by WKU PBS and will be streamed on WKU’s YouTube and Facebook pages.
The Commencement celebration will conclude with The Big Red Bash on the South Lawn, featuring music, food vendors and fireworks.
Commencement information is available online at https://www.wku.edu/commencement/
More: Event parking information; directions & parking; parking map
College Recognition Ceremonies
On May 9 at Diddle Arena, WKU’s five academic colleges will host recognition ceremonies to celebrate the accomplishments of their graduates who will walk the line and shake hands with President Caboni.
The ceremony schedule is: Gordon Ford College of Business, 8 a.m.; Potter College of Arts & Letters, 10:30 a.m.; Ogden College of Science and Engineering, 1 p.m.; College of Education and Behavioral Sciences, 3:30 p.m.; and College of Health and Human Services, 6:30 p.m.
WKU is expecting heavy traffic throughout the day. To accommodate traffic flow for graduates and guests, WKU Parking & Transportation is providing parking recommendations for each ceremony, including shuttle service to Diddle Arena, at https://www.wku.edu/commencement/directions.php as well as live updates at https://www.wku.edu/eventparking.
More: Event parking information; directions & parking; parking map
Regional campus celebrations
WKU Regional Campuses will acknowledge their graduates during pre-Commencement events in Glasgow, Owensboro, Elizabethtown and Somerset before their members of the Class of 2025 come to Bowling Green to participate in Topper Walk, Commencement and College Recognition Ceremonies.
WKU in Glasgow Graduand, 5 p.m. April 28 at TJ Pavilion Community Room, 310 N L Rogers Wells Blvd., Glasgow.
WKU in Owensboro Graduate Celebration, 5 p.m. April 29 at Owensboro Community & Technical College, Humanities Building--Blandford Hall, 4800 New Hartford Road, Owensboro.
WKU in Elizabethtown-Fort Knox: Celebrating You! Graduate Recognition, 5:30 p.m. ET April 30 at Regional Postsecondary Center Auditorium, Room 212, 600 College Street Road, Elizabethtown.
WKU in Somerset Graduate Celebration, 5:30 p.m. ET May 5 at Somerset Community College, Hal Rogers Student Commons Community Room, 808 Monticello St., Somerset.
Gatton Academy graduation
The Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science will recognize 83 students from 39 counties in the Class of 2025, its 18th graduating class. The ceremony will begin at 2 p.m. May 10 at Van Meter Hall.
-WKU-
Western Kentucky University prides itself on positioning its students, faculty and staff for long term success. As a student-centered, applied research university, WKU helps students expand on classroom learning by integrating education with real-world applications in the communities we serve. Our hilltop campus is located in Bowling Green, Kentucky, which was recently named by Reader’s Digest as one of the nicest towns in America, just an hour’s drive from Nashville, Tennessee.