The University of Georgia will welcome its newest alumni on Dec. 15 as 1,626 undergraduates and 1,340 graduate students—a total of 2,966—have met requirements to participate in the university’s fall Commencement ceremonies.
The undergraduate ceremony is scheduled for 10 a.m. in Stegeman Coliseum. Harold Alonza Black, emeritus professor of finance at the University of Tennessee and notable University of Georgia alumnus, will deliver the fall undergraduate Commencement address. The graduate ceremony will follow at 2 p.m. in Stegeman Coliseum. Tickets are required for all graduates and guests at the fall undergraduate ceremony, but they are not required for the graduate ceremony.
Black and two other students—Mary Blackwell Diallo and Kerry Rushin Miller—were the first African American students to enroll as freshmen and complete their undergraduate degrees at UGA. The university named its newest residence hall, Black-Diallo-Miller Hall, in their honor in 2022.
Black was also the university’s first African American graduate of the Terry College of Business. The Terry College has established the Dr. Harold A. Black Professorship in his honor.
Following his undergraduate studies, Black earned master’s and doctoral degrees from The Ohio State University.
His faculty appointments include American University, the University of Florida, Howard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He served for 24 years as the James F. Smith Jr. Professor of Finance at the University of Tennessee. He has been a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve and at the Congressional Budget Office and has served as chairman of the Nashville branch of the Federal Reserve of Atlanta and on the boards of two of the nation’s largest financial institutions.
Black’s work has been published extensively in the leading journals in business and economics, and his consulting clients are among the country’s leading law firms and financial institutions. He was also appointed by President Carter to serve on the first National Credit Union Administration Board.
UGA will recognize 17 students as First Honor Graduates for maintaining a 4.0 cumulative GPA in all work attempted at UGA as well as all college-level transfer work prior to or following enrollment at the university.
An estimated 319 doctoral candidates and 1,021 master’s and specialist degree students will be eligible to walk in the graduate ceremony. Graduate speaker Dale Greene joined the faculty of the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources in 1986 before becoming dean in 2015.
During Greene’s tenure, the Warnell School added several new faculty members, expanded outreach efforts, and grew funding for research, professorships and graduate assistantships. Greene has led efforts to increase funding for teaching and learning, more than doubling the number of named professorships, scholarships and fellowships available to faculty and students.
He has served as an advisor to 49 graduate students, who today represent leaders in forest business, logistics, tree health, consulting and other fields.
Among his numerous teaching and professional awards, Greene received the Herrick Award for Superior Teaching and the Warnell Alumni Association Award for Outstanding Teaching. He was inducted into the Georgia Foresters Hall of Fame in 2007, received the Wise Owl Award from the Georgia Forestry Association in 2011 and was named a fellow of the Society of American Foresters in 2022.
Greene plans to retire on Jan. 1, 2024.
The clear bag policy will be in effect for both ceremonies. Parking is free and available on a first-come, first-served basis.
The graduate and undergraduate ceremonies will be broadcast live on the Commencement homepage. For more information, please visit https://commencement.uga.edu/
