When Sally Doty was a sophomore at Mississippi University for Women, she had experiences that would put her on the path to becoming a state senator.
The 1988 graduate called it a “turbulent time” for MUW in the ’80s when the Legislature was considering consolidating some of Mississippi’s universities. Doty and some of her classmates found themselves at the Capitol regularly, sometimes twice a week, advocating for MUW to stay its own university.
“I remember sitting in the Senate gallery … when I was probably 19, and looking down and thinking, ‘You know what? I would really like to be there one day. I would like to be making these decisions.’ And now I am.”
Now Doty — an attorney and first-term senator in the Mississippi Legislature — will have the chance to tell other MUW students the same story when she returns to Columbus as commencement speaker on May 13 for the graduation of MUW’s students from the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Business and Professional Studies and the College of Education and Human Sciences.
“I’m going to talk to them about their story,” she said. “In Mississippi, everybody’s a storyteller. … Certainly as you begin this new part of your life, you can think about ‘What is your story going to be? What are you going to add to it?'”
Doty is just one speaker to talk to graduates this month as more than 4,000 students in the Golden Triangle are expected to graduate from a university or college as this semester ends. Of that number, about 400 have applied to graduate from MUW, where Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves will speak to graduates of the College of Nursing and Speech Pathology on May 13.
MUW Nursing and speech pathology students’ graduation ceremony will be at 10 a.m. May 13, and other students will graduate at 2 p.m. The graduation will be held in Rent Auditorium on MUW’s campus.
MSU commencement
The bulk of the Golden Triangle’s graduates will earn degrees from Mississippi State University, where MSU alumna and vice chancellor for University of Mississippi Medical Center’s health affairs LouAnn Woodward will speak this weekend.
More than 3,000 have applied for graduation there this spring.
Woodward graduated from MSU with a microbiology degree in 1985 and went on to complete a residency in emergency medicine at UMMC where she is now a tenured professor and dean of the School of Medicine.
Woodward did not want to comment on what she planned to tell MSU students at their commencement this weekend, but she has fond memories of her undergraduate years and the people she met at MSU.
“What I remember most are the friendships and wonderful professors who guided and mentored me,” Woodward said in an emailed statement to The Dispatch. “Several of them took a real interest in my future success and personal development.”
Graduation at MSU will begin at 7 p.m. Friday in Humphrey Coliseum for students from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the School of Human Resources, Bagley College of Engineering, and the colleges of Education, Forest Resources and Veterinary Medicine. It continues at 10 a.m. Saturday for students from the College of Architecture, Art and Design; the College of Arts and Sciences; and the College of Business and its Adkerson School of Accountancy.
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