Southeast Missouri State University will hold its spring commencement ceremonies May 11 during which 1,401 students 1,105 undergraduates, 268 masters degree candidates and 28 specialist candidates will be graduating.
Southeast will hold two commencement ceremonies in the Show Me Center. Candidates in the College of Education, Health and Human Studies; and the Harrison College of Business and Computing will participate in a ceremony at 10 a.m. Candidates in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences; College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics; and the Holland College of Arts and Media will take part in a 2 p.m. ceremony.
Missouri Gov. Michael L. Parson will deliver the 2 p.m. address. Dr. Kevin Dickson, chair of the Southeast Department of Management and professor of management in the Harrison College of Business and Computing, will deliver the 10 a.m. address.
In total, 393 students will graduate with honors 86 will graduate summa cum laude (3.9 to 4.0 cumulative grade point average); 117 will graduate magna cum laude (3.75 to 3.89 cumulative grade point average); 185 will graduate cum laude (3.5 to 3.74 cumulative grade point average); and five will graduate with honors in associate degrees. Students who have earned Latin Honors, Academic Distinction in the Department of the Major or completed the Jane Stephens Honors Program, will have that information displayed below their name on the videoboard as they cross the stage during their commencement ceremony, as well as printed in the program.
Also recognized during the ceremony will be 28 students graduating with a 4.0 grade point average and 47 Honors Scholars.
Missouri Gov. Michael L. Parson
Gov. Parson, was sworn in as Missouris 57th Governor on June 1, 2018, by Missouri Supreme CourtJudge Mary R. Russell. He came into the role of governor with a longtime 30-year commitment to public service.
Parson previously served as the 47th Lieutenant Governor of Missouri. Elected to this position on Nov. 8, 2016, he claimed victory in 110 of Missouris 114 counties, receiving the most votes of any Lieutenant Governor in Missouri history.
Parson served the people of the 28th Senatorial District in the Missouri Senate from 2011-2017 and represented the 133rd District in the Missouri House from 2005-2011. Parson was also the sheriff of Polk County from 1993-2005. He also served six years in the U.S. Army.
While in the Missouri Senate, Parson chaired the Small Business, Insurance & Industry Committee and served as Majority Whip during his first two years. While in the House of Representatives, he chaired the House Rules Committee. Several landmark pieces of legislation were sponsored by Parson, including Missouris Castle Doctrine, which strengthened 2nd Amendment rights, and the Missouri Farming Rights Amendment, legislation that changed the Missouri Constitution to guarantee all Missourians the right to farm and ranch.
During Parsons first year as Lieutenant Governor, the Office of Lieutenant Governor launched the Buy Missouri initiative, spearheaded an investigation of the St. Louis Veterans Home and continued to strongly advocate for agriculture, veterans, seniors and tourism. He was also inducted into the Missouri Farmers Care Hall of Fame, received the Missouri Grocers Associations Capitol Impact Award and was named to the 2018 list of Ingrams 50 Missourians You Should Know.
He was raised on a farm in Hickory County, and graduated from Wheatland High School in Wheatland, Missouri. He is a small-business owner and a third-generation farmer who currently owns and operates a cow and calf operation near Bolivar. Parson and his wife Teresa have two grown children and five grandchildren.
Dr. Kevin Dickson
Dickson, is department chair and professor of management in the Department of Management in the Harrison College of Business and Computing. He is also moderator of the Chairpersons Forum. He has taught in the areas of team building, human resources, management skills, and leadership at the undergraduate and graduate levels. He has honors faculty status and is a member of the graduate faculty.
Dickson joined the Department of Management and Marketing in 2004. During the recent re-organization of the University, he was made chair of the Department of Management. He holds a doctoral degree in management from the University of Texas at Austin. He also received a Master of Organizational Behavior and a Bachelor of Arts, both from Brigham Young University.
At Southeast, Dickson has received the Outstanding MBA Teaching Award, the Donald L. Harrison College of Business Students Choice Award for Excellence in Teaching twice, the Jane Stephens Honors Program Faculty Exempli Gratia Award, an Outstanding Faculty Member Award from the Student Government Association, a Distinguished Research Award from the Allied Academies and an Outstanding Reviewer Award from the Organizational Behavior Division of the Academy of Management, and was a Copper Dome Faculty Fellow in Teaching for the Donald L. Harrison College of Business. He is also a past recipient of a competitive summer research grant from the Provosts Office and received the Provosts Award for Teaching Excellence for Excellence in the Assessment of Student Learning.
Through his years at Southeast, Dickson has served as a faculty member, interim department chair, director of the Jane Stephens Honors Program and chair of Faculty Senate.
Dickson has been published in the Journal of Management Inquiry; the Journal of Behavioral and Applied Management; the Journal of Management in Engineering; Academy of Health Care Management Journal; and the Journal of Organizational Culture, Communications, and Conflict.
He is a member of the Academy of Management, the Society for Human Resource Management, Beta Gamma Sigma, Phi Kappa Phi, the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce and the Cape Area Personnel Association, serving as chair of the scholarship committee.
Dickson also served as a visiting professor at the Ribe Business College in Ribe, Denmark, and at the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. He traveled with students to a week-long seminar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C., and with students in a study abroad program to England, Belgium and France.
Dickson and his wife, Brynda, have four children.