EMU Today

YPSILANTI – Eastern Michigan University will graduate the largest class of doctorate degrees in school history when its holds fall commencement at 10 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 17 in the Convocation Center.

The University has 26 doctoral candidates for December, 2016 graduation, a group that includes eight students in educational leadership, eight in educational studies, nine in technology and one in clinical psychology. The highest previous total was December 2015, with 17 graduates.

A total of 1768 students are eligible to participate in the graduation ceremony, including 426 graduate degree candidates, 1242 undergraduate degree candidates and 100 students who graduated last August but are walking in Saturday’s ceremony.

The large Ph.D. class is reflective of EMU’s reclassification last year from a large master’s university to a doctoral university in the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education rankings system, a national framework for identifying and comparing American institutions of higher education. Doctoral universities award at least 20 research/scholarship doctoral degrees each year (exclusive of professional practice doctoral-level degrees, such as JD, MD, DPT).

Michigan Supreme Court Justice is commencement speaker

Justice Bridget Mary McCormack

Bridget Mary McCormack, who has served as a Michigan Supreme Court Justice since 2012, will serve as commencement speaker for Saturday’s ceremony.

McCormack joined the Michigan Supreme Court in January 2013.  Before her election to the Court in November 2012, she was a law professor and dean at the University of Michigan Law School, where she continues to teach.

McCormack is a graduate of the New York University Law School. She spent the first five years of her legal career in New York, first with the Legal Aid Society and then at the Office of the Appellate Defender, representing over 1,000 clients in New York's trial and appellate courts. In 1996, she became a faculty fellow at the Yale Law School.

In 1998, she joined the University of Michigan Law School faculty.  At Michigan Law, she taught criminal law, legal ethics, and various clinical courses. Her scholarship focused on the professional benefits of clinical legal education. She also created new clinics at the law school, including a Domestic Violence Clinic and a Pediatric Health Advocacy Clinic.

In 2008, then-Associate Dean McCormack co-founded the Michigan Innocence Clinic, in which students represent wrongfully convicted Michiganders.  The clinic has shined a light on the important justice issues underlying wrongful convictions.

Justice McCormack is married to Steven Croley, also a lawyer and law professor, currently on leave from the University of Michigan Law School to serve as General Counsel to the U.S. Department of Energy. They have four children attending college and the Ann Arbor public schools.

About Eastern Michigan University

Founded in 1849, Eastern is the second oldest university in Michigan. It currently serves 22,000 students pursuing undergraduate, graduate, specialist, doctoral and certificate degrees in the arts, sciences and professions. In all, more than 300 majors, minors and concentrations are delivered through the University's Colleges of Arts and Sciences; Business; Education; Health and Human Services; Technology, and its graduate school. EMU is regularly recognized by national publications for its excellence, diversity, and commitment to applied education. For more information about Eastern Michigan University, visit the University's website.