By Kim Scroggins

As graduation draws near, CCSU recognized honors students who have excelled throughout their time at the university.

Last Thursday night Welte was filled with honors students and their families for the distribution of the cords at the Honors Convocation.

This year, close to 1,600 students are planning to walk in May’s undergraduate commencement. Of those students, about 400 were asked to attend the Honors Convocation Thursday night to receive their cords for the honors program, summa cum laude, magna cum laude, and cum laude standing.

The process took a little over two hours and opened with an introduction from Provost Dr. Carl Lovitt and a keynote address by Dr. J. Thomas Seddon IV from the Music Department.

Before distributing the summa, magna, and cum laude cords, the winners of the highest ranking student athletes, the 31 honors program graduates, and Henry Barnard Foundation scholars were recognized. Deans from each of Central’s four schools introduced selected professors from each department to give out the departmental honors awards.

As each student was called to the stage by the professor from his or her department, a list of the student’s personal achievements was shared with the audience as well as future plans. Because of this, this portion of the ceremony took the first hour of the evening to complete.

Of the 400 honor students, 44 are graduating cum laude, 151 magna cum laude and 206 cum laude.