UD sets new graduation record for third time in three years

A record number of University of Dayton students will receive their degrees this weekend, marking the third time in as many years the school has hit a new all-time-high for spring commencement.

UD will graduate around 2,116 students this weekend, eclipsing the school’s previous record of 1,901 from last spring and more than the record of 1,895 set in 2016, according to the university. Even with the three records, there’s room for the size of UD’s graduating classes to continue to increase, said Jason Reinoehl, UD vice president of strategic enrollment management.

“The trend is that we’re improving every year,” he said. “We could potentially see (more) improvements, but it’s hard to project the graduation rates from cohort to cohort.”

The UD law school will award around 86 degrees at a 9 a.m. ceremony Saturday, after which nearly 380 students will receive their graduate degrees at 12:45 p.m. Saturday, followed by around 1,650 students receiving their undergraduate degrees at 12:45 p.m. Sunday. Each ceremony is scheduled for UD Arena and will be available to view online, according to the university.

The latest gradaution record can be attributed to a few initiatives at the university, Reinoehl said. A big factor, Reinoehl said, has been “the assurance we’re providing to families” with UD’s tuition guarantee program.

In 2013, UD began promising prospective students their financial aid would match any increase in tuition so they would same price all four years in college. UD also got rid of individual fees and began offering four-year projections for the cost of housing and meal plans.

The program has led to increased retention, Reinoehl has said, meaning the students who usually transferred to another school because of rising costs are not leaving as often. Over the last five year’s UD’s program has been recreated by a number of area schools including Miami University, Ohio State University and most recently Wright State University.

Along with the tuition plan, Reinoehl said that efforts on campus to track student progress are also coming full circle.

One is an online tool called “Degree Works,” which allows students and advisers to closely track their credits and courses. The tool has been available for four or five years and is being used by more students than ever before, Reinoehl said.

“We have all hands on deck across campus and then you have greater technology helping as well as,” he said.

Something more personal than technology and tuition guarantees pushed Michael Hannigan, a 65-year-old who went back to school, to finish his degree and graduate this Sunday though.

“The simplest answer is my daughter,” Hannigan said. “Our youngest daughter is at UD and we are graduating together.”

Hannigan transferred to UD from Rockland Community College in Suffern, New York in the fall of 1972. A little over a year later, he left to become a first responder in Oakwood, he said.

In the meantime, Hannigan put his credits from Rockland and UD toward an associate degree in fire science technology at Sinclair Community College. But, 45 years later he will be fulfilling a promise to his parents that he’d finish his degree and he’ll be doing it alongside his daughter and as part of a record-breaking class at UD.

“It’s pretty neat,” he said. “UD’s attendance seems to go up each freshman year or so hopefully they can hang onto those numbers and keep growing.”

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UD grads by the numbers

2,116: Spring 2018.

1,901: Spring 2017.

1,895: Spring 2016.

1,872: Spring 2015.