Cal U. commencement set for Saturday
Geraldine Jones
Karen Rutledge
Two women, each with years of service and contributions to California University of Pennsylvania, will receive honorary doctorates Saturday as the university celebrates its 194th commencement.
Geraldine Jones, former university president, and Karen Rutledge, who co-founded the Rutledge Institute for Early Childhood Education at Cal U., will receive their Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters.
For the first time, graduates and undergraduates will receive their degrees in the same ceremony, organized by college.
The combined ceremony for students from the Eberly College of Science and Technology will begin at 10 a.m., and the combined ceremony for graduates from the College of Education and Liberal Arts will begin at 2 p.m.
Both ceremonies will take place at the university’s Convocation Center.
“We will have students in one ceremony, from associate to doctorate,” said Dr. Daniel Engstrom, associate provost for curriculum management. “It is very valuable, and even inspirational, for undergraduate students to see master’s and doctoral students with their academic hoods.”
Jones will address the Eberly College graduates, and Rutledge will speak to the Education and Liberal Arts graduates.
Anthony Mauro, campus administrator, will preside at both ceremonies.
Approximately 1,000 students who earned their degrees from Cal U. in either January or May are expected to graduate from the university.
For those who cannot attend in person, a livestream of both ceremonies will be available at https://cupmediasite.passhe.edu/Mediasite/Catalog/catalogs/mediasiteadmincalifornia-university-of-pennsylvania-s-194th-commencement.
For commencement details, visit https://www.calu.edu/inside/studentresources/commencement/index.aspx.
Rutledge, who is originally from McMurray, is the co-founder of the Rutledge Institute, a state-of-the-art, on-campus early childhood education program.
Her interests in helping young families developed into the idea for the Rutledge Institute for Early Childhood Education, which she co-founded with her husband, Tom, a 1977 Cal U. graduate.
In addition to the Rutledge Institute, the Rutledge family has provided hundreds of scholarship and internship awards for Cal U. students, including the Rutledge Family Scholarships, the Rutledge Family Scholarships in Economics and the Rutledge Family Internship Awards.
Jones, former Cal U. president, retired in January 2021 after a 46-year career at the university.
Under her leadership, Cal U. established its first doctoral programs; created the Center for Undergraduate Research; began offering Winter College courses between the fall and spring semesters; launched nine new academic programs in high-demand fields, and received the largest philanthropic gift in the school’s history, which established the Rutledge Institute for Early Childhood Education.
Jones graduated from California State College in 1972 with a Bachelor of Education and earned her master’s degree in education at California in 1980.