For the first time in its 30-year history, Clayton College & State University will have a winter graduation ceremony.

The Dec. 11 event is being conducted in response to student preferences. The winter 1999 graduation ceremony will be in the CCSU Athletics and Fitness Center, beginning at 9 a.m. In case of snow or other extreme inclement weather, the ceremony will be cancelled and December 1999 graduates will be encouraged to attend the May 2000 graduation. As is the case with all other weather-related event changes at CCSU, information on a cancellation will be available on the CCSU web page (www.clayton.edu/WebWeather/weather.htm) and at 770-961-3400 as soon as possible prior to the actual planned starting time.

Clayton State has a high percentage (about 67 percent) of non-traditional students — individuals who have been out of high school for at least five years and have earned fewer than 30 semester college credits — who do not typically graduate in the “classic” four-year time period. As a result, many CCSU students do not graduate at the end of spring semester, and many find it inconvenient to return to campus for the May ceremony... especially those who already have full-time jobs. Approximately 350 Clayton State students will be eligible for the December 1999 graduation.

In a related announcement, CCSU interim President Michael F. Vollmer has named G. Robert Oliver, chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Clayton College & State University Foundation, as the December 1999 commencement speaker.

Oliver is a senior partner in the law office of Oliver, Duckworth, Sparger and Winkle PC in Jonesboro. He has been practicing law since 1959 and is a member of the State Bar of Georgia and the Clayton County Bar Association, having served as president in 1965.

He has served as chairman of the State Bar of Georgia Code of Professional Responsibility Committee; chairman of State Bar of Georgia Advisory Opinion Board; and is a member of the State Bar of Georgia Disciplinary Board and a Fellow of the Lawyer's Foundation of Georgia. His community activities also include having served as the director and past president of the Clayton County Chamber of Commerce and as an advisory director of SunTrust Banks.

Clayton College & State University, a member institution of the University System of Georgia, is in Morrow in south metro Atlanta.