West Virginia State University Spring Commencement set for Saturday, May 12

4/26/2018

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Contact: Jack Bailey
(304) 766-4109
Jbaile19@wvstateu.edu

   
INSTITUTE, W.Va. – More than 260 students will graduate from West Virginia State University (WVSU) on Saturday, May 12, 2018, during a commencement ceremony beginning at 10 a.m. in the D. Stephen and Diane H. Walker Convocation Center.

The commencement speaker is Dr. William Theodore “Ted” McDaniel, Jr., professor emeritus of music and African American and African Studies at The Ohio State University (OSU).

McDaniel retired from OSU after teaching there for 35 years on June 1, 2015. He held faculty appointments in the School of Music and the Department of African American and African Studies, where he served as Department Chair for eight years.  His scholarly and creative writings were mostly on aspects of jazz and black music, and he was invited to lecture throughout the United States and to present in Africa, Europe and China.

McDaniel was Director of Jazz Studies and directed the OSU Jazz Ensemble from 1990-2015.  His leadership of the Jazz Ensemble led to performances throughout Ohio and the United States.  They also took five international tours: European tours to France, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, where they performed at the leading jazz festivals and other sites; Canada tour to Seattle and Vancouver, British Columbia; and most recently in 2014 to China for a U. S. State Department-sponsored tour with performances in Beijing, Xinxiang, Wuhan, and Shanghai through the Center for American Culture. 

He has written music for the “Sesame Street” TV show, and has served as an arranger for the OSU Marching Band since 1981, where his music has been performed at every Big 10 stadium and at major bowl games.

McDaniel shares a special connection to WVSU where his grandfather, John W. Davis, served as the University’s fifth president from 1919-1953.

WVSU holds commencement ceremonies in December and May of each year.

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West Virginia State University is a public, land grant, historically black university, which has evolved into a fully accessible, racially integrated, and multi-generational institution, located in Institute, W.Va. As a “living laboratory of human relations,” the university is a community of students, staff, and faculty committed to academic growth, service, and preservation of the racial and cultural diversity of the institution. Its mission is to meet the higher education and economic development needs of the state and region through innovative teaching and applied research.