Michigan Senator John J.H. Schwarz, M.D., will address Grand Valley State University's annual Traverse City Commencement this Tuesday evening. The ceremony begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Park Place Hotel Dome in downtown Traverse City.
This is the fourth year GVSU has held the Traverse City event, which this year honors 83 students who have completed various bachelor's and master's degree programs in the university's offerings through the Northwestern Michigan College University Center.
Senator Schwarz is the Michigan Senate's president pro tempore, and he chairs the Higher Education Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee. Prior to his service in the Senate, he was Mayor of Battle Creek and a city commissioner there. Schwarz practices medicine and surgery and is on the staff of the Battle Creek Health System.
The commencement ceremony will also be the last for GVSU President Arend D. Lubbers, who will retire June 30. With a 32-year tenure of leadership at Grand Valley, he is the nation's longest serving current university president.
