Some 450 fall graduation candidates and summer graduates plan to participate in Purdue University Calumet’s 14th annual December Commencement Exercises at 6 p.m., Tuesday, Dec. 18 at the Radisson Star Plaza Theatre in Merrillville.

The total graduating class is comprised of 720 individuals—165 summer graduates and 555 fall candidates whose diploma status is subject to satisfactory completion this week of fall semester course work.

Summer graduates earned 18 associate degrees, 71 baccalaureate degrees and 76 master’s degrees. The fall candidates are on pace to claim 105 associate degrees, 368 baccalaureate degrees and 82 master’s degrees.

Purdue University Trustees Susan Butler and William Oesterle will confer degrees.

Purdue Calumet Chancellor Howard Cohen and Professor of Philosophy John Rowan, the university’s 2003-04 Outstanding Teaching Award recipient, will address the degree candidates/graduates, their families and friends. Distinguished undergraduate degree candidates will be recognized as well.

Selected to offer the traditional “response” on behalf of the December Class of 2007 is Chicago native and Highland resident Otis Brewer III. The 29-year-old human resource management major is a McNair Achievement Scholar, has been active in campus activities, has been selected for inclusion into “Who’s Who Among Students in American Colleges and Universities” and is the first African-American male student to qualify for acceptance into Purdue Calumet’s new Honors Program.

This December’s class increases the number of degrees granted at Purdue Calumet to more than 39,500.