Approximately 618 students are eligible to participate in Coastal Carolina University's December commencement ceremony Saturday, Dec. 15 at 10 a.m. at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center. Fall candidates for graduation as well as August 2007 graduates will be recognized in the ceremony. The first graduates of Coastal's Master of Business Administration (MBA) program will receive their degrees at the event.

Kevin M. Jenerette will be the commencement speaker. At Coastal's Honors Convocation in April 2007, Jenerette was named Distinguished Teacher of the Year, an annual honor presented by CCU's Student Government Association to outstanding teaching faculty. Since joining the Coastal faculty in 1994, he has served as a lecturer in mathematics, as coordinator of CCU's Mathematics Lab, as assistant director of Student Academic Support Services, and he is currently director of Coastal's Learning Assistance Center.

Jenerette earned a bachelor's degree in applied mathematics, magna cum laude, from Coastal in 1992 and a master's degree in mathematics from the University of South Carolina in 1994. He has been actively engaged in promoting student learning programs related to mathematics, and for six years he coordinated the annual Coastal Carolina University Math Contest, a statewide high school mathematics competition.

Honorary degrees in public service will be presented to Larry L. Biddle, Daniel T. Cooper and Marilyn J. Fore.

Biddle, a lifelong educator and businessman, is president of the Burroughs Company in Conway. A native of Denver, Colo., Biddle earned a bachelor's degree in Spanish from St. Mary's College of California and a master's degree in Spanish from Middlebury College. From 1966 to 1974 he was assistant director of Coastal Carolina College, where he also coached basketball and baseball and helped organize the School of Education. After eight years as headmaster of a private school, he became assistant principal of Conway High School. In 2005, Biddle and his wife Ginny were instrumental in the establishment of the Biddle Center for Teaching and Learning, an outreach of the CCU's Spadoni College of Education, where he chairs the Board of Visitors. He serves on the board of directors of Burroughs & Chapin Company Inc.

Cooper, a certified insurance counselor of Piedmont, is chairman of the Ways and Means Committee in the S.C. House of Representatives, where he has served continuously since 1990. A native of Greenville, Cooper earned a bachelor's degree from Clemson University. During his career in the statehouse he has been a member of the Medical, Military and Municipal Affairs Committee, the Education and Public Works Committee and the Joint Bond Review Committee. Cooper has had an instrumental role in securing state support for CCU. He received the honorary degree Doctorate of Humane Letters from the Medical University of South Carolina in May 2006.

Fore is senior vice president for academic affairs at Horry-Georgetown Technical College. A native of Ohio, Fore joined HGTC in 1974 and has held many important academic and administrative positions at the college, including instructor, coordinator of cooperative education, director of international education, dean and associate vice president. She has worked closely with Coastal in developing programs that enable students to transfer from HGTC to CCU. Fore earned a bachelor's degree from Fairmont State College in West Virginia; master's degrees in education administration and in economics from the University of South Carolina; and a doctorate in education from USC. She has held leadership positions in professional education associations at the regional and state levels, and she is active in community affairs.