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³ÉÈ˶¶ÒôÆƽâ°æ proudly conferred more than 900 degrees to members of the Class of 2025 during its Spring Commencement ceremonies for the Erie campus on Saturday, May 10. Both the undergraduate and graduate ceremonies took place at Erie Insurance Arena, following Baccalaureate Mass in St. Peter Cathedral, honoring the academic achievements and future aspirations of hundreds of graduates from the university.  

³ÉÈ˶¶ÒôÆƽâ°æ President Walter Iwanenko, Ph.D., awarded the degrees to the graduates in attendance. This year’s graduating class of 898 students received 920 degrees, including: 65 doctoral degrees, 407 master’s degrees, 430 bachelor’s degrees and 18 associate’s degrees. Graduating with distinction, more than 200 students are recognized for their exceptional academic achievements, including 73 summa cum laude, 101 magna cum laude and 65 cum laude honorees. In addition, 301 global students representing 33 countries proudly earned their degrees, highlighting the university’s international reach and diversity. 

³ÉÈ˶¶ÒôÆƽâ°æ awarded a Degree of Bachelor of Science in Computer Science in Memoriam to the family of Kevin Niako. Niako passed away in 2022.  

This year’s keynote speaker is Steve Scully, who grew up in Erie and has had a distinguished career in broadcasting. He started his career with WSEE in Erie before eventually working for decades at CSPAN. He was named to the Pennsylvania Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2019. He has interviewed celebrities and politicians, including many U.S. presidents. 

³ÉÈ˶¶ÒôÆƽâ°æ will also confer 92 graduate degrees in the university’s Ruskin Campus commencement ceremony on Saturday, May 17 at the Bradenton Convention Center in Palmetto, Fla. 

Find more photos from the commencement ceremonies on

More about the speaker: 

A native of Erie, Pa., Steve Scully is currently the host of “The Briefing with Steve Scully on Sirius XM,” which is heard across North America. He also serves as a senior fellow at the Former Members of Congress Association and is director of the Jefferson Educational Society (JES) Brock Institute. 

In June, he was appointed to the University of Southern California Annenberg School as a Visiting Fellow for the Center for Communication Leadership & Policy.   

Since 2010, Scully has served as chairman of the JES global summit, the premier policy conference in Northwestern Pennsylvania.  He has brought in leading figures in politics, academia and journalism, including President George W. Bush, First Lady Laura Bush, Rep. Liz Cheney, NPR’s Cokie Roberts, Fox News Political Analyst Karl Rove, historians Doris Kearns Goodwin and Doug Brinkley, PBS’ Judy Woodruff, CBS’ John Dickerson, and a long list of other experts in their field.  

He is the former senior vice president at the Bipartisan Policy Center, and prior to that, Scully served as C-SPAN's senior executive producer and political editor for three decades.   

During his time at C-SPAN, he conducted nearly 8,000 interviews, launched multiple signature programs and interviewed every U.S. president from President Gerald Ford to President Donald Trump.   

Scully served as a member of the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) for nine years, including WHCA President. In 2019, he was inducted to the Pennsylvania Broadcasters Hall of Fame.  His work covering every presidential campaign since 1992 has won multiple awards, including the Cable Ace and an Emmy.  

He also served as an adjunct faculty member at a number of schools, including Purdue University, Pace University, University of Denver, University of Wisconsin and University of California-DC.   

Scully began his journalism career at WSEE-TV in his hometown of Erie before working at WHEC-TV in Rochester, N.Y.   

Steve is the 14th child in a family of 16, with five sets of twins. He is married to Kathryn Reim, a Fairview, Pa. native, and is the father of four children (Mary Cathryn, Cristen, Daniel and Natalie,) the youngest of whom was adopted. Two others died as infants--Carolyn in 1994 of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and Jack, in 1996, as a stillbirth. He serves on the board of directors of the CJ Foundation for SIDS and First Candle.   

Scully earned his undergraduate degree at American University in 1982 and a Master of Science at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism in 1985.