West Virginia University will hold its annual December Graduates Convocation at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 7, at the WVU Coliseum. No tickets are required for entrance.

Each year, about 1,000 WVU students graduate in December. While Convocation is not a Commencement (degrees will not be conferred), this is a special event to recognize students’achievements and graduates will wear traditional caps and gowns.

Paul E. Gates

This year’s speaker will be Paul E. Gates. An associate professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Gates also serves as director of dentistry and oral and maxillofacial surgery at the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center in Bronx, N.Y. He has held teaching posts at Fairleigh Dickinson University, the Institute of Leadership Studies and Columbia University School of Dentistry.

In 1999, he was named as one of the Outstanding Intellectuals of the 20th Century and was honored by Who’s Who in Medicine and Healthcare.

Gates received his B.A. in’66 and D.D.S. in’70both from WVU and is a member of the WVU Board of Governors.

“We are pleased to welcome Paul E. Gates to campus to speak to our graduates,”said WVU President David C. Hardesty Jr.”He has distinguished himself in the field of dentistry through the prestigious positions he has held and his leadership roles in many professional organizations. As an alumnus of Potomac State Junior College and WVU , he represents an excellent role model for young people who are about to embark on their own careers. His commitment to higher education and his alma mater, demonstrated through his service on the WVU Board of Governors, is also a quality that they would be wise to emulate.”