The ceremony will begin at 10 a.m. in the Hart Auditorium. Five-hundred sixty-three students will receive bachelor degrees and 355 will be awarded associate degrees. Forty-one percent of the graduates are returned missionaries and 47 percent are married.

Tickets are limited for graduates and guests. The availability dates and number of tickets per graduate are as follows:

December 10 Marching Graduates needing additional tickets (limit 4 additional)
December 10 Non-marching Graduates - single (1 ticket per graduate)
December 10 Non-marching Graduates - married (2 tickets per graduate)
December 10 All Students (one ticket per student) available after 12 p.m.

Elder Hales was previously invited to speak in April of 1999 at the Ricks College Commencement. Born in New York City, he earned degrees from the University of Utah and Harvard Business School. Elder Hales has served as the Presiding Bishop, in the First Quorum of the Seventy and as an assistant to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Prior to his full-time church duties, Elder Hales flew fighter jets for the U.S. Air Force and had a successful business career holding executive positions in multiple national companies.

Tickets are available at the BYU-Idaho Ticket Office in Manwaring Center 162 and online at: http://www.byui.edu/tickets/.