DePauw University Commencement 2008
A testimony from DePauw's Ken Owen  

DePauw teams up with IHETS to Webcast their 2008 Commencement Ceremony

DePauw first partnered with IHETS in October 2005, when Mikhail Gorbachev came to our campus for an Ubben Lecture. As part of the negotiations that brought President Gorbachev to Greencastle, I was able to get approval of a webcast of the address.  IHETS helped us deliver this major event to the world, literally, enabling alumni in distant locales and people with no affiliation with the University an opportunity to be part of an historic evening.

We later worked with IHETS on two interactive sessions, one with our president and another with a vice president, in which we provided alumni with updates on important university initiatives.  We also provided a live webcast in February 2008 as Brian W. Casey was introduced as DePauw's 19th president.

In May, 2008, I again reached out to IHETS in hopes they could help us deliver streaming video of our commencement ceremonies. As we have students from 45 states and 24 countries, it's a given that there are many relatives and friends of our graduates who were unable to be at DePauw to witness this event in person. The feedback we received following the event confirmed that this was indeed very important to members of our community and the webcast was something they took advantage of and thoroughly enjoyed.

The IHETS team is wonderful to work with and has been a huge help in providing new ways of reaching out to and interacting with members of the DePauw family. It's a partnership I hope we can build upon.

Ken Owen
Director of Media Relations
DePauw University