ORANGE : Chapman Presents Record 1,756 Degrees

Chapman University on Sunday presented bachelor’s and master’s degrees to a record 1,756 students who now must face what Chapman President James Doti called “probably the bleakest job market a student could experience.”

The 1992 graduating class is the first since the institution changed its name on Sept. 10 from Chapman College, observed Doti.

Doti said that in the last four years Chapman’s graduate student enrollment has more than doubled from 400 to 850 on the Orange campus and there has been similar growth in graduate enrollments at the university’s 48 off-campus academic centers.

He attributed the expansion of graduate programs in part to the increasing number of students who are deferring job hunts until the economy rebounds from the recession.

The keynote speaker at the commencement exercises was Stanley Kramer, a director and producer of such motion pictures as “High Noon,” “Judgment at Nuremberg” and “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.”