Briana Hillard and Matthew Grant will be awarded posthumous degrees in May. The two undergraduate students were killed tragically as a result of an automobile crash last November.
Hillard was majoring in Business Administration at Anderson School of Management, while Grant was majoring in Sociology in the College of Arts and Sciences at UNM.
In separate memos to the UNM Board of Regents and the Faculty Senate, Robert DelCampo and Richard Wood wrote in support of the students receiving their degrees posthumously.
"Ms. Hillard was a student in degree status and in good standing at Anderson School of Management in the academic year prior to her death on Nov. 21, 2014. Ms. Hillard completed 82 hours and had 46 credits remaining to complete her degree. She had a cumulative GPA of 3.07,” DelCampo wrote.
"Mr. Grant died tragically in an automobile accident in late 2014. At the time of his death, Mr. Grant was a student in good standing in the Department of Sociology at the UNM main campus, and was within a semester or two of completing his degree," Wood wrote.
The schools requested that the students receive the posthumous degrees. The Faculty Senate approved the request in January 2015, while the UNM Board of Regents approved the request at its regular meeting on Monday.