Baldwin ? Blair Edgington isn’t sure what it will feel like to be handed her diploma on Sunday after four years at Baker University.

But she knows the weekend will be a whirlwind of dinners with family, parties with friends and formal university ceremonies and celebrations.

“I’m looking forward to getting the day done with,” she said. “It’s pretty surreal right now. I don’t think it’s going to hit me until Sunday.”

Edgington, Wichita, will be one of more than 450 Baker students who will receive diplomas during two commencement ceremonies Sunday at the Collins Sports and Convention Center on the Baldwin campus.

The first ceremony, for the College of Arts and Sciences, will be at 1 p.m. Michael Hoeflich, law professor at Kansas University and a columnist for the Journal-World, will speak.

Graduates of the School of Nursing and the School of Professional and Graduate Studies will be recognized during a ceremony at 4:30 p.m. Lynn Jenkins, Kansas state treasurer, will address the graduates.

The ceremonies will cap a weekend of events for alumni and graduating seniors that begins Friday, when 14 classes join forces for a reunion beginning at 7 p.m. at the Sheraton in Overland Park.

About 1,000 alumni are expected to attend. The class of 1953 will be honored with 50-year commemorative medallions.

Baker officials will conduct a dedication ceremony for the newly renovated Collins Library at 10:30 a.m. Saturday. Then there will be an Alumni Day Luncheon at 11:30 a.m. Saturday in the Allen Dining Room in Harter Union.

After the luncheon, Baker will conduct a memorial service to honor alumni who died in the past year. It begins at 2 p.m. in Osborne Memorial Chapel.

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Fraternity and sorority houses will have alumni reunions Saturday evening, with an alumni social beginning at 7 p.m. in Collins Library.

Graduation day events begin with baccalaureate at 9:30 a.m. at First United Methodist Church in Baldwin. Brunch will be served at 10:30 a.m. at Harter Union.

Dan Lambert, Baker’s president, said fusing the alumni and commencement events — a Baker tradition since its founding — helps new graduates remember the university’s heritage.

“There’s a certain family environment,” he said. “I’m always excited. It’s a reminder of why most of us got in this business in the first place.”