Spring Break
Spring Graduation To Be Split Up
Kyle Charette
Issue date: 2/20/07 Section: News
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"As we get the increasing number of students graduating, we have to start decreasing the number of tickets for family members," said Michael Darre, marshal and chair of the Commencement Committee. "We're over-filling Gampel."
The School of Pharmacy graduation will take place in Rome Ballroom in south campus this year, while the School of Education and School of Fine Arts commencements will be held separately in the Jorgensen Center for Performing Arts. Students in all other schools and majors will graduate in Gampel Pavillion.
The major concern for students is that the more intimate graduation means that many of them won't be graduating with friends from other majors.
"I've always looked forward to the big ceremony for the end of my college career," said Heather Bull, an 8th-semester secondary biology education major. "It'll still be nice to have a smaller ceremony, but I have friends that are in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) who would usually graduate with Neag [School of Education] and it would have been nice to be in Gampel Pavilion with them."
The reason these three schools were picked for individual ceremonies is because they were the first three to volunteer," according to Darre.
On graduation day, families and important people in the graduates' lives come together to recognize and acknowledge the hard work the graduates have put into their degrees.
The possibility of having the student's names read was one of the biggest driving factors to switch to a smaller ceremony.
"People want a little more individual recognition that we've been unable to do in the Gampel ceremony," Darre said.
"Being the first college graduate in my family, I know the proudest day in my mom and dad's life was to hear my name read," said Richard Schwab, dean of the Neag School of Education. "I think that most parents would rather hear that than have lots of other speakers."
One of the other positive arguments is that the schools will get to have more specialized speakers that relate to their majors.
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