Spring Break
One Day, 11 Separate Ceremonies
Smaller Graduations Across Campus Aim To Be More Personal
Caitlin Emma
Issue date: 5/11/08 Section: News
UConn officials have decided to hold smaller, more intimate ceremonies for students, families and guests this commencement weekend. Eleven of the university's 14 schools will celebrate graduating students this weekend. The schools of law, medicine and dental medicine will hold ceremonies on May 18.
Last year, the School of Fine Arts, the Neag School of Education and the School of Pharmacy held separate ceremonies and all three were considered successes. The success drove UConn officials to extend the idea of separate ceremonies to other schools in order to make the event more individualized and personal.
"The primary reason for the switch is that we have more undergraduate students graduating than we have space in Gampel for all of their families and guests," said Michael Darre, university marshall and chair of the University Commencement Committee.
Most of the commencement ceremonies will be held today were held in the Rome Commons Ballroom in South Campus, the Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts or Gampel Pavilion or were held yesterday. Today's ceremonies will either be running at different times or will parallel each other in separate places on campus.
"This will individualize the ceremonies a little bit, make it more intimate and personal for the students," Darre said. "I believe all the schools but [the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences] CLAS will be reading names."
Due to the size of CLAS, the largest of UConn's schools and colleges, their ceremony will take place at 4 p.m. today in Gampel Pavilion. For CLAS graduates, the ceremony will resemble the less intimate ceremonies of previous years.
Separate ceremonies for different schools will also prevent students from being limited to a specific number of tickets for families and guests.
"Without separate ceremonies, we would have had to severely limit the amount of tickets per student," said Sally Reis, a faculty representative on the Commencement Committee and University Marshall. "We're trying to give more flexibility to some of the smaller schools on campus who have the ability to hold these smaller ceremonies for students."
UConn is not the first university to try separating commencement ceremonies for its students.
"This is very much in keeping with what other large universities do for commencement," Reis said.
And holding separate ceremonies at UConn during graduation weekend is an arrangement that may be repeated next year, if all goes well.
"My personal feeling is if this works well it's what we'll do in the future," Darre said. "We want students to have a positive final day at the University."
Contact Caitlin Emma at Caitlin.Emma@UConn.edu.
Last year, the School of Fine Arts, the Neag School of Education and the School of Pharmacy held separate ceremonies and all three were considered successes. The success drove UConn officials to extend the idea of separate ceremonies to other schools in order to make the event more individualized and personal.
"The primary reason for the switch is that we have more undergraduate students graduating than we have space in Gampel for all of their families and guests," said Michael Darre, university marshall and chair of the University Commencement Committee.
Most of the commencement ceremonies will be held today were held in the Rome Commons Ballroom in South Campus, the Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts or Gampel Pavilion or were held yesterday. Today's ceremonies will either be running at different times or will parallel each other in separate places on campus.
"This will individualize the ceremonies a little bit, make it more intimate and personal for the students," Darre said. "I believe all the schools but [the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences] CLAS will be reading names."
Due to the size of CLAS, the largest of UConn's schools and colleges, their ceremony will take place at 4 p.m. today in Gampel Pavilion. For CLAS graduates, the ceremony will resemble the less intimate ceremonies of previous years.
Separate ceremonies for different schools will also prevent students from being limited to a specific number of tickets for families and guests.
"Without separate ceremonies, we would have had to severely limit the amount of tickets per student," said Sally Reis, a faculty representative on the Commencement Committee and University Marshall. "We're trying to give more flexibility to some of the smaller schools on campus who have the ability to hold these smaller ceremonies for students."
UConn is not the first university to try separating commencement ceremonies for its students.
"This is very much in keeping with what other large universities do for commencement," Reis said.
And holding separate ceremonies at UConn during graduation weekend is an arrangement that may be repeated next year, if all goes well.
"My personal feeling is if this works well it's what we'll do in the future," Darre said. "We want students to have a positive final day at the University."
Contact Caitlin Emma at Caitlin.Emma@UConn.edu.
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