It’s Commencement Day. Cloaked in a navy gown, you slightly adjust the placement of your cap and tassel and proudly arrange your pins and medals, symbols of your hard work and dedication, as you line up to walk on stage. This is a day of celebration; you had countless sleepless nights, emotional breakdowns and thoughts of dropping out, but you pushed through every hurdle and made it to the finish line. The best part? Your family and friends traveled all the way to Davie to witness your tremendous achievement.
You hear your name, awkwardly hobble across the stage and eagerly reach toward the first hand you need to shake, anticipating the proud, overzealous cheers of your loved ones. But, instead, as you claim your pseudo-diploma and search the audience, you don’t hear the familiar whistles and shouts of your loved ones. Because so many people showed up to commencement, they were unable to secure seats in the arena and were forced to stay in the overflow section.
For the first time ever, commencement will be held on campus, but the arena is significantly smaller than last year’s venue, the BB&T Center. Until recently, the plan to accommodate for the shortage of seats was to offer each graduating student a limited number of tickets. Fortunately, for students like myself with large, proud, eager families, President George Hanbury listened to our concerns and understood our desire to share that special moment with all of our friends, family and loved ones. However, his solution, to get rid of tickets altogether and offer admission to commencement on a first-come, first-served basis, is a recipe for disaster.
Even when there are assigned tickets, and there is more than enough space for everyone, there’s something about commencements that makes attendees testy. Everyone shoves, cuts, blocks and argues to get as close as possible to the doors hours before the ceremony even begins. The second the doors open, friends and family members of all ages stampede through the entrance, pushing, complaining and bickering with each other, in hopes of getting the best possible view of the stage and enough seats so the entire party can sit together. Throw in the added pressure of no guaranteed seating and the possibility of being sent to the overflow section, and we have created a real life version of “The Hunger Games.”
Unfortunately, while I love our beautiful campus, there is not enough room to host commencement on campus and still let graduates invite all their loved ones. While, yes, there will be designated areas where guests who did not fit in the arena will still be able to watch commencement, no one wants to be that student whose own mother couldn’t even be in the same room as her child when he or she finally crosses the stage. No one wants their aging grandmother, who flew in from out of state just to see her grandchild graduate, struggle through angry crowds, only to be forced to watch graduation from a screen. Graduation just doesn’t feel right if your dad isn’t there to take pixelated, blurry pictures or shaky videos of every second you’re on stage, immediately sending his shots of the moment to everyone on his contacts list.
Forcing commencement to be on campus is way too complicated, and the only way to appease everyone is by hosting commencement at the BB&T again. I understand that students whose families have never seen the campus, online students and students from other NSU campuses prefer commencement in our arena because it’s the perfect opportunity to sightsee around campus. I understand that there are students who want to say one last farewell to the place where they spent the past four years studying, learning and growing. However, commencement on campus is far too unpractical, and the BB&T Center is just a quick 15-minute drive away.
Commencement is a big deal, and students want to share that moment with as many people as possible. Unfortunately, there is no on-campus venue large enough to host guests without ticket limitations. While I do hope that this year’s commencement ceremonies run smoothly without any complications, I pity those attendees who will be forced to watch commencement from the overflow section and the graduating friend or family members of those attendees who excitedly search for their guests in the crowd, only to be faced with a room full of strangers.
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