Commencement Changes Announced

Following meetings with students, faculty, deans and administrators, the following agreement was reached concerning proposed changes surrounding commencement events and ceremonies at Utah State University.

The general consensus is that the university commencement in years past has not met the expectations of those participating and that steps should be taken to improve future university commencements.

• Faculty award citations should be shortened
• The alumni speaker should be eliminated
• More visuals depicting college experiences should be displayed
• A student speaker addressing the audience on behalf of the graduating class should be included
• The hooding ceremony should be held at 1 p.m. on Friday
• The north-south walkway should be used for the procession
• The stage configuration should be changed to the center of the floor to allow additional seating
• The recipients of honorary degrees, the Commissioner of Higher Education, the Utah State Board of Trustees, university vice presidents and valedictorians from all of the colleges should be seated on the stage
• The deans and faculty members should be encouraged to sit with the students of their respective colleges
• The Utah State orchestra or band, or both, should play music during the presentation of commencement certificates
• A student speaker, preferably a valedictorian (representing the best in student academic achievement) should be chosen from a pool consisting of the valedictorians. Some discussion remains whether to include college Outstanding Seniors in this pool. All colleges may not have such recognition. This is still being researched.
• Student names should always be read aloud at the college ceremonies.
• Each college should hold its own ceremony where students are given the opportunity to receive individual recognition for achievement and to have their names read aloud. During this ceremony, valedictorians and other outstanding seniors will be honored and other college traditions upheld.
• Each college continues the option of holding its ceremonies on Friday or Saturday of graduation weekend.
• A dinner on Friday evening should be held to recognize honorary degree recipients and all college valedictorians
• Graduate students should hold their own commencement ceremony on Friday
• The commencement day breakfast should be eliminated
• Friday evening music program for students and parents should continue

Seating capacity

While the university may graduate 3,000 students, this number includes graduate students and students at regional sites such as Brigham City, Tooele, and Uintah Basin. These students and their families do not attend the regular commencement exercises on the Logan campus.

Of the graduating class of 2002, a total of 1,933 applied for graduation. Of that number, 826 applied after the deadline date. Of that number, 300 did not fulfill graduation requirements. Taking all of this into account, it is likely that 1,600 or less actually attended commencement exercises. Finding seats for the remaining students and their families was not an issue in May and is not expected to be an issue for the class of 2003, especially when taking into account that an additional 2,000 seats will now become available under the new seating configuration.

University administration and students recognize that several formal changes need to be enacted before distributing diplomas on graduation day becomes a reality. This is not expected until May 2004. In the interim, students of the Class of 2003 will be handed in May a Certificate of Commencement during the commencement ceremony. It will come in a binder that will ultimately hold the diploma when it is delivered by mail.

Students will line up according to their colleges, led by faculty members, in the order of the certificates in the boxes. Student numbers will match certificate numbers. They will walk through a line and receive their certificate from their deans before returning to their seats.

It is anticipated this will take some 20 minutes to complete. During this time, President Hall and Provost Albrecht will mingle with the students on the floor to offer congratulations and to wish them well.

Music will be playing, college visuals projected over the scoreboard (including the possibility of graduate names scrolling down the screen). It is anticipated there will be much movement in the hall and energy generated by the excitement and celebration of the moment – the crowning achievement of many years of hard work and great sacrifice.

Up to this point, nearly half of the students are applying for graduation well past the deadline date. If diplomas are to be distributed on commencement day, a graduation deadline will have to be strictly enforced. By filing applications on time, university staff will be given the necessary time to work with department heads in coordinating graduation requirements satisfactorily. Well in advance of graduation day, a formal process will need to be implemented to validate a student as a genuine candidate for graduation.

To help the process along, the university will better advertise the graduation deadline date and will instruct student advisors to begin earlier in helping students prepare for the graduation deadline and requirements. This new process, that will begin much earlier for faculty, students and staff, will allow professors to focus on just the final grades for graduate candidates.

A commencement committee, composed of students, faculty and staff, will continue to work through the logistics of these new changes.

President Hall expressed appreciation to President Celestial Bybee for student involvement and input during the public hearing stage of the commencement change proposal. He complimented student officers for the resolution they drafted concerning graduation changes. “It displayed a good deal of sophistication and good will toward the university,” he said.

For more information, contact the Public Relations and Marketing Office
(435) 797-1358.