Associated Students passed a proposal April 17 to provide $15,000 for relocating the spring graduation ceremony. Commencement will be on McNally Field instead of the traditional Metzger Lawn, due to the high number of spring graduates.

CHANGES TO GRADUATION LOCATION 

“I think this was a time that AS saw a need and responded to it out of desperation and we worked hard and were willing to give student fee dollars,” Essig said.

The change will allow twice the number of attendees, meaning graduates are allotted 10 tickets instead of the original five. Dane Hunt, a senior biblical studies major, favors the location change for the sake of getting more tickets. He will now be able to bring his entire family to the ceremony.

“It makes it a lot more comfortable,” Hunt said.

A March 10 letter informed seniors they would be given five tickets for the ceremony — a new ticketing system implemented this spring. Because the graduating class is nearly 800 students — close to 150 more than the previous spring — a ticketing system seemed most practical, said interim manager of university events Hilary Larkins.

Limiting the number of attendees caused some students to worry about a lack of seats for their families.

“I had a bunch of family members that couldn’t [go] now so it was kind of weird to pick and choose who to bring,” said senior business administration major Chris Anderson.

In response to student concern, vice president of events and programming Jennifer Essig brought the issue before the AS executive board.

“We discussed a lot of feedback among our fellow peers and felt like this was a serious issue to advocate for the students,” she said.

Wanting to ensure they heard right, AS facilitated direct student input.

“We decided to conduct a survey to all graduating seniors to have more quantitative data about what their feedback is and how they feel about this whole issue,” AS president Evan Tan said.

Out of the 421 seniors who responded, 90 percent were planning on bringing more than five family members before they received the letter. Sixty-six percent of students had guests who had already purchased plane tickets prior to the announcement, and 20 percent had six or more guests with flights already booked.

“We realized that we didn’t have the space or funding to put everyone in one place,” said Becky Gallacher, AS senior vice president. “We knew we needed to write to the PAC.”

The President’s Administrative Council responded the next day, saying that University Communications and Marketing would contribute funds in addition to AS contingency money if the ceremony was relocated, according to Tan.

LOCATION NOT A PERMANENT CHANGE

Moving to McNally also allows undergraduates to stand in the back and watch commencement live. The AS contingency fund — money from the student fee — will cover the cost. The funds cover stage setup, extra seats and erecting satellite locations in the back of the field.

This is perhaps the only time AS will contribute financially to commencement, according to both executive board members. AS only provided funds this year because of the last-minute switch, which was not originally budgeted.

“It would take a permanent budget change on behalf of the university,” Larkins said.

While the new location may not be permanent, students should expect to see the ticket system in the future.

“We do need to be realistic with growth that could potentially happen to where there might need to be an expectation of tickets from this point on,” Larkins said.