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Wednesday, September 19, 2001

Graduating seniors to vote on commencement location
By Jacque Petersell
Staff Reporter

Graduating seniors may see a change in the way Spring Commencement takes place. An e-mail was sent to seniors and faculty last week by Patrick Miller, registrar and director of enrollment management, announcing two alternatives to the graduation ceremony and included a link to a survey where seniors could vote on the alternatives.

The survey closes to students today and to faculty members Thursday, Miller said.

An on-going commencement task force was asked to find alternative methods or places for graduation following complaints that the ceremony in Daniel-Meyer Coliseum was too crowded and dangerous, Miller said.

The task force has since come up with two alternatives to the graduation ceremony, according to an e-mail sent by Miller to faculty and graduating seniors last week. The first alternative would keep the ceremony at Daniel-Meyer, but seniors would be given six or seven passes for family and friends. A separate area would be set up where extra guests would be able to view the ceremony on television screens.

The second alternative would be to move the graduation ceremony to the Fort Worth Convention Center downtown, and according to the e-mail, there would be no limit to the number of guests seniors can bring if the ceremony is moved off campus.

Miller said the task force, consisting of administrators and faculty, decided on these two alternatives after looking at other universities and examining the pros and cons of the situations there. Miller said the alternatives chosen had one thing in common.

“The number one plus is we have a single ceremony with all the students graduating together in a single location,” Miller said.

Chancellor Michael Ferrari said other options the task force looked at were moving the ceremony to Amon Carter Stadium, splitting the graduates into their different colleges or having separate ceremonies for graduates and undergraduates. Ferrari said he tried many of these alternatives at Drake University, but found most students did not like having graduation ceremonies split up.

“The students wanted to be with their friends,” Ferrari said. “Students said it didn’t feel like a real university (when splitting undergraduate and graduate ceremonies).”

Ferrari said the survey is important because it allows the task force to get seniors’ input on “their day.”

Holly Ricketts, a senior social work major, said it would be nice to keep graduation on campus, but she would give that up to be able to invite more people.

“Doing it at the convention center will make it a lot less crowded,” Ricketts said. “I won’t have to limit the number of people I invite, which will probably be more than the six or seven allowed by the one proposal.”

Ferrari said his preference would be to have the graduation ceremony on campus because the ceremony loses the TCU feel when you move it off campus.

“That has been my hesitation about going downtown, but it is somewhat easier,” Ferrari said. “There will be some advantages when you look at the bigger picture.

Parking is easier, students can bring more guests and it is more comfortable.”

Miller said having the ceremony at Daniel-Meyer actually costs more than having it at the convention center because the university has to pay for setting up for the service at Daniel-Meyer, while most of the setting up is already done at the convention center. However, both Miller and Ferrari said the cost wasn’t important.

“This has nothing to do with the cost,” Ferrari said. “What you spare is some set-up time at Daniel-Meyer.”

Ferrari said Daniel-Meyer seats a little over 7,000 people plus an extra 1,000 seats on the floor for the graduates and faculty. He said 8,400 to 8,500 people normally participate in commencement, either as graduates, faculty or family and friends. The convention center will seat around 12,000 people, Ferrari said.

Ferrari said possibly a decision on graduation should be made within the month.

Jacque Petersell
j.s.petersell@student.tcu.edu

   

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