Citing new fire and safety regulations for the Mini-Dome as the primary reason, the president’s office has officially released the decision to hold two separate commencement ceremonies for December 2006 graduates.
“From now on, at least into the foreseeable future, there will be two [ceremonies],” President Paul Stanton said.
With an estimated 1,300 graduates and a new limit of no more than 6,400 people allowed in the Dome at one time, the total number of graduates, participants and family has become an issue.
“This December’s graduation will be the first graduation where these new safety regulations will be in effect,” said Registrar Paul Hayes.
Stanton cited two specific reasons for the recent division: one being the sheer number of graduates and inherent time schedule, nearly four hours, and the other being the new fire and safety regulations for the Mini-Dome.
“If [graduates] brought three or four folks, let alone more, to commencement we could go over the fire marshall safety limits,” Stanton said.
Each student would be limited to less than four family members in order to meet the Dome’s new maximum occupancy limit, which would leave many students forced, as if planning a wedding, to pick and choose whom they invite.
“We can only put so many people in the Dome at one time,” said Dr. Nancy Dishner, vice provost of admissions.
“We expect that what has traditionally been a three- or three-and-a-half-hour ceremony will be cut down to one-and-a-half to two hours.”
Students, meanwhile, seem to be taking the news with mixed feelings.
“I don’t see why having two graduations is a huge deal,” said senior Lauren Brady.
“In the end it isn’t going to matter.”
The commencment ceremony that took place last May saw the disappearance of roughly half the crowd before the final hour, leaving the graduate and medical students in a half-empty Mini-Dome.
“You won’t have to be waiting as long, and people won’t have to leave,” said senior Laura Diaz.
But others disagree.
“I think it’s a bad idea, I think it’s a school it should all just be one big thing,” said sophomore Natalie Frazier who also compared the commencement ceremony held here to that of University of Tennessee Knoxville. Frazier noted that there is one ceremony at UTK and several others that vary by department.
The commencement ceremonies are being divided by colleges. The College of Arts and Sciences will graduate along with the College of Education at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 16. The 2 p.m. ceremony on the same day will include the colleges of Business and Technology, Continuing Studies, Nursing, Public and Allied Health and Medicine.
The divison by department has pros and cons for many. “It will be good, that way we don’t have to sit there that many hours at a time, but it could be bad because you won’t have a full graduation,” said Amy Krause, a microbiology major who intends to graduate May 2007.
Although the issue of attending separate ceremonies in support of friends from different colleges has risen among students, the combined time of two ceremonies will still be close to the time of one. “I would sit through their’s [a friends] too,” Krause said adding that this option regardless of the chunk of time between would give her options. “I wouldn’t be forced to … that’s different, I could sleep in,” she said, noting that her class is scheduled for the afternoon ceremony.
For more information, contact the graduation office at 439-6823 or Dishner at 439-4213.

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