Congratulations Graduates. You’ve made it through your four, five or however many years it’s taken you to complete your education. You’ve busted your backside to pump out numerous papers, spent endless nights cramming for midterms and finals and passed the ECE and the constitution test, which is no longer mandatory. Now you’re finally ready for your commencement ceremony. By the way, it’s outside in ‘the Quad’ this year. I hope you don’t mind. Have fun.
Sorry if my enthusiasm doesn’t seem genuine, that’s probably because it’s not. I was incredibly happy to hear that this year’s commencement ceremony was to take place at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont. It’s a large upscale venue that is capable of accommodating all of this year’s graduates, as well as, their guests. Best of all, the commencement could be held indoors. So, I was slightly disappointed to hear the plans had changed due to “logistical challenges” and that the ceremony would be back on campus in the quad, outside of village square.
Prior to attending this university, I came here to witness my cousin graduate in 2006. The ceremony was held outside of the P.E. Complex in the baseball field. The weather was exquisitely warm in the mid-50s and the sky was a particularly jovial shade of gray. The ground was so moist from the morning’s drizzling that your shoes could get sucked into the soil, if you didn’t clench your toes hard enough. It was the picture of what a May graduation should be, wouldn’t you say?
I don’t know about the rest of you, but that’s not what I want for my graduation. While I am a fan of natural lighting, as it is incredibly flattering, it’s not worth the unpredictability of Chicago weather to have the ceremony outside. As for having it inside of the P.E. Complex, that’s still not the most ideal of locations.
My brother graduated last year with a ceremony inside of the P.E. Complex. I’ll admit it was better than my cousin’s graduation in 2006. But the setup was less than ceremonial. It was packed beyond belief and incredibly hot. And if you have ever sat on gym bleachers seats in a suit, you’ll know it’s not fun at all, not to mention readjusting your body to let people squeeze by every so often.
I’ve heard people argue against the convention center because it has no relation to the school. Others argue that having the ceremony at NEIU, friends and family can see the campus and get a better understanding of where they matriculated. To that I have to say, you’ve been here for several years, why didn’t you drag your family here before graduation? The campus is going to be more packed than on an average school day, and no classes are going to be in session. How is that supposed to give them a sense of where you went to school. If that was really a concern, you would have convinced them to take some other day off during the semester, and given them a real tour. Graduation day is not the day for them to get their first glance at where you’ve been spending thousands of dollars on an education.
I understand that the ceremony can no longer be held at Rosemont due to “logistical challenges.” I have yet to hear what these challenges actually are, or why it wasn’t until a few weeks ago that the administration realized that these challenges were cause enough to change their plans. All we can do now is hope that Mother Nature will play nice and give us good weather, and that the campus geese won’t pay homage to Alfred Hitchcock’s Birds. Class of 2010, don’t forget to bring an umbrella.