Many of NEIU’s Spring 2010 graduation candidates may have been surprised by the memo that was sent out on April 2 by the University Events office which informed them of the change in venue for the spring 2010 commencement ceremony. Despite what was recently published, Spring 2010 commencement will now take place on NEIU’s outdoor university commons area on Saturday May 8 at 10 a.m.
The location will be on the lawn area surrounded by the library, student union, science building and the B-Building. The change in venue is the only change that will occur, the time and date in which commencement will take place are still the same.
Initially, NEIU’s spring commencement was going to take place at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center located in Rosemont, but due to logistical challenges the university decided to bring the graduation ceremony back to the NEIU campus.
President Sharon Hahs, along with the University Events staffers, started looking for venues outside of NEIU due to the increasing number of graduates. Having enough space was becoming a problem in the university’s P.E. Complex, where previous graduation ceremonies have been held. “We were outgrowing our space,” said Erica Krehbiel, Vice President of Public Relations for NEIU. They also wanted to eliminate having two graduation ceremonies. Normally, there are two ceremonies held, but this year the university wanted to have all the graduates graduate in one ceremony, in which they would all get a chance to hear the speaker that the university is trying to obtain for graduation.
The commons area will allow all graduates to graduate in one ceremony and although this is the first time that the commons space will be used for the commencement ceremony, the university is confident about using this space.
According to Krehbiel, the commons area was built to accommodate such events. “The commons area used to be a parking lot and when it was turned into the commons area, it was built with events in mind,” said Krehbiel, “The octagon shape is where the stage is going to go, it was built with a stage in mind, so that is where we are going to have the stage and the students are going to be seated in chairs on the grassy areas.”
This space will allow the students to have more tickets when compared to what former graduates have had in the past. “With this space we will still be able to let each student have five tickets, when before they only got four tickets,” said Kyle Burke-Dix, Director of University Events.. Although the university is confident about their decision to use the university commons space, they are going to take precautions in case of inclimate weather. They have ordered umbrellas that will be issued for the graduates in the event that it rains during the ceremony. The university is also going to try and have the grassy area in which the students will be seated covered, so that the surface will not be slippery.
Despite the precautions that have to be taken using an outside venue, the university is excited about using the commons space.
“We are really excited that we’re going to be able to do one ceremony and celebrate all of our graduates at the same time in the heart of campus,” said Burke-Dix.