President Charles Lee has approved plans for two commencement ceremonies in December.
Services for students from the colleges of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Forest Resources, Engineering and Education will be held at 7 p.m. Dec. 10, and services for students from the colleges of Architecture, Art and Design; Arts and Sciences; and Business and Industry will be at 10 a.m. Dec. 11.
“We’ve had a number of requests to try to make commencement more individualized to acknowledge the wonderful achievements of those graduating,” Lee said. “It’s a very significant accomplishment for every graduate; this way we can give them more recognition.”
This division will allow the university to announce individual students’ names and each student will walk across the stage at the Humphrey Coliseum, said registrar Butch Stokes.
Because of the personalization, each of the commencement ceremonies will last roughly the same length of time as the single ceremony in the past.
“In the end, each ceremony should be about two to two-and-a-half hours long,” Stokes said.
The expected number of graduates in December is around 1,300-1,400 students.
“In the past we’ve had 825 to 900 students attend,” Stokes said. “Hopefully this change will prompt more students to attend.”
He added that it could also encourage more audience members for graduation.
“I think it will be more comfortable for everybody,” Stokes said.
Before finalizing the plan university officials looked to other universities with similar commencement exercises. Stokes said he personally attended the Louisiana State University commencement and called registrars from Iowa State, Alabama, Florida State, Ole Miss and Southern Mississippi to see how they conducted their events.
“We were interested in the process of it,” Lee said.
Another change Lee noted was that now the university would invite two guest commencement speakers, one for each ceremony. Also, students will be encouraged to play a more active role, perhaps by singing the national anthem, Stokes said.
Officials are also hoping that the athletic department will allow them to use the new jumboTron in The Hump for the graduation services, Stokes said.
“Having two ceremonies will mean that we will essentially have two different audiences,” Stokes said. “This means more people will have good seats.”
“We tried to keep as much the same as possible,” Stokes said. “The traditional aspects are still important to recognize.”
Lee noted that although the changes have all been intended to be improvements, further adjustments could be made if the new two-ceremony system does not work.
“Nothing is set in stone,” he said. “If we are unhappy with it we can always change it. I think it will be very popular, though.”