New plan marks changes for 2004 commencement ceremony

From this year onward, graduating seniors will not receive their diplomas in front of their entire class. Instead, students will be divided up by major and each group will receive their diplomas in separate ceremonies.

This change, as well as several others, is the result of a number of proposed changes which have been approved by the faculty. During past commencements, only graduate schools separated for their own smaller diploma ceremonies.

Phase I of commencement will now consist of a University-wide academic procession where all graduates will hear the keynote speech and the President's address. In Phase II, the graduating class will be broken up by major to receive its diplomas at various locations around campus.

Complaints in the past have been about the commencement ceremony's long length and organization. Using the ideas from the Task Force on the Undergraduate Experience and further enhancements proposed at outreach meetings. The University Commencement Committee, headed by Paul Tringale put the plan into action. All university faculty and staff involved with commencement were involved in the Committee.

Free seating for students during the keynote speech is the first change to the commencement event. "Previously students had no choice with whom to walk in and sit with; all engineers and bachelors of AS&E had to sit together. Now rules are not necessary any more. We want students to be able to sit with their friends during the first part of the commencement," he said.

According to Glaser, it will only take about an hour and a half for everyone to receive their diplomas in Phase II, under the new commencement plans. Currently, it takes approximately two hours and 15 minutes for the entire graduating class to receive its diplomas.

Phase II itself will consist of three "waves" of diploma handouts, with the administration "taking great pains to ensure that similar departments are not included in the same wave," Tufts Community Union Senate President Chike Aguh said. This should ensure that students double-majoring in similar fields will not be forced to miss one of their ceremonies.

Although the current commencement configuration calls for a half-hour break between waves, senior Pritesh Gandhi suggested an hour to enable more time to meet with friends and move to different locations.

Phase II ceremonies themselves range from 50 to 250 students each. All ceremonies will be held indoors with the exception of the International Relations and Political Science majors, and the Economics and Child Development majors. These two ceremonies will graduate on the commencement site regardless of weather.

One concern raised by the commencement committee is how students with double majors will receive their diplomas. "Many common double majors are being grouped together," Glaser said. "With majors not grouped, students will choose which venue to get their diploma in. Students will not be able to go to both ceremonies and receive recognition and their diploma, but will be able to attend any ceremony."

A website is being created where seniors will be able to select the department with which to graduate, as well as provide proper name-spelling for diplomas and accurate name pronunciation.

Aguh recommended in a meeting with Dean of Students Bruce Reitman last week that this information be made public to the senior class. "People should be able to find each other during commencement," Aguh said.

To facilitate connections, "faculty members who work between two departments or are part of an interdisciplinary program will be contacted to create coherent groupings and further try to keep double majors together," Glaser said.

Glaser also addressed the concern students will not be able to attend commencement with their friends, an issue he called a "common misperception."

The separate ceremonies in Phase II will enable individual departments to "completely customize, personalize, and infuse Phase II ceremonies with handshakes and hugs with professors," Glaser said.

The details of the plan were worked out and refined in the past year, Glaser said. The plan was tested in open outreach meetings held with faculty and students. "Most attending the meetings responded to the idea favorably," Glaser said.

Some students hold mixed opinions about the revised commencement plans, however. "It's disappointing that we will not get our diplomas with all of our classmates," senior Bonnie Rose Schulman said. "But I'm looking forward to the more intimate ceremony with professors who have especially shaped my experiences here."

"In general the changes in the commencement are not affecting me too much," senior Anthropology major Edwin Johnson said. "However it is nice for the commencement to break up a little, because with it being large, it is too impersonal."

Faculty had an overall positive opinion of their involvement in the revamped ceremony. "The changes are a good idea so students and family will be able to spend more time with their peers," Chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering Department Robert Gonsalves said.

Gonsalves was "not impressed with the shortened ceremony itself; just the social aspects of the new format are to be commended."

Associate Electrical Engineering Professor Karen Panetta was part of the task force that suggested the commencement change. She said after "having been to ten years of graduations and sitting through 2,000 names," the old commencement style was "painful and impersonal because you couldn't find students, interact with parents, or get a last time to say goodbye."

"Faculty members have not shown up in large numbers in the past since the incentives to do so were low," Glaser said. "They were props in the old ceremony and did not play a meaningful role for their large investment of time."

Looking for more student input about the commencement process, Glaser and Reitman have plans to meet with students over the next few weeks to "determine how to make the commencement the most meaningful ceremony possible."