On March 15, the University of Oregon Senate passed a motion presented by Bill Harbaugh, a UO professor of economics, which proposed changes to how department commencement ceremonies work at UO. The motion proposes that commencement be moved to the Saturday after finals week and that a Graduation Task Force will be created to bring its recommendations for the future of graduation to the UO senate for a vote before the end of this academic year.
This comes after an announcement on Feb. 17 that the College of Arts and Sciences would not have individual departmental graduations, which sparked a student petition that has reached nearly 4,000 signatures.
Harbaugh said the idea for the motion came from how upset students were that departmental ceremonies had been canceled and how many felt that, after three years of COVID-19, they deserve to celebrate with the friends and professors in their departments as CAS had done in years past. Last year was the first year UO was able to return to a fully in-person graduation ceremony since 2019.
The motion details the creation of a Graduation Task Force that would improve graduation ceremonies by prioritizing the need for departmental ceremonies, because they allow students to celebrate with their peers, and have graduation held on the Saturday immediately following finals week as it used to be before it was changed to Monday.
In 2010, commencement was changed from Saturday to the following Monday after finals week to avoid scheduling conflict with the NCAA Track & Field Championships.
Currently, there are athletic events scheduled the Saturday after finals week for the next four years. These events include the Nike Outdoor Nationals and both OSAA and NCAA Track and Field Championships.
University of Oregon made a total of $39,100,000 from PAC-12 and NCAA events in 2022, a year in which the NCAA Track & Field Championships were held at UO.
In an email sent to CAS students this year by CAS Dean Chris Poulsen, he wrote that departmental ceremonies could not happen because of space, time and staffing constraints. UO spent around $35,000 on last year’s CAS commencement ceremonies, according to a rough breakout of the majority of expenses associated with the ceremonies.
The University of Oregon is in a contract with the NCAA to hold their Track & Field Championships from 2024-2027. Termination of this contract is not permitted within 12 months of a Championship.
The Graduation Task Force is to be made up of Senate constituencies that are appointed by the senate president. The motion requires that the work of this task force be public and have their meetings, documents and agendas posted to the Senate website.
“I wanted to make sure, given how many people are interested in this, that whatever happens, it was done out in the open,” Harbaugh said.
Harbaugh’s motion was presented to the Senate on March 1. Since then, CAS announced it will hold five departmental ceremonies for 2023 graduates.
The Graduation Task Force will bring its recommendations for the future of commencement to the UO Senate for a vote before the end of 2022-23 academic year.
The Office of the President announced at the March 15 Senate meeting that they have also formed a Commencement Advisory Work Group, which began meeting the next week.
“As a first step, we’re asking them to conduct a survey to gather thoughts and feedback on factors such as preferences for outcomes of the ceremonies at the department, school, college or university levels,” Interim Provost Janet Woodruff-Borden said.
She said the work group will create a five-year plan which will honor and recognize students.
“I’d like us to have a long term plan in place rather than having to worry about this from year to year,” Woodruff-Borden said.
Recommendations from the task force or the advisory group will not affect this year’s commencement ceremonies, which are scheduled for June 20.
