Another wave of complaints has hit the University administration recently after the finalized spring 2010 commencement schedule appeared on the University’s Web site last week, further emphasizing that the decision to move most ceremonies to Monday, June 14, was unpopular among many.
University Director of Commencement Amber Garrison said she had recently received a handful of calls and e-mails from families of graduating students who thought the June 14 date may have been a typo on the University Web site — but Garrison assured them the bulk of the ceremonies are indeed on a Monday.
“Important events do not happen on Monday mornings,” parent Mike Papas wrote in an e-mail to University President Richard Lariviere and the administration at large on Monday, referring to the University’s decision to schedule the main ceremony at 9 a.m. Monday.
“Would you schedule your next birthday party on a Monday morning? How many of your friends would come if you did? I hope you see my point.”
The main ceremony and most department commencements will be held on a Monday, a day on which the University has never before held commencement, to avoid a scheduling conflict with the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships, which will take place on campus from June 9, the Wednesday of finals week, to June 12, the Saturday on which most ceremonies would normally be held.
Former University President Dave Frohnmayer and his administration made the agreement with the NCAA to host the 2010 championships a few years ago, unaware that it would conflict with the University’s academic schedule. Frohnmayer retired last year, leaving Lariviere and his administration to work out the scheduling kinks.
“The new administration inherited this decision” to host the championships, said University Senate President and biology professor Nathan Tublitz.
The administration moved the commencement date three times before settling on June 14 last August. Tublitz said the administration explored several options, including holding commencement the weekend after dead week or an entire week after finals were over. But, he said, both were too problematic: the former meant some students might graduate before having taken final exams, which in some cases determine whether they will pass or fail classes they need to get a diploma.
And the latter option? “What would people do for a whole week?” Tublitz said.
Holding the ceremony at the usual time didn’t work either, because “there’s just not enough hotel rooms” for both NCAA guests, who booked their visits a year or more in advance, and students’ families.
The University discovered that “the first night hotel (vacancy) opens up is Sunday night,” Tublitz said, so they decided to move the ceremony to Monday.
Many families may, however, still experience trouble booking hotels in Eugene because some of the ceremonies will be held Sunday night, including those for the Department of Theater Arts and the Robert D. Clark Honors College. Master’s and doctoral diplomas in the Lundquist College of Business will be handed out the Thursday and Friday of finals week, and creative writing graduates will get their diplomas the earliest, on June 6.
“I know it’s creating a hardship for many families,” Tublitz said. “We regret that, and effort will be made to avoid this in the future.”
ASUO President Emma Kallaway said the student government as a whole found the commencement issue “unpleasant.”
“We’re concerned that families and community members won’t find hotels for graduation needs,” she said.
Kallaway said the ASUO “explored other options and thinks the University should continue to place academics above athletics.”
Garrison said the University was trying its hardest to make the ceremonies, especially the general commencement ceremony, especially enjoyable this year. Students will have the opportunity to parade down 15th Avenue toward Hayward Field with self-made posters and regalia and march through a huge “O” at the field’s entrance. The ceremony will feature performances and speeches from students about their years at the University and “what it means to be an Oregon Duck.”
Garrison said after the ceremony, students and families would find an event called “Grad Fest,” modeled loosely after the ASUO Street Fair, on 13th Avenue, where they can eat the foods they’d normally eat at a post-graduation dinner or lunch.
“We want the general ceremony to mean something to students,” Garrison said. “It should be a true reflection of your years here.”
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