On Friday, the Commencement Committee supported holding three commencement ceremonies on Saturday and one on Friday instead of cramming all four on Saturday.

The recent renovation of Lantz Arena resulted in fewer available seats for events such as graduation. The reduced number of seats would have forced graduates to invite fewer guests. So, instead of restricting the number of tickets a graduate could request, the committee decided to expand the number of ceremonies. In the past, three ceremonies were held during spring graduation while fall commencement consisted of two ceremonies.

A portion of Friday’s debate centered around whether parents would be able to attend the proposed Friday evening ceremony. Committee member Kathy Simmons, office systems specialist, spoke in favor of the Friday ceremony.

“I can’t believe that they (parents) couldn’t take a half a day off to see graduation,” she said.

The committee also expressed concern that holding four ceremonies in one day could create unnecessary strain for guests as well as volunteers working the event.

Committee member Richard Jacques, associate communication disorders and sciences professor, was unsympathetic.

“Everyone has long days, deal with it,” he said.

The committee also said four back-to-back ceremonies could create traffic problems and force graduates and guests to be rushed through graduation ceremonies, a problem that the committee hopes to avoid.

Committee chair Jill Nilsen, vice president for external relations, said that the committee’s main goal is to provide a memorable departure for graduates and a pleasant atmosphere for their guests.

“We don’t want them to be rushed,” she said.

The committee also hopes to provide guests with a better atmosphere by installing a video screen that would make it easier for guests to see the graduates walking across the stage.

In addition, the committee discussed limiting speaking time for faculty members by giving them a specified area of interest to speak on.

Jacques did not support that discussion.

“Dictating what someone wants to say in a university is not appropriate,” he said.

Instead, the committee hopes to receive faculty speeches two weeks in advance in order to edit and trim down the length of the speeches.

In addition to the five speakers from the faculty and administration, one graduate and one undergraduate student will speak at each ceremony.

The four-ceremony format means each college will have a separate ceremony that would represent the college’s graduate and undergraduate degree earners. The committee decided to provide recognition to graduate students by giving them special hooding that will differentiate them from undergraduate students.

Students receiving graduate certificates will not be allowed to participate, however.

“Why would you do that?” Martha Brown, acting dean of the Lumpkin College of Business and Applied Sciences, said of allowing certificate earners to walk through.

The committee agreed that these students were “separate entities” and it would be inappropriate to allow them to participate.

The committee also hinted that there would be no summer ceremony. Brown said that summer ceremonies had been traditionally small, and it was hard for many students to return from distant internships to attend.