The Faculty Senate Tuesday voted in opposition of spreading commencement ceremonies over two days and reinstating summer commencement, policies that were originally suggested by the Commencement Committee.

The committee will meet Friday to finalize recommendations that will be forwarded to the President’s Council for approval. The decision of the President’s Council will take effect during next spring’s commencement activities.

When the committee last met, Nov. 9, it recommended that commencement be expanded from three to four ceremonies and that one of those ceremonies be held Friday with the other three remaining on Saturday. The committee also recommended that summer commencement be reinstituted and that exceptionality be disposed of.

Eliminating exceptionality would mean that students would have to complete all course requirements before walking through graduation. Currently students can still walk through without completing up to six credit hours.

The senate voted 9-5 in favor of increasing exceptionality to 12 credit hours and not reinstituting summer commencement. It also voted 13-0 to hold all four commencement ceremonies on a single day, Saturday.

Senate members rationalized that expanding graduation from three to four ceremonies would provide enough seating to accommodate the extra students graduating because of the expanded exceptionality. They also said expanding exceptionality would eliminate need for summer commencement, which is often a small ceremony anyway.

Faculty Senate Chair Bud Fischer, biological sciences professor, said many of his students take summer internships that account for 12 credit hours and under the current rules they can’t walk through graduation in the spring. This means they have to come back for summer or fall commencement, which students and parents often detest.

“My point has always been you leave a sour taste in the student’s mouth and the parent’s mouth because you say this is it (you can’t graduate this semester),” Fischer said.

Senate members also agreed that in, the past summer commencement has been a relatively small ceremony that was poorly attended by faculty members.