As its largest class in recent years prepares to graduate, the Manship School of Mass Communication is allotting graduates eight tickets each for the school’s May 23 diploma ceremony in the Union Theater — much to the chagrin of some students.
Manship School counselor Helen Taylor, one of the ceremony’s coordinators, said so many guests crammed the theater last year the school was at risk of violating the theater’s fire codes. She said the decision to require tickets was necessary so people would not be turned away at the door.
“We wanted to make sure that families had priority,” Taylor said. Graduation ceremony coordinators usually plan on about eight guests per student, but some students had as many as 22 guests last year, Taylor said.
Taylor said the mass communication and art and design schools were the only colleges requiring tickets this semester, and the Art and Design School only offered six tickets to each student. Art and Design School Ceremony Coordinator Theresa Mooney could not be reached for comment.
University Registrar Robert Doolos, whose office oversees commencement planning, said locations are assigned in proportion to the size of each school’s graduating class.
Doolos said the Manship School, which will graduate about 150 students, was relatively small compared to the College of Arts and Sciences, which expects more than 760 graduates and will hold its ceremony in the PMAC.
“The colleges are in the best-sized place we can provide if we’re going to do commencement in one day,” Doolos said.
Some students expressed dissatisfaction with the Manship School’s decision.
“They waited so late to tell us, we had already purchased announcements,” said mass communication senior Derrick Rogers. He said he and other mass communication seniors received notice of the ticket requirement in late April.
Rogers said he would not have spent money on the 30 announcements he sent to friends and family had he known only eight people could attend the diploma ceremony.
“I’m sure there’s a rationale behind [the decision],” Rogers said. “Maybe there is nothing that could have been done, but why did they wait so late to tell us?”
Taylor said the ceremony’s coordinators could not determine a number of guests per student until after the number of graduates was finalized.
“As soon as we found out, we let everyone know,” she said. Taylor said coordinators hoped issuing tickets would not be necessary because last year was the first time space was a concern in the three years the ceremony has been held in the 1,250-seat Union Theater.
Mass communication senior Tara Lusignan said she hoped to invite about 20 people to the ceremony and thought it could be moved to a different location.
“I would rather be in the stadium and have all my family there,” she said.
Taylor speculated this semester’s class is larger because it contains the first group of students who received TOPS scholarships. She hoped in future years the class size would once again be lower, eliminating the need for tickets.
Taylor said the locations for each school’s diploma ceremony are set about a year in advance.
Doolos said the commencement planners meet every year with coordinators from each college to review plans for the ceremonies. He said the planners are open to change and would consider holding graduation ceremonies later in the evening or spreading them over two days if circumstances required.