For many graduating seniors, May 12 will be a time of celebration as family and friends gather to commemorate the conclusion of their undergraduate educations, but for seniors completing their coursework in the summer, May could be a bittersweet month.
Seniors in most departments who finish their degree requirements during the summer sessions are usually not allowed to participate in the May graduation ceremony and must wait until the December ceremony.
Megan Garrison, a senior in textile and apparel management, is scheduled to finish her degree after the first summer session. A three-credit-hour history class, Modern Middle East, stands between Garrison and the May graduation ceremony.
“[HI 270] has nothing to do with what I am doing in my major or what I want to do after school,” she said.
Garrison said she received conflicting reports from different advisers on whether she would be able to walk in May, and therefore, decided to try and walk in the spring graduation despite her one summer class.
“It is still in the works,” Garrison said. “But under normal circumstances [the College of Textiles] would not allow me to walk.”
According to William Oxenham, associate dean for academic programs for the College of Textiles, said students who finish their coursework for their degrees in the summer are “summer graduates.”
“The December graduation exercise is for students who have met the requirements of their degree in the summer and the fall,” Oxenham said.
He said exceptions are made, however, usually for serious circumstances, such as family illness.
“It is sad because you spend four or more years working, and it is such an experience to remember and celebrate with your friends and family,” Garrison said of the prospect of being disallowed to participate in the May ceremony.
For some seniors, like Garrison, waiting until December to participate in a graduation ceremony is not a viable option. Some students make plans for jobs or internships immediately after graduation.
“I am moving to New York after the summer for an internship that will possibly turn into a job,” she said. ” It would be a hassle to take time off from work to come back just for a day or two. Also, my family would have to make time to come up. I would also not be graduating with my friends.”
Across the University’s different colleges, there is no uniform policy to determine which summer graduates are allowed to walk in May and which are not. Some colleges are more lenient than others about granting exceptions.
In some colleges, such as the College of Engineering, a degree of discretion is granted to the individual departments.
“The way we handle it is we allow the individual degree-granting programs to make decisions,” said Jerome Lavelle, assistant dean of academic affairs in the College of Engineering. “Some departments take the view that graduation is more about the family than if students have fulfilled achievements. Others take a more corporate line.”
Other colleges, such as the College of Natural Sciences, tend to dictate summer graduate policy to their respective departments.
“If a student graduates in the summer session, then we ask that they come back in the fall,” Yvonne Lee, director of academic and student services for the College of Natural Sciences, said. “We do look at special circumstances, but we really do not grant a lot of exceptions.”
Lavelle said the main importance for the summer graduate policy is that the departments are internally consistent.
“We’ve actually had students that have used walking as currency with employers,” Lavelle said, warning against possible dangers of allowing students to walk before they finish their degrees.
He said some students show their employers a printed program from the graduation ceremony and pictures of them walking on stage, while in reality, they haven’t graduated.
Oxenham expressed fears that allowing students to walk early might devalue the ceremony of graduation. He said allowing students to walk early risks “the denigration of the ceremony … to celebrate the achievement of students who have complete the requirements of their degree.”
