Commencement changes complicate graduation
Students who missed the Oct. 15 graduation application deadline for graduation May 1 are still in luck. They may still apply, but only if they have an extra $100 to spare. Yep, that’s right: There is a $90 late fee in addition to the regular $10 processing charge for late applications.
Associate Registrar Heidi Beck said last year 60 percent of graduates applied late – making it difficult to accurately prepare and award diplomas. On top of the normal procedure, a change was made to commencement that further complicates the graduation preparation process.
Last year, Utah State University President Kermit L. Hall and his staff made a decision to award graduating students with the actual diploma at commencement exercises instead of a mere diploma cover, as was the case in previous years.
USU Executive Director of Public Relations John DeVilbiss said students used to wait three or four weeks for diplomas to be mailed.
During last spring’s commencement, students received personalized certificates of completion as they crossed the stage and later received diplomas by mail. This prepared faculty for Spring 2004’s commencement where, for the first time, students won’t have to wait for diplomas.
DeVilbiss said the change is intended to make the ceremony “more lively, personal and meaningful.”
This change eliminates the need for individual colleges to hold their own graduation ceremonies, but Assistant Provost Sydney Peterson said colleges still have the option and she thinks each college will have some type of celebration.
Peterson said a committee is still working to finalize plans for May’s commencement, but a list of individual college graduations and more information about commencement will be available online at www.usu.edu/commencement by January.
Individual colleges are not the only ones being affected by the changes. The new addition creates several challenges for USU staff and faculty.
Now, faculty must score and enter grades more quickly in order for the Registrar’s Office to determine which students completed graduation requirements and are qualified to receive diplomas.
Beck said, for the past six years the Registrar’s Office has been working on an automated degree audit system to check student’s transcripts against the degree requirements. She said they are relieved that the system is now to a point that it can be used to help automate the graduation checkout.
She said the new system required additional time and training for advisers but with the efforts of advisers and those who work in the Registrar’s Office, “students will soon have a wonderful tool to evaluate progress toward a degree.”
Graduation applications for students planning to graduate in either Summer or Fall 2004 are due Feb. 15. Because the application process requires some time on the part of the student, Beck said students should start working on it no later than the first week of Spring semester.
Although the deadline is still weeks away, there is no rule that says applications can’t be turned in sooner.
In fact, Beck said, “The earlier the better.”
Students who choose not to attend May’s commencement exercises must notify the Registrar’s Office and arrangements will be made to either pick up the diploma from the Registrar’s Office or have it mailed.
Beck said that students graduating in the fall will receive their diplomas in the mail but are encouraged to attend commencement the following spring and receive their diploma covers at that time.
-tamber@cc.usu.edu