Students ready to don cap and gown
Students are scrambling to complete paperwork with graduation only a week away.
“(Graduation’s) just a great time to honor the accomplishments of our great students,” said Tiffany Peterson, chairwoman of the Commencement and Graduation Committee for about six years.
Marci Smith, supervisor at the Registrar’s Office, said 1,981 students will graduate this fall. That’s a little more than 100 more students than graduated last spring.
Though more students are graduating this fall than last spring, fewer graduates are expected to attend graduation. Peterson said she expects 400 to 500 undergraduate students to attend their graduation and around 300 graduate students.
“In spring we usually have a little bit more who will attend,” Smith said. “It’s probably just because spring is the traditional time of year for graduation.”
This year’s graduating class holds a variety of students, Smith said. She said the youngest graduate was born in 1989 and the oldest was born in 1942.
Peterson said this fall’s graduation will be different than last fall’s because there will be a ceremony for graduate students Friday afternoon and a separate ceremony for undergraduates Saturday morning. She said this is the format spring graduations follow. The graduate commencement ceremony will begin 1:30 p.m. on Dec. 14. The undergraduate procession will begin 9:30 a.m. on Dec. 15, and the commencement ceremony will begin at 10:30 a.m.
The procession will start in the Fieldhouse and end in the Spectrum, where the ceremony will be held, Peterson said. The commencement guest speaker will be Ross Peterson, and the student speaker will be the College of Business valedictorian Rebecca Berentzen Smith, Peterson said.
“The valedictorians all get together,” Peterson said. “They each prepare the remarks they would give if they were chosen. Then they self-elect who they would like to represent them as a speaker at graduation.”
After the speeches, Peterson said a graduating student will sing the national anthem, and Karlee Larsen Heaps will lead the audience in the alma mater.
Emily Nelson, valedictorian for the department of health, physical education and recreation, graduates this fall.
“I’m glad I’m graduating because then I’m not here for another semester,” Nelson said. “But they do have a bigger ceremony in the spring. My major doesn’t have an awards ceremony, so I have to come back in the spring.”
Roberta Herzberg, head of the political science department, said she doesn’t push students one way or the other when deciding when to graduate. She said it’s a personal decision and it depends on when the student is ready to graduate or when the student wants to graduate. She said she does, however, like the fact that fall ceremonies aren’t as big as spring ones.
“The fall ceremony is smaller, so you don’t sit through as much,” Herzberg said. “I think that’s a plus. There’s more of an intimate sense to it.”
Herzberg said she also knows some students like the theatrics of spring graduations.
“Graduation in spring is a bigger event, and it tends to have more emphasis on the speaker,” Herzberg said. “That might make spring a more exciting time to graduate. More friends are doing it. More students around the nation are too.”
She said in the end it comes down to the students’ preferences and if they’d rather their graduation be “small versus lots of hooplah.”
Herzberg said not much difference exists between students who choose to graduate in the fall versus those who graduate in the spring.
“There’s fewer (political science students) graduating in fall,” Herzberg said. “So perhaps we’re more aware of those who are graduating in fall because they come in smaller groupings. We have a little more time and get a better sense of who they are. But there aren’t many distinctions between the overall quality and success rate of students who graduate in fall instead of spring.”
Scott Barclay, the Logan branch manager for SOS Staffing Services, said he thinks now is a good time for students to graduate and look for jobs.
“It’s easier to find jobs in the fall this year because the unemployment rate is so low,” Barclay said. “Our customers are looking for qualified employees, and these graduates are going to be in high demand.”
Emily Nelson said she is excited to graduate but said she’ll also miss college life.
“It’s kind of bittersweet,” Nelson said. “I don’t have to stress about tests or papers, but at the same time I won’t be able to take the fun classes and I won’t get to walk around on campus and meet new people. I’ll miss that.”
-rac.ch@aggiemail.usu.edu