Utah State makes changes to 2019 spring commencement

Thursday, Utah State University’s President’s Office announced changes to the commencement schedule for 2019 and future years, in which convocations will take place over two days and graduate students will no longer have their own ceremony.

Sydney Peterson, the USU president’s chief of staff, said the changes were recommended by the deans and supported by the executive committee. The commencement will be held over Thursday and Friday rather than on Saturday as it has been in the past. These changes were made for multiple reasons, she said.  

The spring semester has been shortened by three days to align with the number of instruction days in the fall semester. Because students will complete finals on Wednesday rather than Friday, commencement will be held immediately after to encourage attendance.

Reasons stated in the announcement for the change included concerns regarding venue size, saying many family members last year were not able to attend their child’s graduation because the venue was not big enough to accommodate everyone. Of the ten convocations being held, five are being held in the Spectrum with the rest in the Daines Concert Hall or Morgan Theater. In the email, Peterson predicts six convocations will need to be held in the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum in the future. The need for more convocations to share the Spectrum for its bigger size contributed to the decision to spread commencement out over two days rather than one.

The email also announced the graduate hooding and commencement ceremony is being dissolved. Graduate students will participate in the convocations for their respective colleges and in the same commencement ceremony as the undergraduates.

As other details are still being worked out, the email stated more updates and additional suggestions can be directed to Peterson online at the commencement website www.usu.edu/commencement

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