Spring Break
December commencement now requires tickets
Students will be given six tickets
BRITTANY COFER
Issue date: 11/3/09 Section: News
For the first time since the 1980s, undergraduate students graduating in December must obtain tickets for their families to attend the commencement ceremony.
Each undergraduate student eligible for December graduation will be allotted six general admission tickets, which will be dispersed beginning Nov. 11.
The main factor in the decision is the increasing number of students and families who attend the December ceremony, said Registrar Rebecca Macon in a telephone interview Monday.
"For the last two years, we've filled Stegeman [Coliseum] to capacity," Macon said. "In fact, one year we had people down the aisles and down the tunnels, and it was just not a safe environment."
Macon said the Commencement Steering Committee - which includes representatives from the President's Office, Provost's Office, Special Events, The Graduate School and Macon representing the undergraduate population - decided a ticket system would be the best way to handle the capacity issue.
"We don't like going to tickets necessarily," she said, adding there will be about 10,500 tickets dispersed for the Dec. 18 ceremony. "But we feel it's the best alternative so we don't end up having to close the doors an hour before the ceremony because we filled up, and then people who had planned on coming aren't able to."
But some students are worried that might still happen, since the commencement ceremony is just six weeks away.
"I already have family members who have bought plane tickets," said Mandy Schneider, a graduating senior from Covington who has family members flying to Atlanta from Montana and Wisconsin. "They should have told everyone a lot sooner - like when the first graduation e-mail was sent out."
Schneider said so far the amount of people she has invited adds up to six, but that only includes her immediate family.
"I don't know who all my parents have invited," she said. "I was under the impression that anyone could come. I've already started to send out my announcements."
Each undergraduate student eligible for December graduation will be allotted six general admission tickets, which will be dispersed beginning Nov. 11.
The main factor in the decision is the increasing number of students and families who attend the December ceremony, said Registrar Rebecca Macon in a telephone interview Monday.
"For the last two years, we've filled Stegeman [Coliseum] to capacity," Macon said. "In fact, one year we had people down the aisles and down the tunnels, and it was just not a safe environment."
Macon said the Commencement Steering Committee - which includes representatives from the President's Office, Provost's Office, Special Events, The Graduate School and Macon representing the undergraduate population - decided a ticket system would be the best way to handle the capacity issue.
"We don't like going to tickets necessarily," she said, adding there will be about 10,500 tickets dispersed for the Dec. 18 ceremony. "But we feel it's the best alternative so we don't end up having to close the doors an hour before the ceremony because we filled up, and then people who had planned on coming aren't able to."
But some students are worried that might still happen, since the commencement ceremony is just six weeks away.
"I already have family members who have bought plane tickets," said Mandy Schneider, a graduating senior from Covington who has family members flying to Atlanta from Montana and Wisconsin. "They should have told everyone a lot sooner - like when the first graduation e-mail was sent out."
Schneider said so far the amount of people she has invited adds up to six, but that only includes her immediate family.
"I don't know who all my parents have invited," she said. "I was under the impression that anyone could come. I've already started to send out my announcements."
