If any of you have opened up your email this morning you will notice that Georgia College has announced that all graduation ceremonies are permanently being moved to the centennial center. This morning I sent the following email to members of the Georgia College administration. If you are a student who believes that we should get at least a chance to graduate on our front lawn, feel free to send an email of your own. Sorry for getting on my soapbox - hope everyone has a great finals week. To whom it may concern: I am deeply saddened to hear that the school has decided to change the commencement ceremonies without considering student opinion. This year marks Georgia College’s 125th anniversary, a year for celebration. I am willing to bet that the one tradition the students of Georgia College hold true is walking under the arch and accepting their diploma on front campus. I am aware that the Student Government Association produced survey results that reflected an overwhelming majority of the student body (72%) wanted to continue the tradition of keeping graduation on front campus. It seems as if these results were never considered by the school’s administration. I attended the past two graduations and believe that this decision is based off the school’s inability to make proper decisions in the past, which created a lot of backlash. In regards to your reasoning provided in the email, I do not feel Georgia College should take this moment away from the student body because it is a “logistical” issue nor do I believe mentioning the cost of setting up chairs is relevant or appropriate. When I graduated last year with my undergraduate degree I was upset to walk in what felt like a meaningless gymnasium… my high school graduation felt more like a ceremony than it did. By separating the college’s graduation times, I was unable to have family gatherings with college friends who were in different fields of study. However, I was pacified knowing I had one more chance to have a front campus ceremony this year when I graduate with my masters degree. I have been looking forward to this moment for a long time but sadly, the feeling of excitement around this special day has vanished. Georgia College has done many wonderful things and has been proactive in many areas most public colleges are not, but I believe taking this away will be an incredible disappointment for the students. Our front campus ceremony has been one that I have looked forward to since freshman year and is one of the reasons I am proud to be a Georgia College Bobcat. If it was not hard, it would not be worth it, and I truly hope the administration reconsiders.
Posted on: Sat, 06 Dec 2014 17:24:27 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015