With the closing of the Georgia Dome, the usual location of Georgia State’s commencement ceremonies, Georgia State has moved the spring 2017 commencement ceremonies to McCamish Pavilion at Georgia Tech, which has left many students are very unhappy.
According to the Georgia State commencement website, the fall 2016 university-wide ceremony was the last one held in the Georgia Dome. The Georgia State Commencement Committee researched to find other options that were available and the only space that met the needs of Georgia State is McCamish Pavilion, located on Georgia Tech’s campus. Other options that were considered were not available, not large enough, or unwilling to arrange because of possible scheduling conflicts. Because of the limited space, each graduate will be given six tickets and they are also required to RSVP for graduation.
Many Georgia State graduating seniors are very unhappy.
Angelica New, a senior, is upset that she will not get to graduate with friends and peers because the ceremony is being split into four different ceremonies. She is also the first person in her family to graduate from college, making her graduation a very important moment. New says,“It’s a big moment for not only me, but my whole family. I would have liked to have them all there to watch, but now I only get 6 tickets. I’ve also attended several commencements over the years to honor my friends and now they can not come to mine.”
Renn Johnson is also graduating and the limited amount of tickets is disappointing for her. “My entire family cannot attend and I’ll be having to carefully choose who gets to see me walk across the stage. It’s not sentimental at all – which I believe is supposed to be part of a graduation ceremony,” says Johnson.
Ylda Highlander understands that the Georgia Dome’s closing was not in Georgia State’s control, but she feels that the university could have handled the situation better. She even signed a petition to have the location of graduation moved. Highlander is also upset that she will only receive six tickets, but adds that the days of graduation are very inconvenient. She says, “When I heard graduation was going to be at Georgia Tech, I was upset. However, that wasn’t the worst part of it. As time went on, I found out it would be on a Monday or Tuesday, it wouldn’t consist of everyone, and your college is divided into alphabetical order.”
There is currently an online petition to have the commencement ceremonies moved, although Georgia State says that McCamish Pavilion is the only option. Further information about the spring 2017 commencement ceremonies can be found at commencement.gsu.edu.