With the recent reopening of Pauley Pavilion, the return of UCLA’s traditions should come hand-in-hand.
For the first time since 2009, this year’s graduating class will come together in UCLA’s historic arena for its commencement ceremony.
Yet as commencement moves back to Pauley from Drake Stadium, which was its temporary location while the pavilion was under construction, UCLA stands to lose an important and symbolic aspect of a graduation ceremony.
This year, the College of Letters and Science will hold two identical ceremonies on the same day, each accommodating 2,500 students.
With two separate events, students must sacrifice celebrating this rite of passage with their entire graduating class for the sake of accommodating more guests.
Despite the logistical problems complicating the event’s organization and the good intentions on the part of the administration, the commencement ceremony should remain a unique opportunity for the entire graduating class to come together one final time.
The decision to hold two ceremonies instead of one was mainly due to the fact of the increasing size of graduating classes, said Betty Glick, associate vice provost for undergraduate education.
The event was almost too big for Drake Stadium, where it has been held for the past few years, Glick said. She added that under the new format students will be guaranteed four guest tickets instead of two, as was the case in recent years.
Even though the graduates of a school as large as UCLA will not recognize a majority of the faces in the crowd, an event like commencement is a symbolic transition that the entire graduating class of 2013 – and the classes that come next – should share collectively.
Fourth-year anthropology and French student Cara Trombadore said she likes the idea of moving the commencement ceremony back to Pauley Pavilion and would like to be able to invite more family members.
Yet relatives already get a chance to see their graduate actually walk across the stage at individual departmental graduations, whereas at the college-wide commencement, the most guests can do to interact with their graduate is attempt to spot them in the crowd.
For this reason, commencement is primarily an opportunity for members of the UCLA community to impart words of wisdom on graduating seniors, allowing them to reflect on their time at this school while sitting amongst their classmates, peers and colleagues.
As a student who will be graduating in two years, I can already picture my own commencement ceremony. Signing up for a time slot would feel as if it takes away from the authenticity of the occasion, transforming what should be a genuine, seemingly once-in-a-lifetime moment for the graduating class into an act performed twice.
While the two ceremonies are supposed to be exactly the same, having the keynote speaker and other speakers make the same speeches twice, making the same candid jokes and including the same pauses for dramatic effect seem unnatural.
Fortunately, students can at least choose which ceremony they want to attend, and will be able to plan ahead to attend the same commencement as their friends.
A unified commencement ceremony would be a last chance to make those connections, say goodbye and good luck and celebrate the accomplishments of the entire graduating class as a whole.
Email Grano at kgrano@media.ucla.edu. Send general comments to opinion@media.ucla.edu or tweet us @DBOpinion.