I know that becoming a UCLA graduate this spring makes me special. But do I really deserve three graduation ceremonies?
Like most other graduates in the UCLA College of Letters and Science, I’ll have to think carefully about which ceremony I want to attend: the main commencement ceremony for all College students, my departmental graduation or the College Honors Recognition Ceremony. Some students will have even more choices if they’ve double-majored or wish to attend one of the ceremonies put on by half a dozen student organizations.
The UCLA College spends nearly $150,000 of state funding on the College’s graduation ceremony, according to Julie Sina, the chief of staff for the College. Having so many ceremonies to choose from is flattering, but that money could be better used to boost our ailing curricula, so it is equally insulting.
The ceremony that tries to encompass all of the College’s approximately 4,200 graduates ought to be scrapped. While it is true that massive convocations have been a time-honored tradition at universities everywhere, that alone doesn’t prove their worth.
Certain factors have already turned students off from attending the main convocation. On a purely practical level, more than two tickets for family members are hard to come by, causing Facebook newsfeeds around graduation time to be littered with ticket requests.
Because I have three options and no desire to sit through six hours of walking and talking (or make my family watch all of that), I’m pretty sure I’ll be skipping the ceremony at Drake Stadium. Besides, if the speaker turns out to be any good, I can always watch him talk later on YouTube.
The College ceremony is really all about the speaker, as past controversy has attested to. Departmental ceremonies dedicate time for students to walk across the stage, hear their name called and actually receive their diploma. This intimate setting and connection with the department is more meaningful than the long speeches in a track and field stadium that caters to an anonymous student body.
I’m skeptical about the College cutting the enormous ceremony, so at the very least, smaller departments ought to seriously consider consolidating their ceremonies. Having multiple celebrations is a little fiscally irresponsible. The English department’s ceremony alone cost around $22,600 last year, and about half of that came out of the department’s budget, according to Janel Munguia, the undergraduate counselor for the English department.
There are already two ceremonies that are an amalgam of multiple departments called the Humanities I and Humanities II ceremonies for students from multiple disciplines. Relatively small departments, such as math and physics, could easily hold ceremonies of this type.
The overabundance of celebrations lessens the symbolic importance of receiving a diploma. If there were only one ceremony, I know I’d definitely attend no matter what. Now that I know there are so many, the whole thing doesn’t feel like that big of a deal. If I didn’t have to choose between ceremonies, then I also wouldn’t feel so guilty about missing what’s supposed to be one of the most significant moments of my life.
Graduation isn’t about sitting with gritted teeth through hours of lectures (although, by graduation, we’re experts on that). It’s about celebrating years of intellectual growth and the sacrifice they entailed.
More consolidated departmental graduations would encompass this spirit best and honor students in the best way possible ““ by saving money that is sorely needed.
Think graduations need to graduate? E-mail Nijhawan at anijhawan@media.ucla.edu. Send general comments to opinion@media.ucla.edu.