By Steven Barker
Senior Staff Writer

As both an effort to improve convenience and reduce the length of California State University, Bakersfield’s graduation ceremonies, the university is contemplating changes in structural and ticketing procedures.

Two such changes will be available this June. The first – the introduction of electronic tickets – will be featured in CSUB’s Graduate and Hooding Ceremony on June 10, while the second – the addition of two extra name announcers– will be implemented for the June 13 and 14 commencements.

Director of Public Affairs and Communications, Colleen Dillaway said the university’s implementation of e-tickets has been in consideration for years. She added that, after the commencement season has ended, a university committee will gather to discuss the results of the newly implemented changes.

If e-tickets are proven to improve convenience and ticketing efficiency, Dillaway expects they will be implemented for all graduation ceremonies next year.

Students are split on whether e-tickets are an effective means of dispersing graduation tickets.

“I would support e-tickets if it was organized,” said Kimberly Stewart, a senior English majors and soon-to-be-graduate. “If there was a limit on the tickets and it required a graduating student ID and it kept a record. That way underclassmen can’t get them. That way people could select how much they really need and not barter off extra. And if there was an option that if you needed more you would be on a list.”

Senior psychology major and another soon-to-be-graduate, Justus Mora disagrees.

“I feel like there’s a greater chance that people won’t get their tickets,” Mora said. “When you have a physical ticket, it’s a lot easier to just give it to the person that you’re going to have attend, and it just seems more personal that way.”

The addition of two new name announcers is expected to reduce to help streamline the ceremony’s proceedings.

“This should speed up the reading of the names, one place that we have noticed can slow the ceremony,” Dillaway said in an email.

Absent from the contemplated changes is any indication that CSUB will host its graduation ceremonies either away from campus or indoors. While numerous students have complained of the heat at the 7 a.m. start of graduation and suggested that the ceremonies be held in the Icardo Center instead of the Amphitheatre, in a memorandum issued to the campus community, Provost Soraya Coley wrote that the Amphitheatre is CSUB’s only feasible option for serving graduation’s large audiences.

While the Icardo Center’s maximum seating capacity for the graduation ceremonies is 2,500 seats, the Amphitheatre capacity is 3,840.

While CSUB has considered hosting graduation away from campus in the future, Coley and Dillaway both said the university is committed to holding the commencement ceremonies at CSUB in the short term.

“The Administration continues to seek other options that allow for the largest attendance possible. For example, staff are exploring having one large combined undergraduate ceremony in a ‘grassy area’ on the campus, with first-come, first- served seating, and individual school ceremonies to follow,” Coley said.

“This campus is an important part of students’ journey, and when family members come to campus to see their student graduate, often the ceremony is the only time some family members visit the campus that has been such a large part of their students’ lives,” Dillaway added. This is an important aspect of the graduation ritual and the administration at CSUB will work to keep commencements on campus to allow that fuller experience for students and their families.”

The news comes as a disappointment to students hoping to have future graduation ceremonies in different venues.

“It’s too bad,” said Febizza Ann Obar, a junior kinesiology major. “It’s so hot in the mornings, even that early.

“I also think it’s really disappointing that, for all of the time we put into getting our degree, students are forced to sit in that heat for as long as they do just to take a quick picture and receive credit for their hard work.”

Dillaway also added that CSUB doesn’t have the financial resources needed to divide the two commencement ceremonies into smaller events, an action that would be required if the Icardo Center were to become a viable graduation venue.