Biggest ever graduation ceremony approaches
22 March 2008
Final arrangements are being made at present for our biggest graduation ceremony to date, in April.
It will also be the first time that such a huge ceremony will be held in the new Sports Stadium. It will seat over 3000 people compared with 2000 in the Auditorium, our previous venue, which has now become an ‘Accelerator’ for high-tech businesses.
More graduates involved in one, annual ceremony, also automatically means that more family and friends being accommodated is a necessity. This means that we have to reduce the numbers of community supporters who we would love to attend, but we are physically constrained by the numbers of graduates and their invitees.
This, of course, raises the issue of whether we should soon consider having more than one ceremony. Once that happens, of course, it becomes a marginally less special occasion, and we might eventually find that some of our high-profile attendees might not want to come to multiple ceremonies.
Some large universities can have many graduation ceremonies, and they consequently become routine, rather than graduation being the really special regional occasion it has consistently been since 1999 at USC.
Nevertheless, dividing the ceremony is probably not too far off, and this year’s ceremony will be a real logistical test of whether a change occurs sooner or later.
Because the sports precinct is still having another building added to it, we have the extra complication this year of having people park at the main car parks, but then having to bus people, or allow them to walk, to the Stadium itself. Next year should see circumstances ease, but I hope that this year everyone will understand the issues associated with growth and that some of these arrangements are transitional.
But also, remember how far we have advanced. First, we were in a big tent in a high wind, it was wet underfoot and humid. And everyone enjoyed the occasion, because it celebrated both the graduates’ success and the advancement of the University to another stage of development.
This is the kind of understanding and support we need again this year as the graduate successes soar, and as the University moves to a yet higher level of development.
Professor Paul Thomas AM is Vice-Chancellor at the University of the Sunshine Coast.