With the day fast approaching, graduates will finally have an event dedicated to their EC’s accomplishments in the form of the Commencement Ceremony.
Organized painstakingly by the Student Development Office, the ceremony will take place Friday, June 6 at 4 p.m.
“Our office organizes the ceremony and (Harold) Tyler is in charge of the commencement,” Janice Watanabe, student services specialist, said. “Everyone has a little involvement in the ceremony.”
The ceremony serves as an event of pride for students who have put in the work and years to be able to graduate and walk with their caps and gowns.
“I think it is a wise thing to put on this event because students have worked hard on their degrees and certificates for two or more years and deserve to be honored for it,” Watanabe said.
Once cleared and qualified for the requirements to graduate, students have the option to walk in the Commencement Ceremony, but apathy is rampant among those leaving.
“The students have to be cleared to participate and be eligible and the clerk checks if they meet the requirements,” Harold Tyler, dean of student development, said. “Of the usual 1600 that graduate, 650 choose to march.”
The information is then given out through a blue card that displays the information for caps and gowns as well as the location and time of events such as the reception, rehearsal and the actual ceremony.
The information listed in the notices mailed to the graduates include the time and location of the graduate’s reception which will be on Friday, June 6 at 1 p.m. with rehearsal following at 3 p.m. and the ceremony at 4 p.m. Caps and gowns will be sold in the bookstore, May 5 to June 6.
“We receive a mailing list from the Admissions and Records Office and send the students their congrats and invitation,” Carolee Casper, administrative assistant, said.
The speaker this year will be Dr. Mildred Garcia, the new president of California State University Dominguez Hills, who is the first female president for the university. She was selected through a process of recommendations from students requesting her to be speaker and the final judging process from the board of trustees.
“Students can recommend who they want to be their speaker but the board makes the final word,” Tyler said.
Faculty and students are expected to attend the ceremony because it is a day of celebration of all the hard work of those graduating and transferring.
Students graduating should take this opportunity to have their achievements recognized in front of family and friends because this event was created in their honor.
“But you realize that it takes a couple years to get to this point and you might as well because it is an accomplishment,” Benny Guzman, anthropology major, said