Decisions regarding the El Camino College graduation ceremony were approved by the Board of Trustees during their meeting on Monday, April 18.

The decisions in question included the commencement speaker, live music and extra staffing which can be found in the Board of Trustees agenda for this meeting.

The board members unanimously voted to approve El Camino College alumni and current broadcasting executive producer Deyja Charles as the commencement speaker for the 75th El Camino College Commencement Ceremony which will be held on June 10 in Murdock Stadium.

For both the music and the extra staffing, board member Trisha Murakawa voiced a concern about hiring outside contractors when El Camino has student musicians, police department and more of their own workers who could possibly provide the same services like music and traffic control.

Both President Thames and fellow board member Kenneth Brown provided responses to Murakawa.

In regards to crowd and traffic control campus police will be handling those services but extra help is needed because they are, “severely understaffed,” including cadets, Thames said.

Brown said that he favored having the professional trumpet players because of their “style and fanfare,” for the commencement event which students have not had an opportunity to see during the pandemic.

Following the questions all three items were unanimously approved by the board.

Major League Music Inc. will be hired to provide live trumpet music while Contemporary Service Corporation will be providing extra staffing for crowd traffic control.

The commencement speaker will be paid $1,000, Major League Music will be paid $1,300 and Contemporary Service Corporation will be paid $13,885 for their services.