The Reporter

www.stetsonreporter.com Thursday, April 1, 2010 University To Have Only One Graduation by Suzanne Reffel University made the decision to hold only one commencement ceremony for undergraduates of all majors this May. This is a change from recent years when there have been two separate ceremonies: one for the College of Arts and Sciences and one for the School of Music and the Business School. According to Dr. Toni Blum, Associate Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, the university has held graduation this way in the past, with one ceremony for all undergraduates and one for all graduate students. However, according to Blum the ceremony started to grow and it became necessary to require and eventually limit tickets to the event. For that reason, the decision was made to split commencement and hold the two ceremonies separated by school and include both the undergraduate and graduate students within those disciples. "When they did that, at first everyone was upset'" said Blum. "The faculty had to attend two ceremonies. The undergraduates had to wait through the hooding of the graduate students, which takes longer. But we got used to it because it worked." However, now the university has decided to move back to one ceremony again. When asked about the reasons for this change, Greg Carroll, Vice President of Marketing said, "About 18 months ago the Council of Deans brought to the Provost's cabinet the idea to do away with the December graduation and have one ceremony per year. From that, we decided to take it a step further Org Beat Bob Barr is and have one graduation for all schools." The administration believes that having one ceremony for all undergraduates is a more unifying experience and promotes the new president's vision of 'One University' This was the primary influence that prompted the change. "Most colleges and universities do it this way," Carroll said. "I think that it will make for more of a typical college commencement experience." Also, having two graduations caused problems for people with dual degrees. "These students had to go to both or choose. Pulling the graduations together into one would be easier for these students." The hope is that having one commencement ceremony will be an improvement. According to Carroll, the decision to have one undergraduate commencement ceremony does not have to do with economics. "I don't think it's a matter of economics. It's a matter of what's best for the university. There's no reason not to have everyone together when you have a group that small. There's no reason to split." According to Carroll, the cost is essentially because the costs of the one reception and stage and sound equipment remain are not determined by the number of ceremonies. When rumors about this change first began to spread, students' main concern was that tickets might be restricted as they were in the past. "The original assumption was that tickets were going to be limited again," Blum said. "I had heard that ticket limits were going to be as low as 8 or even 6. When I heard that I was freaking out." Life Beer Babies at I However, the final decision was not to limit the number of tickets per student. Since March 25 and through April 9, graduating students are being given the opportunity to order any number of tickets online for their expected number of attendants within their family and friends of family. Students have until April 9 to submit these online orders for their graduation tickets. "After the April 9 deadline, we are going to double check and make sure everyone has asked for a ticket," Carroll said. "If someone hasn't requested any tickets then we will check up on them to make sure they don't miss the opportunity to order tickets." This system will then serve as a red flag to ensure that all seniors have the opportunity to order tickets even if they do not check their email. "Some people will be getting phone calls," Carroll said. Blum does think that the worry caused by this announcement might have been lessened if the announcement had been made sooner. "I would rather that they announced their decision earlier," said Blum. The first official word on the situation was given by email to seniors on March 25 and to the general university public on March 26. "I will admit that I was a little irritated that the first official word I received of this decision was via email [on March 26]," said Blum. "The first I heard of this change was in word of mouth from seniors who had asked about the time of the ceremony in planning family travel plans I'm a Marshall for graduation and usually I'm invited to every meeting about the ceremony, so the Please See "Graduation," Page 3 Modern-Day Slavery Museum Visits DeLand by Suzanne Reffel The Florida Modern-Day Slavery Museum, a traveling museum, came to DeLand, Friday March 26. The museum was located in a parking lot on the property of First Presbyterian Church at 724 N Woodland Blvd. The purpose of the museum, according to the museum website, is provide education about "the phenomenon of modern-day slavery - its roots, the reasons it persists, and its solutions. The exhibits were developed in consultation with workers who have escaped from forced labor operations as well as leading academic authorities on slavery and labor history in Florida." The museum is also part of a larger event, the Farmworker Freedom March scheduled for April 16-18 in Tampa and Lakeland, Florida where the museum will lead the marches and continue to educate the population about this issue. The museum itself begins and ends with several large boards but the bulk of the museum is contained within a large truck - a reconstruction of a tomato truck in which workers were imprisoned and then forced to work. The first poster detail the history of slavery and slave-like work conditions in the United States, including pre-Civil War slavery, share cropping and peonage after the Civil War. The second detailed the Please See "CIW," Page 3 Life MGMT Disavoints Sports One inai to rise Page 4 Page 6