University expells senior week

By Erin Brodbeck
Collegian Editor
January 30, 2008

After an eight year tradition, the Commencement Year Team of the Division of Student Affairs has decided to no longer offer Commencement Week housing and activities to students during the week before graduation.

In a statement released on the mylasalle portal Jan. 22, the Commencement Year Team announced that they felt it was in everyone’s best interest to cancel Commencement Week, which cost students $175 to attend. Instead, the activities normally offered when class was out of session, such as an Atlantic City trip, a Phillies game and Day (d)One, will be taking place throughout the spring semester.

“We review the commencement activities each year,” said Dean of Students Dr. Joseph J. Cicala. “And we asked ourselves, is this a good use of our time? Is this a good use of the students’ time? The answer was no.”

The deciding factors in doing away with Commencement Week were twofold: Last year, 22 percent of graduating seniors decided to stay on campus. Of that 22 percent, a good number of the participants were

conducting themselves in ways Cicala said were unbecoming of 22-year-old soon-to-be college graduates.

“I’m sure that most of these students came in with good intentions, but security and staff were then being forced to deal with students acting like first semester freshmen,” Cicala said.

Now, instead of allowing seniors to relocate to St. Basil Court or St. Neumann Hall, students who live less than 100 miles away from campus will be required to move out. Some seniors are reacting to the news that they won’t be able to partake in Commencement Week with anger.

“It sucks that people can’t use this as a bonding experience,” said senior communication major Matt Sitcoske. “I don’t think many people will come out for the replacement activities because people are busy with classes and stuff.”

Others are less upset to hear the news, because they hadn’t been planning to attend the week long celebration.

“I didn’t really know if I was going anyway,” senior integrated science, business and technology major Sean Houlihan said. “It just didn’t bother me.”

“I have spoken with many students who told me that they didn’t want to spend money to be in the Commencement Week environment,” Cicala said. “I’ve also had students tell me they regretted staying.”

Stuart Romanek, a 2007 graduate of La Salle, was one of the students who had a negative Commencement Week experience.

“It was a mess,” he said. “It was a bunch of kids with too much time on their hands.”

Although the excessive drinking turned some students off, one grad felt that La Salle’s Commencement Week alcohol policy, which allowed students to sign in one case for the week, was too strict.

“The policy made it boring,” 2007 grad Joe Gilson said. “We basically sat around all day and waited for our friends to sign in alcohol at night.”

According to Cicala, the Commencement Week offerings at La Salle were something of a rarity among colleges and universities. Because La Salle graduates receive their actual diploma on the day of commencement, the ceremony must be put off until a week after finals, so grades can be tallied and paperwork can be done.

With the week long gap between the end of classes and graduation, students staying on campus had a whole week with nothing to do. So, eight years ago, the school officially began Commencement Week when they began to offer activities to keep students occupied.

“What we ended up with was a bunch of students with a lot of time on their hands…and they weren’t exactly having discussion groups,” Cicala said.

About seven years ago, a committee was organized to rethink the commencement time and location, Cicala said, but university President Brother Michael McGinniss vetoed the idea to move the ceremony up a week, and hold the event at an off-campus, indoor location.

“Most students liked the idea of having graduation on campus and receiving their diploma on that day,” Cicala said. “So we kept the tradition.”

The Com-mencement Year Team looked to schools like Temple, Drexel and Fordham to decide what to do about this year’s commencement activities, according to Director of Community Standards and Support Mark Badstubner.

This year, the Graduation Gala, a sort of cocktail reception, will be held for the first time at Treetops Café after the May 10 Baccalaureate Mass held at the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul located on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. Students, their guests and La Salle faculty and staff will be invited to attend the event. In future years, the Graduation Gala will take place at an off-campus location such as the Four Seasons Hotel, to make travel more convenient after the Mass.

Director of University Events Julie Morrison, who came up with the idea for the gala, wants student leaders to encourage members of various organizations to participate in the event.

“Our hope is that we will have student involvement and support. We’re doing it for them, to celebrate them,” Morrison said.

brodbecke1@lasalle.edu

Additional reporting by Nate Adams