| Commencement could potentially be the largest ceremony in more than 20 years |
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| Written by Michele Martin | |
 Chancellor John F. Carney III speaking at the December 2006 Commencement Ceremony. According to Lara Stoll, the UMR Registrar, there are 597 Bachelors’ degree candidates, 159 Masters’ candidates, and 31 Ph.D. candidates. “This makes a total of 787 degrees and 83 certificate candidates for graduation. The highest number we previously had was May 1986 when we had 782 degrees awarded,” said Stoll, “I’m sure the candidate count in 1986 was higher than this year.” In Spring 2005 the total number of candidates was 676, and 662 in Spring 2006. “We won’t know until we actually see how many degrees are awarded, but it seems likely that this is the highest since 1986,” said Stoll. According to Chancellor John F. Carney III, it is necessary for commencement to be split into two ceremonies largely due to the estimated number of guests  Spring 2007 Commencement has the largest number of candidates since 1986 when 782 degrees were awarded. “In May 2007 it is estimated there will be 100 more candidates, which would mean an estimated additional 85 candidates attending the ceremony. With an average of 6 guests each, that would require 510 additional seats for guests,” he said. It was because of this increase that the Commencement Committee, along with the help of Chancellor Carney and Student Council, began to look for options for the Spring 2007 Commencement Ceremony. Therefore, a subcommittee of the Commencement Committee began to meet in order to discuss possible options. In July 2006, the subcommittee met to discuss alternative site locations for future commencement ceremonies. According to Chancellor Carney, the options were: 1. Allgood-Bailey Football stadium 2. On campus/outside 3. Off campus/outside 4. Dividing into more than one ceremony of smaller groups 5. Requiring tickets for guests 6. A variation of requiring tickets for guests 7. Bullman Multipurpose building plus seating in Student Recreation Center/Leach Theater 8. Bullman Multipurpose building In Fall 2006, Jerry Bayless, chair of the Commencement Committee, met with Carney and Student Council leaders to get input from the students regarding their event. From this meeting, Student Council opted to conduct a survey of the students asking for input regarding the commencement ceremonies. In addition, the Commencement Committee recommended that option 7 (Bullman Multipurpose building plus seating in Student Recreation Center/Leach Theater) be adopted for the December 2006 Commencement Ceremony as a trial, according to Carney. This was done. In December 2006, Carney received the results of the Student Council survey. “The two most popular choices of the student survey were option one: Allgood-Bailey Football Stadium or option four: dividing into more than one ceremony of smaller groups,” he said. Following the results, the Commencement Committee met again to review the situation. After that meeting, the committee recommended requiring tickets for guests (option five). “I then met with senior staff to discuss the various options and walked the Allgood-Bailey football field to consider using this location for the ceremonies. However, the seating capacity of the home field stands can accommodate only 2,200 people, and we are unable to control the weather and the condition of the field,” Carney said. “For these and related reasons, I made the decision to split the graduation into two ceremonies.” The undergraduate ceremony will be held at 11:00 AM in the Gale Bullman Multipurpose building with a reception immediately following in the Student Recreation Center. The ceremony for the graduate students will be held at 3:00 PM in Leach Theatre with a reception immediately following in the lobby of Castleman Hall. |
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