After four years of essay tests, student loans and textbook purchasing, the moment finally comes.

The moment of graduation.

College graduation is an important academic moment of achievement that each ISU student looks forward to.

One of the highlights of graduation at Iowa State is that since 1994 the university has provided the option of individual college ceremonies in addition to the universitywide ceremony.

But this spring, some ISU graduates will not get to experience the individual college graduation.

And the reason for the change is vague.

After planning a ceremony, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences canceled its graduation ceremony a few weeks ago.

The LAS ceremony will be replaced with a graduation reception Friday, May 10 from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. in the Scheman Building.

David Gieseke, public relations manager for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, said the change happened after the universitywide graduation ceremony was changed to include the names of students as they crossed the stage, which in the past occurred only during the LAS ceremony.

The change was made to encourage attendance at the universitywide ceremony.

LAS college officials said they felt it was unnecessary to have an LAS ceremony.

But LAS, the college with the largest number of undergraduates in 2001, is the only college canceling its ceremonies.

Has anyone thought about the amount of time this is going to take?

Last spring there were 2,190 undergraduates. So if there is the same number of undergraduates at the ceremony this year, 14 names would have to be read per minute in order to keep the ceremony to its estimated two-and-a-half hours.

That doesn’t even include the time taken for the introduction, the speaker or the time needed to walk across the stage.

So even though Gieseke said he hasn’t received any complaints about the change, the length of the ceremony will probably cause complaints on May 11.

LAS officials made a mistake.

The plan shouldn’t be to cancel the LAS ceremony and replace it with a reception.

The plan should be to cancel the universitywide ceremony.

The majority of students haven’t been going to the universitywide ceremony for years. Given no other choice, LAS graduates will likely skip graduation instead of sitting through a length ceremony.

And no college student should even have to think about skipping their all-important graduation ceremony. LAS students make up the largest group on campus, yet they don’t get their own ceremony. That’s not right, and the reasons given by decision-makers are weak at best.

editorialboard: Andrea Hauser, Tim Paluch, Michelle Kann, Charlie Weaver, Omar Tesdell