The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences graduation ceremony has been canceled after changes to the universitywide ceremony.

The LAS ceremony will be replaced with a graduation reception May 11 from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. in the Scheman Building.

The decision came after the university changed the university graduation ceremony to include the names of students as they crossed the stage, which in the past occurred in the LAS ceremony, but not the universitywide graduation event.

Now that individual students are recognized, the LAS ceremony is considered unnecessary.

“It made no sense in a variety of ways,” said David Gieseke, public relations manager for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

“Since the newly revised ISU ceremony will now include students being individually recognized, it didn’t make sense to duplicate this in a college ceremony, so we decided to do an informal reception instead,” said Peter Rabideau, dean of the Liberal Arts and Sciences college.

Gieseke said students are encouraged to attend the university ceremony and stressed the importance of graduation.

“In my opinion, graduation is not just for students but also a time for the parents as well,” Gieseke said.

He said more LAS students attended the LAS ceremony in December than the university event, and the cancellation should boost attendance for the remaining event.

“One of the two ceremonies would end up hurting the other. Either we’d pull from the university or they’d pull from us,” Gieseke said.

He said there were no complaints about the change.

“I sent out 700 messages. I’ve gotten maybe five e-mailed responses and no phone calls,” Gieseke said. He said the responses mostly request information.

The LAS college was the only college to cancel its ceremonies this semester.

Iowa State’s graduation ceremony will be May 11 at 2 p.m. at Hilton Coliseum.