I am writing in regards to the article in Monday’s Daily (“College cancels graduation ceremony”). Several things about this article disturbed me. The first is that Iowa State would cancel the LAS ceremony just over a month before it’s supposed to take place. I don’t know who was in charge of making this decision, but don’t you think that the timing of it was rather poor?

People already made flight and hotel plans, bought and sent their graduation announcements (printed with the original date of the LAS ceremony), and made arrangements for receptions. Wouldn’t it have been more appropriate to make this announcement and put it into effect for December’s graduating class?

I know the university is in a budget crisis and is probably doing everything it can to cut spending, but at what cost to the students?

The second thing I am confused about is that you chose to cancel the LAS ceremony rather than the full university ceremony. You admitted that more people attended the LAS ceremony than the university event. I know that the university ceremony is a tradition, but wouldn’t logic tell you to cancel the event that has the lower attendance, instead of trying to force them into attending a longer ceremony that is less personal.

I know that you intend to have the LAS names read during the university ceremony, but what about those who are attending the larger ceremony after their smaller college ceremonies earlier that morning? Why would they want to come and sit through not only the university event but a ceremony for a college they never attended? Essentially, the only thing that you are doing is taking two long graduations, combining them, and making them longer than either one was individually for what it seems is the sake of the few who would like to attend both.

The third thing that caught my attention, and in my opinion the most disturbing, is the fact that you claimed to have sent out 700 messages to people and that “there were no complaints about the change.” Consider this a complaint. And I know I’m not the first to complain today. Who did you send these 700 messages to and when? Myself and many of the people that I am in daily contact with are graduating seniors, and none of us received any message from anyone about canceling the LAS college ceremonies.

Andrea D. Cooling

Senior

Biology