PLU announced on January 10 via an email from PLU Commencement, that the ceremony at the Tacoma Dome (TD) was going to return to campus and four separate ceremonies by college would be held in Olson Gymnasium. Initially, unsatisfied with this change, fourth-year nursing major Karli Kooi created a petition on change.org that garnered 752 signatures.
On January 29, The Mast, along with Kooi met with Joanna Gregson, the Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Joanna Royce-Davis the Vice President for Student Life about these changes.
Gregson and Royce-Davis shared that they have been considering the switch since May 2023, but the Faculty Assembly voted and passed the decision in December. It took several months for them to assess campus capacity for an event of this size. It was, “such a huge undertaking that it took some time to get all that information to be able to announce this decision.” They also mentioned that they took into consideration 15 years of participant testimonies.
In response to the assumption that the switch of venues was purely money-related, Gregson explained that the TD was within the budget this year, but they’re planning to double their prices in four years. In reference to this, Gregson said, “It is something to be sensitive to looking forward to future students, because we are a non-profit. So how is it going to get paid for? Oh, student tuition would have to increase.”
Royce-Davis also explained that ADA limitations were a large contributing factor to Commencement returning to campus, use of mobility devices, no outside food or drink with clear bag policies, traffic, ADA parking still being distant from the venue, and steep, though ADA compliant, wheelchair stage access.
As for ADA considerations on campus, they mentioned that the parking lot near Morken will contain only ADA parking for ease of access into Olson Gymnasium. As for parking as a whole, they are in conversation with the neighboring schools around campus and hope to have access to their parking lots and provide shuttle services to the ceremony.
Gregson and Royce-Davis also mentioned that they are considering double-majors having the opportunity to walk multiple times if their majors belong to different colleges, but they are waiting on data from the graduation applications, which are due March 1.
Gregson also reassured orchestra students with fear of playing fatigue that they will not be required to play at all four ceremonies. She said, “The Associative Dean for Music, Theatre, and Dance [Brian Galante] was on the planning committee. He’s well aware and would never do that to his students.”
Apart from staff, they also now have members from ASPLU on the planning committee and reassured events for the entire graduating class to participate in community, in addition to the four ceremonies. Such as the whole class toast.
Gregson and Roye-Davis are optimistic about making commencement a “better than awesome” event.
This is a developing story
