By Two days following the news that Cal State Long Beach’s commencement would be moving from the Central Quad to George Allen Field and go without live music due to budget cuts, over a thousand students had already signed a Change.org petition in response.
“Save Commencement at CSULB” was published by Change.org user Julia Jaynes, and tagged university President Jane Close Conoley. The description urged students to sign their names and take a stand against the changes made to the 2018 graduation ceremony. By late afternoon, the petition had reached 1,333 signatures.
“Students imagined getting to walk in the beautiful quad of the campus that they have called home with the background of all of the sculptures, art and nature prominent in the heart of campus,” Jaynes wrote in the petition’s description. “Instead students will be walking with a parking structure as their background with the new commencement held at the soccer field.”
Comments typed by students conveyed the opinions of those who chose to weigh in on the petition.
“It’s supposed to be a happy day,” user Patricia Pittman wrote. “Me and so many of my fellow colleagues are first generation college students who have worked countless hours to be able to graduate, and you’re going to allow it to be a disaster?
The comment was made in response to a quote by Conoley in an article by the Daily 49er, regarding the 2018 commencement.
“We have to save money on something and we don’t want to raise student fees,” Conoley was quoted in the article. “If it’s a disaster, that will be a story for those students to tell. They’ll say we were the class of 2018 and it was a disaster.”
Other Change.org users who were not students also signed the petition and expressed their views about the changes.
“These kids worked their butts off for this day,” user Stefanie Lewis said. “And now they’re being told ‘hey instead of the beautiful ceremony you thought you were getting you will graduate on the soccer field instead!?’ It’s not fair that everyone else gets the ceremony they dreamed of an they don’t!”
This story will be updated.
I have been to other CSU commencements ceremonies and they had been way better than csulb even better than the QUAD, csulb needs to step it up.
When you think of Commencement it should be the last budget cut. The University and the State knew well in advance what their revenue budget. Did any University officials think of cutting back on their salaries to ensure the class of 2018 the graduation they deserved. Precious memories come once in a lifetime. Make it happen and not on a soccer field.
Thank You, Teacher~ ParentEducator we can do better than this.
I am ashamed to go to a college that treats their graduating class with such disrespect.