QUEENS COLLEGE–Earlier this semester, the Queens College administration informed faculty that due to budget cuts, QC will no longer be funding departmental graduation ceremonies. Students, faculty and staff who plan and look forward to such events are scrambling to keep them going.
Departmental graduation ceremonies, offered in addition to the main Commencement ceremony, are typically smaller and more intimate spaces to honor student achievements. The controversy surrounding this tradition has led to many faculty weighing in on its implications and cause.
“This cut felt unfamiliar. This cut felt personal,” said Siân Silyn Roberts, Associate Professor in the English Department at Queens College. Roberts has organized the department’s graduation ceremony for nearly 15 years. “It was at best uninformed, or at worst, wholly mean-spirited … It’s the one chance our students have to see their accomplishments celebrated, to see their families’ sacrifices recognized, for faculty to see their students’ and their own work rewarded.”
Annmarie S. Drury, professor and chair of the English Department at Queens College, emphasized the departmental graduation ceremonies as a major highlight of each year’s celebration. “For our graduates to have the opportunity to hear their names read aloud and to receive applause as they cross the stage is essential to their experience at Queens College,” Drury said in a statement provided to The Knight News.
