Due to inclement weather happening throughout the week in Chickasha, the University of Science and Art’s of Oklahoma’s commencement 2025 will be happening indoors at Te Ata Memorial Auditorium. Since the announcement, an uproar of opinions have surfaced.
The Trend received an email last night after the posting of the “Commencement 2025 Moved Indoors” article.
Hannah Farmer, English Education, reached out to us about the commencement situation and gave us her opinion.
“I am devastated about this; so many important people in my life won’t be able to watch me graduate anymore. Unfortunately, even though this same exact scenario happened last year, the university did not prioritize finding a venue sizable enough to hold a large capacity of people, so for two years in a row the graduating class will not be able to share their special day with the people that mean the most of them. I am bitterly disappointed by this and frustrated that last year was not enough of a wake up call that a better inclement weather solution needed to be found.”
Farmer’s note sparked us to get more opinions from the graduating class on how they feel about commencement 2025.
Bella Wilson – Business, In-State Student
“For me it is hard and a little disappointing because I have a lot of family who want to see this accomplishment and celebrate it with me, especially a first generation student. I can see their point about why moving it inside is the best option, but moving forward I feel like there are4 better options that accommodate more people even if they are not on campus.”
Harry Cracknell – Communication, International Student
“I am super excited. My family are here to see me put an end to this wonderful chapter of my life. I’m truly grateful for the support I’ve had from everyone involved at USAO. In terms of the decision to move it to Te Ata with three guests max in per student, i disagree. There needs to be a better contingency plan for the future. However, I know a lot of work has been put in by the Commencement planning committee to make Saturday a special day for all our graduates and those who can attend. And for those who can’t be there in person, we look forward to celebrating with them afterwards.”
Savannah Alldredge – Speech Language Pathology, In-State Student
“I totally understand why it has to be moved inside, but I will say it’s disappointing that I only get to have three of my friends and family at the ceremony after working on this degree for four years. I am not mad at anyone who made this change. However, I think there is a better way to handle this. I have seen several ideas floating around, and I think a split graduation is not a bad idea. I think in the future we should have a better back up plan since there is typically lots of rain and inclement weather in April.”
Elyanne Kenney – Psychology, In-State Student
“It disappoints me that I am not able to include all of my close family and friends on the most special day that I have been waiting for.”
Leonardo Schnieder – Business Administration, International Student
“I have 10 people that planned on coming from my family. I was lucky to get the two extra tickets and some of my friends have given me their tickets they won’t be using, but it’s been stressful. My family has come from thousands of miles to be at graduation and I want to make sure they have the experience as well and see campus.
Of course, there’s a lot of people graduating and they knew they wouldn’t be handing out a lot of tickets. They don’t want to risk having it outside and I understand, but sometimes they need to think about the students as well and our side of how we’re having to handle this.”
Tyler Cauley – Communication Major, Out-of-State Student
“I think if you’re going to move it inside, they should have waited a bit longer. You can look on any weather service and see that it’s not going to rain on Saturday. On top of that, I have family coming. You can’t cancel flights so I think they shouldn’t have a ticket limit either. There wasn’t a ticket limit when it was outside even though there were limited seats. If you’re going to move it indoors this soon in advance, maybe they could have found a larger venue to put us in. Last year it was the day before, or two days before,but even then they gave out five tickets to help out students.
When it comes to stuff like this, I feel like you’ve got to put students first. We came here and put in work to get a degree, so it should be celebrated the way we want it to be celebrated. I wish we had more of a voice in the day.”
Darko Borisavljevic – Business Administration, International Student
“My family isn’t coming, but luckily I have enough tickets for the few friends I did want to come. Of course, I couldn’t get tickets for all of my friends, but I had enough for the two definite people I wanted to come. I know some people though who are looking for many more tickets and they’re willing to pay money for that, and I see that as a bad thing that students are having to do that due to limited tickets.
I think the university did its best by calling it early, but I wish they had something else planned so the tickets weren’t so limited. They can still change venues if they wanted and say that we’re having it outdoors Saturday, because the weather is looking decent, but if the ground is still wet I understand. I just wish something better was planned since they gave us more time in advance than the seniors last year.”
With that being said commencement is three days away and commencement will happen. It may not be the way some graduates hoped it would be, but it is still a day to celebrate the accomplishments of the graduating class.
If you are unable to attend commencement, a livestream will be available online and to watch in the Davis Amphitheater.
Cassie Srock is a second-year communication major at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma.
Matthew Yokum is a third-year communication major at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma.
