Heat, Spirits Move CSUN to Shift Commencement

Commencement ceremonies at California State University, Northridge, traditionally held in the evening, have been rescheduled to 9:30 a.m. this year by administrators who, while saying they want to escape the heat, concede that they also are trying to discourage drinking and “boisterous behavior.”

Student government leaders have protested the change, complaining that some graduates or their families will be unable to attend the ceremony on a weekday morning. But they appear to have little chance to reverse the decision.

The ceremony for 6,917 graduates is scheduled for the morning of Friday, May 17. Since the school opened in 1959, the ceremony has been held in the evening, generally at 5:30 or 6 p.m., except for earlier ceremonies in 1971, 1972 and 1973.

Champagne Bottles

“Some students tend to drink” during the ceremony itself, said commencement coordinator James Manos, associate dean of the school of business administration and economics.

He said he had seen students with open champagne bottles at previous ceremonies and had himself “stopped several from drinking.”

School administrators said both state law and university policy forbid drinking on campus except in licensed establishments.

Manos said he had received letters from parents and graduates after previous ceremonies “complaining about loud and boisterous behavior” by “a minority” of the graduating class.

He said he got 10 to 15 such letters after last year’s ceremonies. Similar complaints were made in a post-graduation survey of 10% of last year’s graduates, he said. He said he does not know how many complaints there were because he misplaced the survey.

Graduate Wasn’t Offended

“The students that are loud and boisterous are the ones that I think tend to be drinking, from appearances,” he said.

By moving the time of the ceremonies, Manos said, “At least you’re not going to have the drinking in the morning.”

Jeff Bornstein of Reseda, a political science major who graduated last spring and now helps manage an audio-video supply company, said he was not offended by other graduates drinking during the ceremony.

“This is a once in a lifetime activity,” he said. “People are going to be partying.

“There was a little less drinking than I expected. The only thing that was out of hand was that the speeches were too long.”

Heat a Factor

Manos said his primary reason for rescheduling the ceremony is the heat in the early evening.

The graduates wear black robes, which absorb heat more than lighter-colored clothing, and many of them invite their grandparents, who are more susceptible to heat exhaustion because of their age, he said.

University medical teams consisting of a doctor and nurse and ambulance must stand by, Manos said, because every year one or two people are overcome by the heat. “People always complain about how hot it was,” he said.

According to weather service records, the mid-afternoon high in Northridge on graduation day last year was 86.

‘Personal Hardship’

The Student Senate will vote Tuesday on a motion that “strongly requests that the traditional afternoon commencement be re-implemented” this year, complaining that the new time “would create an undue personal hardship on many graduates and their families.”

The motion, which the administration is free to ignore, should pass easily, said members of the 26-member senate. In a referendum on the issue last month, 67% of 1,400 graduating students voted in favor of an evening ceremony. The Faculty Senate passed a similar resolution Thursday and formed a committee to look into the possibility of holding the ceremony in the afternoon this year, on either Friday or Sunday.

One of the graduating seniors, Annabelle Luther, wrote in a letter to the campus newspaper, the Daily Sundial, that she has been attending classes at night and working during the day, with the encouragement of her husband and parents.

Weekday Hardship

“Graduation day is the culmination of years of effort,” she wrote, but because they must work weekdays, she and her family will be “unable to attend my own graduation.”

“Either you have to take the whole day off or return to work, making graduation just about as significant as going to the dentist. Whoopee!”

Dean of Students Edmund T. Peckham, in a letter to the Daily Sundial responding to Luther’s complaint, wrote that “a pattern of disruptive behavior--or misbehavior--on the part of some graduates had been established, characterized by raucous and rowdy conduct which marred the significance of the event for our guests.”

He also cited the heat, the Jewish Sabbath, which begins at sundown Friday night, and problems with crowds of non-graduating students “milling about,” which he said “made it difficult for processional lines to form and for families to observe their graduate receive the congratulatory handshake of the president.”

Bias Alleged

Mimi Constantinou, a student senator, complained that the decision reflects an upper-class bias by administrators, ignoring the problems of lower-income students, many of whom worked their way through school or are in the first generation of their families to receive a college degree.

“People who make $5,000 or $6,000 a year” can’t take the day off as easily as white-collar workers, she said.

Constantinou is a member of the Student Senate’s University Affairs Committee, which complained that it asked to meet with university President James Cleary on the issue, but was told he would be unavailable until April 28.

Cleary’s office said he was unavailable to comment because he is out of the country.

Manos has told the protesters that it is too late to change the time, because graduation announcements and other commencement material bearing the 9:30 a.m. time already have been printed.