Cal State San Marcos Holds Its 1st Commencement--Well, Sort Of

Officials at Cal State San Marcos have spent the past year making do with what little they have, so when it came time for a commencement ceremony Wednesday, they made do with the closest thing to graduates that they have.

“It’s a commencement, but it’s not a conferral of degrees,” M. Stephen Lilly, dean of the College of Education, said of the university’s first graduation ceremony.

Under a setting sun, President Bill Stacy addressed the 52 “graduates” as they sat in folding chairs in the parking lot of a business park that acts as the university campus.

“We are so proud of what you have done. Thank you and congratulations to you,” Stacy said, standing at a makeshift lectern, a boom box acting as the public address system as cars passed by on the street next to the proceedings.

“This was strange, but the essential spirit was there,” he said afterward. Before coming to CSSM, Stacy was president of Southeast Missouri State University, where commencement ceremonies are usually conducted in a stadium to the accompaniment of a marching band and where the graduates number in the hundreds, not tens.

The university bestowed certificates to 52 students from the teacher credential program showing that they have completed the courses that will allow them to teach in elementary schools, Lilly said.

The students, the first graduates from the newest public university in the nation, must also pass a state-administered test before they become certified teachers.

“It feels wonderful,” said 41-year-old Patricia Reynolds of Leucadia.

She has already passed the state test certifying her as a teacher and began substitute-teaching at Paloma Elementary School in San Marcos on Wednesday.

“I feel I have 20 good years left to teach, which is something I’ve always dreamed of doing,” Reynolds said.