Graduation is supposed to be a day to mark the achievements of college graduates. Most students hope to celebrate this day with family and friends, but this year Marquette is making changes to the Class of 2023’s commencement ceremony that might affect some students’ ideal graduation.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, graduation was held at Fiserv Forum without any regulation on how many guests each graduate could bring. This year, graduation will be held at Fiserv Forum, and each graduate will be allowed only four tickets due to the large class size. Marquette usually holds graduation on a Sunday, but this year it’s been switched to Saturday, May 20.
The university said that because of the size of the 2023 graduating class combined with the venue capacity limits, that guest tickets will be required for the ceremony.
For the past three years, COVID-19 regulations have affected graduation. The graduating Class of 2020 wasn’t able to have an in-person graduation, the Class of 2021’s graduation was held at American Family Field with a two-ticket limit, and the Class of 2022’s graduation was held at the Summerfest’s American Family Insurance Amphitheater with no ticket limit. For the past two years, having it outside accommodated to recommended Center For Disease Control guidelines and made it easier to social distance.
The Graduate School and the Graduate School of Management will not have a limit on tickets or guests due to the smaller class sizes. As they traditionally do, the School of Dentistry, Law School and College of Health Sciences professional programs will have their own ceremonies and also won’t have a ticket limit.
Marquette announced the changes Nov. 16, and some parents are worried about accommodating family members who have already committed to travel to attend the ceremony. Due to the recent changes in graduation guidelines, some parents and students are concerned with how this will affect who can attend graduation this year.
“My concern about the graduation changes is that four tickets don’t even cover our immediate family. My daughter will be my mom’s first grandchild to be a college graduate, and she’s already purchased her plane ticket to come. Now I have to tell her she won’t be able to be present at the commencement ceremony,” Raquel Robelo, parent of an upcoming graduate, said.
Robelo said that families shouldn’t have to choose which family members can or can’t attend the ceremony. She said these changes are just an added stressor to the pressure college seniors already have in their lives. She said she thought Marquette was holding graduation at Fiserv Forum to accommodate more people, so she doesn’t understand why tickets are being limited.
“It’s kind of surprising since it’s at the Fiserv, and it’s huge. Just let people bring who they want,” Margaret Anagnostopoulos, a senior in the College of Nursing, said.
Fiserv Forum is the smallest location that Marquette has held commencement at, with room for 17,385 people. The American Family Insurance Amphitheater can fit 23,000 and American Family Field can accommodate 41,900.
Anagnostopoulos said that not all students will be using all four of their tickets, and students are already reaching out and selling them. She said that she’ll be selling one of her tickets to help someone else bring an extra guest.
Anagnostopoulos said she’s not worried about these changes because students will find ways to get tickets if they need them.
For the ceremony, Anagnostopoulos said Marquette should’ve divided up the seats in Fiserv and made sure every seat was available for people to purchase tickets. She said she was confused as to why Marquette didn’t do this in the first place.
Parents of graduates are already on Facebook trying to find a way to secure more tickets for family members.
“Marquette- if there is going to be a process for additional tickets in the future, can you please let parents know,” Suzie Sheedy, a parent of a Marquette senior, posted on the Marquette parent Facebook page.
Robelo said that the entire situation is “very disheartening.”
This story was written by Sophia Tiedge. She can be reached at [email protected]
