After countless hours of studying, writing papers and working together on group projects, SRU seniors are prepared to walk across a stage in Morrow Field House next Saturday to receive their degrees from Rock President Cheryl Norton.
Graduating at Slippery Rock comes with the harsh reality that the university only provides its graduates with four tickets to the commencement ceremony, forcing seniors to make the tough decision of narrowing down which friends or family members they should invite to the ceremony.
No current staff members were around when it was decided that the graduation ceremony would be moved from the football stadium and into Morrow Field House, but it’s evident that the system that is currently in place is not efficient.
Obviously the Morrow Field House is a relatively small space to be holding a commencement ceremony, and it can get hot and stuffy in May. Despite these apparent flaws, the larger issue is that some seniors have larger families with more than four people in it, forcing them to choose which four family members should attend the ceremony.
However, some seniors decide not to use all of their graduation tickets, resulting in a large number of graduation tickets being wasted despite the high demand for them, which is a very unfortunate predicament because a lot of other graduates would have been happy to put those tickets to use so they could get a couple of extra friends or family members into the ceremony.
Another issue with the four-ticket policy is that students who decline to walk at graduation are still provided with four commencement ceremony tickets, simply wasting four tickets that could have been used by somebody else.
Unfortunately, some seniors decide to try and sell their tickets, advertising on social media that some of their tickets are for sale.
The university specifically tells students when they pick up their tickets that they are not for resale, but graduates still decide to sell the tickets because, in reality, there’s not much the university can do to stop them. And it isn’t like there’s no demand for extra tickets.
On social media accounts, it is easy to find Rock seniors who are desperate for extra tickets, offering to pay just about any amount to ensure that they get an extra ticket, giving students with extra the opportunity and idea that they can make a profit.
To try and prevent sale of graduation tickets, SRU should hold a raffle for all unused and unclaimed tickets, providing a fair opportunity for seniors who are looking for extra tickets to still put in a request to possibly gain extras.
Each student who puts in a request would then request the number of extra tickets they would like to acquire.
