It's that time of year again. On Saturday, May 12, the graduating class of 2012 will walk across the stage and accept their diplomas while earning the title of alumni having earned the right to call Longwood University their alma mater.
While commencement is an exciting time for those graduating and moving on to the real world, the planning and preparation of commencement is one to be admired and viewed in awe. With Hampden- Sydney College's (HSC) commencement on the same weekend, Longwood has opened up Cox and Arc Residential Halls to help house all of the commencement visitors, a practice they have had to bring back this year due to so many visitors. Diane Easter, special assistant to the president and director of events and ceremonies, is the lead coordinator for commencement. Her role, as she described via e-mail, is to make sure everything is ready to go and everyone knows what they are supposed to do. "I spend a lot of my time on the script and just making sure all the details are ready," said Easter. She also commented that on commencement week, she will be the one watching the weather forecast.
Easter works with a commencement team of about 15 staff members from all over campus. Each member helps coordinate details such as parking, police, disability resources, refreshments, grounds and landscaping, ROTC and much more. Planning for the event starts as early as the fall with recruitment of the speaker, Easter said. Things then begin to pick up once the first of the year is over and the bulk of the planning is done in March and April. In the four years Easter has been planning commencement, she explained there have been a few tweaks but no major changes. Small changes such as ROTC holding its own commissioning ceremony and where students will line-up are just a few examples of the small changes made. Other than that, Easter uses the same basic timeline and script her predecessor used. Easter explained that the one main change she believes alumni would notice most about commencement is the size of the graduates participating. This year, Longwood has its largest graduating class of 899 students walking at commencement.
Another aspect that apparently has not changed for the university is sharing the same commencement weekend with HSC. Easter said the only challenge with this seems to be having enough hotel rooms for everyone. "We knew by early fall that all hotel rooms within an hour of Farmville were already full. At that time, we started working with Residential and Commuter Life [RCL] on an oncampus house option," said Easter.
RCL Associate Director of Housing Operations Doug Howell explained RCL has not had to provide commencement housing for families and visitors since 2009. Need for other housing options arose when RCL received word that hotels in Farmville, as well as within a one hour radius, had been completely booked.
From there, 46 suites were offered for booking, which would hold up to around 186 guests. Howell said the opportunity was open for about two weeks before it closed, and no more will be taken. Around three dozen families will be staying in oncampus housing. Howell said it is likely they will have to do this again for next year as well, as Longwood and HSC will again share the same weekend for commencement.
While the families are in the halls, the same rules and regulations enforced by resident advisors will be in effect for the weekend as well. Families will be provided a linen packet if they do not have any of their own, which is something the university, has not done before. Parking will also be provided for the families in Cox Parking Lot.
Howell said he would like to stress that the residence halls will be closed by Saturday, May 5 at noon for senior week and non-commencement related people. RCL will have a list of graduating students that is currently at 500 people. Howell said they technically have no accommodations for anyone who are not approved for senior week or as commencement participants.
