Updated 12:20 p.m. April 6: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/TAMUSACommencement
Updated 11:10 a.m. April 6: University Communications will release an online survey today via Jaguar email to gather input from all students on the administration’s decision to have one annual graduation commencement ceremony. The survey will be open until April 16.
Editor’s note: Reyna said she would update The Mesquite at the end today, but has not responded. Updated information will be added to the top of the story as received.
By Melody Mendoza
After receiving student complaints about the cancellation of the fall graduation commencement ceremony, University administration will open an online survey April 6 to acquire student opinions.
The University’s executive cabinet decided March 22 after meeting with the graduation committee to only have one commencement ceremony per year starting in the fall. Read previous article.
Students actively opposed the decision via Facebook and a petition was started around campus.
In response, Marilu Reyna, associate vice president of university communications, confirmed that there will be a survey to get students involved in this decision.
“What we’ve decided to do is to take a step backward,” she said, admitting that the University should have collected student input.
The graduation committee’s original idea was to send the survey to spring 2012, fall 2012 and spring 2013 candidates for graduation because those are the ones most affected.
“However, we may open it up to all students — we want to give everyone an opportunity to be heard,” she added in an email April 5.
The survey will be open for 10 days.
Reyna said there will be a person at Main Campus Building and Brooks City-Base Campus promoting the survey, and the University will base their decision on the results.
“We are very open to having a December graduation ceremony,” she said.
Reyna said the original idea to have one annual ceremony stemmed from earlier student complaints of limited tickets for guests.
“We felt like we were answering the cry of students,” she said. “That was the bigger issue that we were addressing at the time.”
She said realizing that students have more than one complaint, University officials were willing to revisit the decision.
Reyna also mentioned that in the past, Student Government Association would have had a student forum to collect student feedback, where concerns would have come up more naturally.
Reyna said if students decide they want a December graduation ceremony, it will bring additional costs to the University. She added that she was not sure how it would work.
She added that there is a graduation fee charged to graduates, but there wouldn’t be additional costs to students to pay for the ceremony.
