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Commencement shifts one day
The Advocate
MHCC commencement exercises have been moved from a Friday to a Saturday this year, and will be held in the college stadium on June 11 at a time to be determined.
The GED graduation ceremonies, traditionally held on a Thursday evening, have also been moved a day later and will be held Friday, June 10, at 7 p.m. in the MHCC gymnasium.
The changes were made after complaints that the dates were a problem for some students, said David Minger, vice president for student success and enrollment management
"The main problems I heard for a Friday evening commencement were difficulties for students working, students who needed child care and so forth," Minger said in an email Wednesday night.
The Associated Student Government and other faculty members were surveyed by Minger and Robert Cox, dean of student success, in January and February 2010 in regard to possible date and time changes for the GED and college commencement ceremonies of both 2010 and 2011.
Sixty-eight percent of the students surveyed favored a Friday GED/Saturday commencement, though the 2010 dates remained unchanged.
Among other complaints voiced by students and faculty, Minger said, "When the program went long it sometimes ended in the dark, which triggered complaints."
As result, changes will be made in this year's commencement to improve upon these areas of complaint.
"No content is planned to be cut. The time savings will come from reconfiguring the stage and distance people have to walk to cross the stage and repositioning the starting points of the lines at what we call the processional where everyone marches in," said Minger.
"We've calculated that this will save a good chunk of time," he said.
Peggy Maas, manager of admissions, registration and records, said, "For college commencement, as of today (March 2), we have 793 students who have applied for a certificate or degree whose names will be listed in the printed program. We anticipate 500-525 each year and we generally have approximately 475 attend."
"We have about 150 students attend the GED/Adult High School Diploma/Middle College Graduation each year," she said.
For more information on 2011 GED and College Commencement, visit www.mhcc.edu/RegistrationCalendar for the commencement catalog and the graduation information page at www.mhcc.edu/graduation.
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