The University of Colorado at Boulder will implement several changes in its commencement ceremony this spring.
The College of Arts and Sciences, CU-Boulder聮s largest, will hold special recognition ceremonies for all of its graduates, estimated at about 1,700.
The college plans to conduct as many as 30 ceremonies at the department level, with some small departments clustering along interdisciplinary lines, before or after the main commencement ceremony at Folsom Stadium on May 15.
Bachelor, master and doctoral candidates will be honored individually at these recognition ceremonies, as has been the custom in CU-Boulder聮s other schools and colleges. Many individual departments in the College of Arts and Sciences also have held their own commencement ceremonies and receptions in the past.
Also new at this year聮s spring commencement will be the hooding of graduate students at the special recognition ceremonies held by the individual schools and colleges. The official conferring of degrees, however, will be reserved solely for the campuswide commencement ceremony attended by graduates of all the schools and colleges.
As a result of the changes, the campuswide ceremony will be shortened by about 20 minutes due to the elimination of the hooding of doctoral candidates. Since this will occur at the special recognition ceremonies instead, doctoral candidates will be recognized as a group at the main ceremony just as bachelor and master candidates have been in the past.
The main commencement ceremony still will begin with the traditional procession of graduates across campus and into the stadium. The granting of honorary degrees also will remain a part of the main ceremony.
The changes are being implemented because many parents and undergraduate students in the College of Arts and Sciences have asked for a more personalized commencement experience.
聯Our goal in the changes we are making to the commencement ceremony is to try to create the most rewarding and satisfying experience for all of our graduates -- the nearly 3,000 undergraduates as well as the 1,000 graduate students,聰 said Arts and Sciences Dean Peter Spear. 聯We believe that having school and department-specific ceremonies at which the undergraduates can be recognized individually by name and graduate students recognized and hooded by their mentors accomplishes that.聰
Jim Williams, dean of Libraries and commencement marshal, noted that doctoral candidates also will be invited to attend a Graduate School luncheon following the main commencement, at which they will receive their diplomas.
The changes were recommended by the Council of Deans to Chancellor Richard L. Byyny, who accepted the recommendation.
The new commencement format will be implemented at the May 1998 and May 1999 commencements, after which the Council of Deans will evaluate the changes.
In another commencement change this spring, Chancellor Byyny plans to start highlighting CU-Boulder聮s distinguished faculty by inviting some of the campus聮 top professors to deliver the main commencement address. Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Nobel Laureate Thomas Cech is scheduled to give the May 15 address.