I attended the 2:00 P.M. A&M Commencement Ceremony on Friday. I am not an Aggie myself, and even though I attended another university in Texas, I have always admired the Aggie traditions, fellowship, and spirit. However, I was extremely disappointed in the Aggies who walked out of the commencement ceremony after receiving THEIR diplomas, but were not courteous enough to stay to support the accomplishments of their classmates. The President even asked the students at the beginning of the ceremony to remain until all names were called. I can understand how a few graduates could have had timing issues or emergencies they had to leave for, but I estimated that at least 200 students walked out early. I felt this was inconsiderate and unacceptable to the rest of the class. Where was the Aggie tradition and spirit in these students? It was disheartening to see this attitude. I hope if you read this, it will make you stop and think at YOUR graduation to be kind and respectful to your classmates. I don't know how the administration can control this and I think it is a sad situation that they even have to mention it. You talk Aggie Spirit - now walk the walk!

Old Army has gone to hell.

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walk the walk

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I think they did. And it's sad. When I graduated Friday night, only a handful of the masters stayed after getting their diplomas; more undergraduates stayed, but it was still bad.

I was extremely disappointed. During the ceremony, Gates commented: "I know who you are, and I know where you live." He tried a comedy approach to get people to stay, but it didn't work. I just don't know what the admin can do, save maybe giving a $100 bill to everyone left at the end of the ceremony.

[This message has been edited by bradycreel03 (edited 5/11/2003 10:08p).]

second verse same as the first

I was at the Friday 9:00 AM one and only saw 2 people leave and it was towards the end. I guess the engineers and the biomedical grads wanted to savor every moment.

I started another thread about this. My daughter graduated Friday at 2 also and it was pathetic at how many guests were gone before Spirit was sung.It is basically a lack of manners, though I understand there are always extenuating circumstances.Gosh, it was over in 2 1/2 hours..most movies last longer than that and you don't see people leaving them before the finale!

movies are more entertaining than graduation - since no one is paying attention anyways I was glad for people to leave.

I don't even want to go to my own graduation. I'm basically going because my mom has been paying for me to go here. I don't want to sit for nearly 4 hours and listen to someone that I'm not going to remember what the hell they talked about. Texas A&M has my money, if I want to leave early then I will. I'm sorry if that offends any of you, but that's how I feel. I might feel differently next year, but we'll see.

It's a once in a lifetime event - the least you can do is stay put until the end.

Leaving early is both rude and inconsiderate. Pathetic, shameful, and disappointing. I could go on.

If a 3-hour ceremony that honors your past 4 or 5 years isn't worth your time - what is? Packing? Watching TV?

I don't believe my time could have been better spent. I didn't know everyone else graduating, but they are Ags too, and that's enough for me. The ceremony doesn't end when someone selfish picks up their diploma.

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its a once in a lifetime event

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this was my second time to graduate. i stuck around the first time.

here's what i replied with on the other thread:

I left. Why? b/c i had 3 grandparents, a pregnant sister, and a 2 year old nephew (not to mention my parents and 2 aunts) who all had to drive back AFTER the ceremony (i graduated friday night at 7). Sorry, but my family's saftey/well being is more important to me than the couple thousand strangers that were going to graduate after me.

[This message has been edited by AggieOO (edited 5/12/2003 12:33a).]

Aggie00 - you answered my "what is?" question well ... I can agree that your family's safety is more important.

To play the devil's advocate though - rent a room? If they only stayed an hour into the ceremony it would be dark already anyway - so wasn't it still unsafe? OK, I'm done.

I attended the 2pm ceremony - and, though I am obviously unaware of all of their circumstances, I guarantee the majority didn't have valid excuses for leaving early. It's just disappointing.

People have the right to leave if they want, but leaving w/o valid cause is piss poor - and obviously irks people.

In a graduation of over 1500, I was in the last 90 students.

I had to wait for everyone else to walk across. The least they could do is return the favor.


Here's how to solve the problem: Quit putting the diplomas in the tubes. Diplomas can then be picked up in person immediately following the recessional, with access restricted to those graduates proceeding directly from the floor of Reed, or they may be shipped one month later for a $50 fee.


[This message has been edited by Keegan99 (edited 5/12/2003 1:11a).]

You've got a lot of valid questions that deserve answers ...

"How many synonyms does it take to make an arguement stronger...2, 3, 4?" - It takes five, or I would have thrown in "selfish" too, smarty.

"...should I go on?" - Yes you should. It's cool you got a quick jump on the celebration though - you must have gotten an extra 60 minutes of party into your special day!

"Congrats to you..." - And the same to you, I'm glad you stayed long enough to graduate.

"do you want a pat on the back for being a better Ag than me?" - nah, it wasn't difficult.

"Do you feel better about yourself knowing you stuck around?" - I feel equally good about myself now as I had before. And I'm glad I stayed for the duration of the ceremony. I may not remember how it felt to sing Spirit of Aggieland with the rest of the graduates, but I hope I never forget.

If not for yourself - you should stay out of respect for others. Not just those graduating, but the people who made the actual event possible. It takes extraordinary effort to make something like a graduation ceremony a reality. Watching a mass of unappreciative people leave would be a slap in the face, I think.

Aggie00 - I'm just the A-hole tonight.

I think it's awesome (and almost a miracle) that your family was able to make it into town to see you walk - very cool.

A few young ladies in my row were considering leaving early, but after some coaching, decided to stay. They had no reason other than "my butt hurts". For anyone wondering if this made me feel better - no, it didn't. But I do hope those girls took something away from the rest of the event.

aggiehusker - I do like your idea of having more ceremonies so they'd be shorter.

I don't think it'll happen though - cuz Reed Arena needs the business (as opposed to graduation being held in another building), and it wouldn't be cost-effective to rent out all of Reed for smaller ceremonies.

That being said, I wouldn't mind graduating in G. Rollie with a smaller crowd. Then again, I love being in Reed Arena because I always remember Muster and the Bonfire Memorial Service ... singing amazing grace ... it all reminds me to appreciate life while I can.

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They had no reason other than "my butt hurts".

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It had nothing to do with sitting too long.

potty break?

I think they should eliminate the 7pm ceremony and have 2 Friday, 2 Saturday, so what if final review is held at 5pm instead of 2.Most of the hotels have a 2 day minimum during graduation...just another problem associated with a school that is too big.

This is really sad that nothing has changed since the last time I attended an Aggie graduation in May, '99. My son-in-law was in the last group of 100 or so to get his diploma. The silence from lack of people in attendance was deafening! What a contrast from son's graduation from Tarleton in December. EVERYONE stayed. The ceremony was not more than 90 minutes in length which could be one reason. But most of the people we encountered were just very proud of their graduate and they wanted to give all the grads the respect they deserved by staying there throughout the ceremony. There were some with walkers, some with oxygen, some on crutches.....but they all stayed. At son-in-law's graduation. the people sitting around us were bored from the very beginning (and former Pres. Bush was the speaker) and loudly proclaimed same until their graduate(s) walked. At which time they couldn't wait to stumble over the rest of us to get out and party (as they said). After the graduation, I mentioned on TexAgs how disappointed I was and was roundly criticized for even daring to mention it by students and some parents. At least I'm not the only one now voicing disappointment. Maybe one day (in a perfect world) things will be better.

We were at the Friday night commencement. And it is a shame that folks don't stay to honor all the graduates. But I think the length of the ceremonies directly contributes to the problem. My preferance would be to limit the commemcement exercises to no more than 2 hours. But even with that, there will always be some people leaving early.

So I thought what would be cool is if at the END of the first commencement, it was announced that a really generous former student will be passing out $100 bills to the recessing graduates, and will be doing the same at the following commencements. Care to guess at how many graduates stay for the following commencemenrts?

BTW... the Friday night commencement speaker was excellent!

The Sat. 9 AM ceremony was pretty bad too...

What makes it worse is that when the graduates leave early, their entire family/friends section leaves as well.

This creates a lot of commotion while people are stepping across other people to get out of the row, and they start talking to each other in normal voices like there isn't anything else going on.

I find it extremely rude - how do they know that there isn't a mother in back of them whose son or daughter is walking across the stage at that moment and is unable to see it.

I was glad to hear less noisemakers this year, though. It is very annoying when they make all this noise for one person, and continue it long enough for no one to be able to hear the next name being called.

I think probably 75% of the seats in Reed Arena were empty by the time the Spirit was sung.

the best motivator is always money. that's definitely the best positive reinforcement there is...in fact, I think I'll use that with my kids

Leaving early is rude, unless you have a good reason (and no, 'I want to go start drinking now' is not a good reason).

My mom had to be at work at 3:30 a.m. on Saturday morning. We left my sister's ceremony after all of the Master's candidates walked (she was about 20 from the end of that group). I've set thru SEVEN A&M graduations. I don't feel at all bad for leaving early during that one.