If you haven’t heard Marshall University has changed its rules for walking at graduation. There was a time when a student could still walk across the stage and receive a diploma and be recognized even though the student still had less than three hours to complete during summer sessions.
This semester, a change has been made that causes students who have not finished their hours, not even with the exception of one, to wait until the next semester’s graduation ceremony. This is not fair to those who expect to graduate and be recognized, and see those before them walk even though they did not have enough hours.
Students work hard for four years and some even more, to reach the ultimate goal of graduation. They work to hold up that diploma handed out by President Stephen Kopp and walk across the stage proudly.
Marshall’s administration wants to make the entire university’s graduation a big deal. But with this new policy many students will not only miss the semester they were hoping to graduate, but we doubt they will come back for the graduation the next semester.
Plus, individual colleges are no longer to have ceremonies. This is just taking the intimacy out of graduation. Individual ceremonies are where graduates can hear personal feelings from their professors and share stories. Marshall needs to work out the graduation to make it matter again or no one will care and graduation will be worse than ever.
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