ISSUE
The new commencement model (presented in this article as of its March 8 revision) for 2022 is poorly planned, making it unfair to students and putting undue hardship on attending families. We protest this plan for the reasons given below and request that the 2022 commencement return to the model of pre-2020 graduations with separate indoor commencements by college. 

SUMMARY OF CONCERNS

• Only 4 tickets are allotted per student; extras can be requested, but it’s unclear how, when, or if extra tickets will be assigned.
• Early morning start time of 8:00 AM (set due to temperature concerns) would be logistically challenging for both students and families.
• Due to heat, an outdoor ceremony in Davis in June could be uncomfortable for many students and attendees and unhealthy for some.
• Two-hour timeframe proposed for each ceremony seems inadequate to accommodate 2500 students walking the stage along with time for speakers. If the ceremony takes longer, this increases the heat concerns.
• Campus administration is putting UCD's public image over the needs of the graduating students and their families.

GUEST TICKETS RESTRICTED TO FOUR
One objectionable aspect of the new commencement plan is the 4-ticket restriction per student (lower than pre-2020 limits), while many students have more than 4 guests that are important to them to invite. We understand that students can request additional tickets, but there is no guarantee that extra tickets will be provided. When would students be notified of how many extra tickets they receive (if any), and how can families plan? With this method, the number and timing of extra tickets would be too late for logistical planning of travel, lodging, etc. It means different things for different families, but the bottom line is that this new plan is very unfair to family members who have emotionally and financially supported their students through their time at UC Davis, but some of whom may be excluded from this important event.

VENUE AND TIME 
With the new commencement plan, we foresee discomfort, and potentially worse, resulting from holding a two-hour event (or potentially longer, as mentioned above) without shade or moving air on a June morning in Davis. Not only will the students be sitting close together in the sun in dark gowns, but the audience will be sitting close together and will include many older people, likely some who may have physical conditions that predispose them to overheating. People will want to use sun umbrellas, which will obstruct the view of those behind them. Additionally, the article states that some guests will be sitting on the field behind graduates. How can these guests have a good view of their student graduating? Additionally, an 8 AM commencement ceremony creates an undue hardship for families. This time works for those who live in or near Davis, but what about the multitudes of Bay Area families and those in surrounding counties, who must drive an hour or two to Davis? On any day, getting family members together to get to the ceremony is already challenging enough, but trying to do it at 6 AM? Should they all arrive in Davis the night before, and further strain the already strained lodging and restaurant resources? What about those families who can’t afford the lodging?

ILL-PLANNED CEREMONY LOGISTICS
The article regarding the new ceremony procedure does not specify whether graduates will walk the stage, but communication with commencement@ucdavis.edu confirmed that students will walk the stage. Given that we have been told the commencement ceremony is two hours, having all 2,500 students walk the stage at 3 seconds per student would take the entire two hours. Considering also the processional (students walking in) and multiple speakers and performances, this seems to imply that the ceremony will take longer than two hours (a potential problem given heat concerns), or there are other changes that students are not being made aware of. Pre-2020 ceremonies with about 500 to 600 graduating students took two hours. How are we supposed to expect that 2,500 students will walk the stage at a ceremony within two hours if in the past, ceremonies with a quarter of the students took two hours?

Additionally, the “reasoning” behind this change is to “change the emphasis to ‘UC Davis’ commencement, instead of college commencement, to put more emphasis on our institution as a whole, as one of the leading public universities in the nation”. This makes no sense – all students and attending guests know what university their student is graduating from, and it is not as though the world is watching our commencement ceremonies. In fact, allowing students to graduate with their college is more relevant to their experience at UC Davis, as these are the people they have been attending classes with and working with over their time at UC Davis. In the 2020 plan, it is mentioned that having fewer commencement ceremonies will allow for “higher quality” speakers to speak, leading to the conclusion that campus administration is more concerned with UCD’s public image than student and family needs regarding commencement. Shouldn’t commencement be about celebrating students’ accomplishments with their families watching, and not about a speaker?

NEW COMMENCEMENT PLAN NOT DUE TO COVID CONCERNS
Please note: The issue of COVID-19 is not a component of this petition. The change to an outdoor ceremony was not made in order to address COVID-19 concerns, as it is not mentioned in the new plan description and because the plan was introduced for the Spring 2020 graduation ceremony (but did not happen due to the pandemic). If it is necessary to address Covid-19 concerns at the time of the commencement ceremonies the administration could implement indoor public health protocols to help mitigate risk.

PLEASE SUPPORT THIS PETITION BY SIGNING
We believe the potential problems of the new commencement plan outweigh potential benefits. We respectfully request that for the 2022 undergraduate commencement ceremonies, UC Davis reinstate the pre-2020 commencement model of indoor ceremonies by college.