Alumnus Chimes In: Arts & Sciences Graduation “Total Joke”

We have regularly blogged about the Arts & Science graduation ceremony.

In brief, a ceremony that was once brief, enjoyable and encouraged contact between faculty and students has been changed into a ponderous, tedious and boring exercise.

A recent post of ours brought the following e-mail from a former student.

Right on with the description of the A&S Graduation. As an ‘06 A&S Grad, I can say that the college graduation last year was a colossal waste of time. If they had handed out diplomas after the main graduation ceremony at the Bradley Center, and I had known what was happening at the Al that afternoon, I would have packed up my apartment early, headed home and just not come.

The faculty meet and greet would have been nice if there actually were faculty there. As you know I completed two majors (POSC and HIST) at MU and I only had 2 profs for multiple classes . . . and yet on Graduation day, I could only find Dr. Meissner from the History department at the Al [McGuire Center]. He was the only prof I saw that I had that had bothered to show up, and I suspect it might have been related to his daughter graduating at the same ceremony.

The “Meet and Greet” after the ceremony was a total joke, and I was on the road back to Chicago less than an hour after the ceremony concluded.