jill tague / equinox staff

Eric Walker 

Equinox Staff

As graduation inches closer, Keene State College seniors have mixed feelings on the significance of the ceremony itself. Some students are elated to sport their cap and gown, while others see their degree as all that really matters.

“The ceremony’s going to be so boring: we’re going to have to sit there for a million hours, I’m going to have to listen to a million names of people I don’t know or care about,” geography major Adam Riffle said. Riffle said the whole traffic and parking debacle will be “a nightmare to say the least.” However Riffle said he is planning on walking and acknowledged how much his parents are looking forward to attending. “I mean I’ve never been one for ceremonies. I didn’t really give a hoot about my high school graduation. It will mean more to my parents than it will to me, let’s put it that way,” Riffle said.

Nevertheless some students, like Jodie St. Onge, view the ceremony itself as holding a great deal of importance. “I think it’s a way to like really end the college thing, because I’m not going to grad school, so it will just kind of finalize it in my mind. I graduated from such a small high school that graduation was just a joke in a way. This is kind of the real deal,” St. Onge said. St. Onge said her parents didn’t play a role in her decision to participate in the ceremony, and said she was surprised that some students say they’re taking part just to appease their family members.

Senior Administrative Assistant Barbara Preston, who coordinated the last several KSC commencement ceremonies, said the number of students who decided to walk at this year’s ceremony aren’t available, as students have until the first week of April to complete a participation form, but at last year’s graduation 1,180 students were eligible to attend and 1,100 chose to participate. She described those types of numbers, with less than a hundred choosing not to take part, to be fairly normal. Preston said older adult Masters students often choose not to attend, as well as students who live farther away and graduated on an off semester.

Preston called the ceremony a life milestone and said, “If you haven’t been, I don’t think you could understand.” However, she added, “It really is a personal choice. Some students don’t feel comfortable in that situation.”

Psychology major Cody Harriman said his parents didn’t pressure him to walk, but he felt like he needed to do it for them. He said his parents told him “It’s your day, it’s your choice, you can do whatever you want.” He said the approximately two-and-a-half-hour long ceremony might be “kind of miserable,” but he added, “It kind of seems like the right thing to do.”

Communications major Megan Knowles said she’s extremely excited to walk, and that tradition is important to her family.

She said her dad graduated from college at the end of a fall semester and never walked, and she claimed he always regretted it.

Although her parents are looking forward to the event, Knowles said her decision to walk was hers and hers alone. “It’s definitely for me, like my parents support me, encourage me and they’re excited, but if I didn’t want to walk I wouldn’t. It’s definitely something that I want to do.”

Junior Kristen Huckins, who plans to graduate a semester early next December, said she’s not sure if she’s going to walk or not.

Huckins said her dad told her it would be nice to see her take part, but isn’t pressuring her to do so.

According to Preston, any student who could complete their required courses anytime between last December and this December is eligible to walk. She said the amount of students who choose to participate in the ceremony early compared to late are pretty evenly split.

KSC students are not currently billed for any costs associated with graduation.

However, if they choose to wear a sash they will have to purchase it themselves through the bookstore.

There are no tickets and parking is supplied for the attendees free of cost.

“We don’t want the charge of cap and gown to be a deterrent to students, because it could be, so there’s no cost,” Preston said.

Vice President of Student Affairs Dr. Andrew Robinson said the college used to bill seniors $90 during their last semester to cover some of the  commencement ceremony costs, which he said currently approach about $90,000.

Instead the costs are now built into a student’s regular yearly fees and not a separate charge.

KSC’s Commencement ceremony will take place Saturday, May 11, at 1 p.m. on the Fiske Quad rain or shine.

Seating will be on a first-come, first-serve basis. Family members and friends are advised to arrive prior to 11 a.m.

Furthermore family and friends who aren’t able to physically attend will still have the opportunity to view the event online through a live stream.

Eric Walker can be contacted at 

ewalker@keene-equinox.com