Graduation shifts to Georgia Dome

The Georgia Dome has been selected as the venue for Tech's spring commencement, according to the the Registrar's office. As a result of the location change, there will not be separate ceremonies for graduate and undergraduate students this year. The change was announced in an email sent to graduating students Tuesday.

The move from the Alexander Memorial Coliseum, the traditional venue for commencement, was necessitated by the record number of students planning to graduate this spring. "Knowing that we were faced with the largest graduating class ever this year, we knew we couldn't fit all of them," said Bob Harty, executive director of Institute Communications and Public Affairs. "We simply don't have one facility on campus that can accommodate the growing...student body."

According to Harty, the administration has already had difficulty accommodating graduating students in the Coliseum at past ceremonies. There were more students participating in past ceremonies than could be seated on the floor of the facility. "We [were] already putting tens, if not hundreds, of students up in the regular seating in the coliseum," Harty said.

With the even greater number of students at this year's ceremony, it was necessary to come up with an alternate plan. The administration considered a variety of ideas before settling on an alternate venue.

One of the options was splitting undergraduate commencement, resulting in a total of three ceremonies. However, this option had several downsides. "It sets up a situation where people may perceive that one ceremony was better than the other," Harty said.

Commencement has already been split once, into separate ceremonies for graduate and undergraduate students, as a result of the Coliseum's small size. According to Harty, further splits would make it increasingly difficult to attract good speakers for the ceremony.

A split in undergraduate commencement would also have negative effects from a symbolic perspective. "To keep the mission of Georgia Tech, in the sense of growing as a well-rounded college, it wouldn't make sense to split it up by colleges," said Amy Phuong, undergraduate student body president, who was involved in the administration's discussions about commencement.

Another option taken into consideration was to keep the ceremony at the Coliseum and institute a ticketing system. This choice also had several flaws. "Very few [schools] have switched to a ticketing system," Harty said. "It's very unpopular."

According to Harty, the size of the Coliseum would mean that each student would get anywhere from three to five tickets, which may not be sufficient for all members of the student's family. As a result, students would have to select just a few family members who can attend their graduation ceremony. "It's hard for the student to make those kinds of decisions; it puts a lot of pressure on them," Harty said. In addition to the limited number of tickets that would be available, this option would lead to another significant problem. "People are smart, and if you have a ticketing system, in the not-too-distant future comes a black market for those tickets," Harty said.

The third major option to be rejected was to hold graduation outdoors at Grant Field. The administration found that in five of the last ten years there was rain or severe weather on the day of spring commencement, however.

The potential for weather problems necessitated having a full backup plan in place. "If we do it at the stadium, and it happens to rain," Phuong said, "where are we going to send everybody? Do we shove everybody back into the Coliseum? If we were to shove everybody back into the Coliseum, do we go to a ticketing system then?"

While none of the alternate options are problem-free, the administration concluded that the optimal choice was moving commencement to an off-campus venue.

The Georgia Dome was selected because of its proximity to campus and because of positive experiences Tech has had with the facility in the past. "We didn't want to try and move it out to Gwinnett county or some place like that," Harty said.

Furthermore, according to Harty, holding the ceremony at the Georgia Dome will not cost significantly more than holding it at the Coliseum would, because renting the Georgia Dome includes the costs of security, staff and setup, while the school would have to pay for all of those separately if the ceremony was still held on-campus. "It's probably not the least expensive option, [but] it certainly isn't the most expensive option," he said. A final price has not yet been announced.

The Dome is also expected to be a sustainable venue for future ceremonies. According to Phuong, this year's ceremony is being used as something of a trial run. "If we don't like it this year, we can go back to these other options or come up with new options for next year."