Ltte: CWRU needs to provide more graduation tickets

George Hodulik

To the editor,

As spring graduation approaches, I must express a deep frustration with Case Western Reserve University administration.

To those who are not graduating this May, you may not be aware that undergraduates are allowed three guest tickets to the undergraduate diploma ceremony. However, many students want to invite more than three friends or family members to this proud moment. The solution: Beg classmates for extra tickets—often involving the exchange of money.

I see two extremely upsetting problems here. First, three tickets is simply much too small a number of guest tickets. For most, that is enough for parents and one other guest. While this is adequate to some, it is incredulous to many others. After spending thousands of dollars, we get to invite three people to see what we have been working toward for four years. If this were the norm, perhaps it would be excusable, but even a cursory internet search reveals this is not the case. Many universities, such as University of Notre Dame, allow unlimited guests, and even larger universities, such as University of Michigan, allow ten guests.

The second problem is that the administration allows such a frenzy to happen in response to the aforementioned problem. To those not aware, around this time of year, class Facebook pages erupt in a hungry-hungry-hippos style frenzy of people trying to get extra tickets. Offline, people constantly ask their friends for any of their extra tickets. It can be extremely stressful to find extra tickets, especially knowing that failure to do so will mean that someone important to you—a parent, sibling, aunt, uncle, grandparent, cousin, or friend—will not be able to see you receive your diploma. We are told that there will be overflow viewing areas for them to view via livestream, but that is not the same.

I am sure there are a plethora of logistical reasons why we are only allowed three tickets and why there is no widely used official method of getting extra tickets through the administrations. These reasons probably involve venue restrictions and lack of resources. But there’s little you could tell me that would feel adequate. The fact of the matter is that CWRU is a multi-million dollar institution. Our motto is “Think beyond the possible.”

Find a way. No student should have to tell anyone who has significantly contributed to their success that they cannot be a part of this milestone.
George Hodulik