Noelle Arias / Roundup
It’s hard to picture Pierce College students with huge grins of accomplishment walking to receive their diplomas in their black caps and gowns at this year’s graduation ceremony with all the mess and mayhem of construction going on around campus.
The Pierce College graduation ceremony is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, June 9 at 6:00 p.m. at Swisher Park. Swisher Park is located on the Mall near the cafeteria where there are currently massive amounts of construction still underway.
The work being done in that part of campus was supposed to be completed prior to graduation but according to Scott Taylor of Swinerton Construction, it’s not going to happen.
“I’m not sure exactly what still needs to be done, but it is behind schedule,” said Taylor.
The day of the ceremony, graduation students are required to assemble at the Campus Center, which is also located next to the cafeteria, at 5:15 p.m. to fill out name cards and get organized for the procession to Swisher Park.
According to David Follosco, Acting Vice President of Student Services, students are not required to participate in the ceremony so they can only estimate the number of people that will attend.
This will almost guarantee problems throughout the day with parking, guests locating Swisher Park and overall congestion to the ceremony and later to the reception.
Last year’s graduation ceremony wasn’t plagued with construction problems but rather the lack of refreshments at the event. Those who patiently waited in their seats for all the diplomas to be handed out before going to get the promised refreshments found nothing but plates with no cake and cups with no punch.
The refreshments are funded by the Pierce College ASO. This year they will also be serving cake and punch along with coffee for after the ceremony.
“Last year was an unusually large graduating class and we received no complaints from students or their guests. We only recently heard from a staff member that refreshments ran out last year. We will be ordering more refreshments this year,” said Follosco in an email to Doreen Clay.
For those that are attending this year’s graduation ceremony, early arrival is strongly suggested as well as obtaining a map to locate the Campus Center and Swisher Park.
For more information about the Pierce College graduation ceremony visit www. Piercecollege.com/students.
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