Fall 2019 and spring 2020 Georgia Southern commencement plans released

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McClain Baxley

This article was updated at 12:30 p.m.

STATESBORO — Georgia Southern University will be having two graduation ceremonies in the fall and three services in spring 2020, the school announced in a campus-wide email Monday morning.

For fall 2019, GS will have a ceremony in Savannah at the Savannah Convention Center on Friday, Dec. 13 and a ceremony in Statesboro Saturday, Dec. 14 at Paulson Stadium.

“Undergraduate and graduate students will graduate together,” the email reads. “Students can choose which ceremony to attend based on the location where they would like to graduate.”

In the spring, undergraduate and graduate students will graduate separately. On Friday, May 8 there will be an undergraduate-only ceremony in Paulson Stadium in the evening. Saturday, May 9 there will be an undergraduate-ony ceremony in Savannah that morning.

The graduate-only ceremony will be Saturday, May 9 in the afternoon in Hanner Fieldhouse.

“In this new format, each graduate will be recognized individually at each ceremony as they walk across the stage,” the email reads. “All colleges will be represented at both locations and students will be organized by college.”

In addition to the new format, the school also announced that all ceremonies will be ticketed. President Kyle Marrero confirmed this at the State of the University.

“It is absolutely going to have to be ticketed. That’s the one thing that there is no way we can just say ‘anyone and everyone can show up,’” Marrero said at the State of the University. “We can’t promise you to get in and that’s the worst thing we can do. We’re going to have to figure out a quantitative way.”

The number of tickets allowed per student will be determined when the school finds out the size of the graduating class.

Prior to the announcement Monday, Dr. Scot Lingrell, Vice President of Enrollment Management gave the proposed plan to Student Government at their retreat this weekend.

“The overall feedback was that it was a good decision,” SGA President Juwan Smith said. “The only concern was that it would be ticketed. Lingrell reassured us that it wouldn’t be a low number and there would be a pool, so that if a student only needs two or three of those (tickets), they would be issued back into will call or an online service.”

McClain Baxley, The George-Anne Editor-in-Chief, gaeditor@georgiasouthern.edu