‘It pains me that you’re in ache,’ Tandon dean says to disgruntled graduates

Aggravated college students from NYU’s Tandon Faculty of Engineering, sad that they will be unable to stroll throughout the stage at commencement this 12 months, sat down with their dean at a city corridor on Wednesday.

NYU’s Tandon Faculty of Engineering reaffirmed its choice to not let graduating college students stroll throughout the stage at its 2023 commencement ceremony throughout a city corridor occasion held Wednesday. On the city corridor, which was held to debate pupil criticism of the choice, Tandon dean Jelena Kovačević tried to assuage annoyed college students, telling them that the choice was obligatory because of the giant dimension of the category of 2023.

“We’re continuously operating to catch up,” Kovačević stated. “We hear you, we actually do. It’s not misplaced on us how arduous that is for you.” 

In response to the choice, which was introduced on Feb. 27, 1,300 college students signed a petition demanding that the college enable this 12 months’s graduating class of over 3,000 college students to stroll the stage through the ceremony, which is held at Brooklyn’s Barclays Middle in the identical week because the all-university graduation ceremony.

This 12 months, every graduate’s title will as a substitute be learn aloud whereas their picture is displayed on the Barclays jumbotron to scale back the size of the ceremony. Different faculties at NYU, together with the School of Arts & Science, have adopted this format for years. Final 12 months, 2,067 college students walked on the commencement ceremony, which lasted over six hours.

Throughout the occasion, directors addressed college students’ questions and considerations concerning the ceremony. Many voiced their discontent and proposed alternate options, together with holding separate ceremonies for various departments or shifting to a bigger venue. A number of college students stated that their households determined to not journey to see their commencement because of the truth that they might not be strolling.

Tandon senior Courtney Battieste stated that she needs Tandon’s administration had been extra open about its plans for the ceremony.

“Everybody could be much less pissed off in the event that they had been simply extra clear from the start,” Battieste stated. “If that they had advised us, we wouldn’t should be arising with all these concepts.”

Planning for every class’s commencement ceremony begins 11 months upfront, a month after the ceremony for the previous class takes place, in line with Leah Schmerl, a spokesperson for Tandon. A standing committee of directors is tasked with discovering a venue in Brooklyn that may accommodate each college students and their friends. The Barclays Middle has been the chosen venue for Tandon’s commencement ceremony since 2013.

Kovačević stated that she understands the scholars’ grievances, and inspired them to not let the change within the ceremony spoil their enjoyable.

“You don’t wish to not take pleasure in your individual commencement day as a result of one factor is lacking,” Kovačević stated. “It pains me that you’re in ache.”

Adrianna Nehme contributed reporting.

Contact Ania Keenan at [email protected]yunews.com.