English grads lose formal ceremony

Meghan Chambers spent the past four years working hard to graduate as a writing major on May… Meghan Chambers spent the past four years working hard to graduate as a writing major on May 2 — but she will not attend the English Department ceremony.

Chambers is one of about 270 students who will graduate from the English Department this spring.

“It seems kind of lame, honestly,” Chambers said.

The Department of English and Film Studies’ commencement was initially scheduled to be held in the Connolly Ballroom of Alumni Hall from 9 a.m. until 11:30 a.m. — the same arrangements the department has made for many years in the past. This year, after already having secured the room, Pitt’s Event Planning Department asked the English department to move its ceremony to the day prior because of a conflict with the annual Pittsburgh Marathon.

Holding the ceremony on Saturday is not possible because finals will still be in effect. A makeshift ceremony will be held on Sunday morning from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the room 501 of the Cathedral of Learning.

“We wanted to do something for our students,” Sandy Russo, an English department administrator, said. “We feel bad that it has to be this way,” she said in reference to the informality of this year’s ceremony.

As of April 14, only 39 students had sent their RSVP, although English department webmaster Adam Caler who is receiving RSVPs, said that some students don’t submit theirs until the day before commencement. He said he expects to see fewer students this year, but he is not sure if it’s because of the marathon or the nature of the ceremony.

“We called names last year,” Caler said. “We’re not calling names this year.”

This year, students will simply accept certificates from the program director of their major or program in a cattle-call manner. THe writing graduates will accept their certificate at 9 a.m., the literatrue graduates at 10 a.m., the film studies graduates at 11 a.m., and those earning a Public and Professional Writing Certificate will accept theirs at noon.

Karen Fredette, a spokeswoman for the Pittsburgh Marathon, said the marathon has always been held the first Sunday in May, so it should not have come as a surprise to the University.

She said everything has been coordinated with the marathon for several months now.

“We want to reach out so that everyone has as little worry as possible,” Fredette said, “and that comes from being aware [of the detours that will be necessary that day].” All of the information on road closures is available online at pittsburghmarathon.com.

The most difficult closure for students attending the commencement will be the Fifth Avenue closure from 7:45 a.m. until 1:15 p.m.

Most of the runners, who will be on the 12th mile when running down Fifth Avenue, will be coming through Oakland at around 9:30.

Jason Morrill, associate director of Special Events at Pitt, said that the Special Events Office passed out packets on information to the families of students graduating from the School of Arts and Sciences. The packets show road closures and direct families to the Pittsburgh Marathon website for more information.

Morrill said several other departments within the School of Arts and Sciences did move their commencements, but he is unsure which. The dates and times vary within departments and they are not consistent year to year.

Nobody is certain if the conflict will occur again next year, but Russo said there is a good chance that it will.

“It’s out of our control,” Russo said, and therefore it is difficult to take any measures to prevent the two from overlapping in the future at this time.