This year’s spring commencement ceremony is set to take place on the last day of finals, but according to university officials, graduating seniors need not worry about missing their chance to hear Katie Couric and receive their diplomas.
University of Wisconsin will hold spring commencement for undergraduates, Master’s degree and law students at noon May 16, posing a possible conflict with graduating seniors who might have finals at that time.
“It’s an unfortunate lineup of dates,” Allison Golden, a spokesperson for the chancellor’s office, said.
But according to Scott Owczarek, the university registrar, the university has managed to move nearly all finals that would have affected approximately 650 graduating seniors this spring.
He said his office is working to move one last final and is confident they will be able to do so. They are currently in talks with the professor and department of that class, and are waiting to hear back from the teaching assistant, he said.
“It’s not every year that commencement falls on the last day of finals,” Owczarek said. “We were able to move [those finals] and are really excited because everybody now will be able to participate.”
Final exams for lower level classes, not affecting graduating students, are still scheduled for Saturday.
Golden said commencement scheduling conflicts are nothing new for the university.
When Chancellor Rebecca Blank decided to hold one single graduation ceremony at Camp Randall for all undergraduates, it too came into conflict with finals. The shift was made to attract bigger names for the keynote speaker.
Although the Office of the Registrar schedules finals for lower level courses Saturdays, Golden said it is an imperfect system.
She said the university is looking to make changes to scheduling in future years, but due to university bureaucracy changes do not always occur quickly.
However, Owczarek said, for graduating seniors next year, the university has already arranged for no finals to take place during the commencement ceremonies in December and May.
The planning of the academic calendar is subject to the Secretary of the Faculty, Board of Regents, Faculty Senate and Wisconsin legislation. Every five years, the faculty senate approves a new calendar for the following five years. The current calendar expires in 2016 with the following five year calendar expiring in 2021.
Owczarek said conflicts between commencement and finals can occur because the legislative mandate requires the university to start classes after September 1 in fall and after Martin Luther King Jr. Day in spring. Consequently, he said commencement scheduling conflicts usually occur once or twice in a decade.
In addition to this spring’s undergraduate commencement on Saturday, doctoral, Master of Fine Arts and professional degree candidates will participate in a Friday commencement at the Kohl Center.
