Spring graduation ceremony marks end of year-long preparation
Marisela Marquez coordinates the graduation ceremony from planning the ceremony to ordering the diplomas and everything in between during the year-long preparation.
Photo by Darren Phillips
The New Mexico State University commencement ceremony doesn’t just end when the last student walks off the stage with a diploma in hand. Instead, it is a year-round process that takes checking, double-checking and sometimes even triple-checking.
Marisela Marquez, commencement coordinator for the spring 2008 ceremony, already has two graduation ceremonies under her belt. According to Marquez, the tasks are numerous and the planning begins a semester in advance.
“The planning starts with the degree applications that are submitted the semester before,” Marquez said.
The degree application is a form submitted by prospective graduates to the Registrar’s Office that lists the name, major, and degree that will be earned by the student. Although deadlines for the degree application are posted in numerous locations, there are students who don’t submit one until the day of the ceremony.
“A lot of the time students don’t read the class schedule and the deadlines are in there,” Marquez said.
Marquez said the problem may lie in a lack of communication.
Aside from the applications, Marquez has to place advertisements in local newspapers, update the commencement ceremony Web site, reserve the Pan American Center, send memos to the ceremony’s pianist, vocalist and minister, and hire staff to help with commencement preparations, among other things.
Marquez said at least 100 staff members must be hired to perform tasks such as organizing graduate lineups and handing out programs. Three staff members are given the title of banner marshal, leader marshal and counter marshal.
The banner marshal carries the banner for a given college as students walk into the building. The leader marshal leads students to their designated locations. The counter marshal makes sure there is only a certain number of students per row.
“It’s hard loading students into rows because they’re too busy looking for parents and friends in the audience,” Marquez said.
Marquez said there have been problems hiring enough staff and volunteer organizations in past years. She has had to hire volunteer organizations from local high schools.
On the day of commencement, Marquez’s day begins at 6:30 a.m. She makes sure the floor plan is set up accordingly and there are enough chairs for seating per college. At about 10 a.m., she makes sure faculty and advisers are lined up according to their assigned student.
Each doctorate student is assigned an adviser who guides them through their courses and dissertation until their degree is completed. The adviser is honored with walking on stage with the student and hooding them.
When the ceremony begins, Marquez is part of the act, as she leads faculty to their seats and helps the marshals count and lead the students to their seats. After the speakers, Marquez leads the faculty to hood students.
Upon completion of the first ceremony, Marquez takes a lunch break and immediately begins to check the floor plan for the second ceremony. Chairs need to be reorganized and the same process is completed for the second ceremony.
When Marquez returns to her office the following day, she begins to evaluate the degree plans that were submitted on graduation day. Once the grades for the semester are posted, students are either approved or denied graduation. Diplomas are ordered for the Alamogordo, Carlsbad, Dona Ana, Grants and main campuses, but before that can happen, Marquez has to revise names on the order forms for each campus.
Marquez said she checks the names for middle names, initials, accents, or other notations according to student preferences. Once the names are checked once, the ones that were incorrect are fixed. They are checked again and corrections are made if necessary. Once the diplomas are ordered, the process is not yet complete.
Although there is no ceremony for summer graduates, degree applications need to be reviewed. Once those are reviewed and finalized, the planning for the next semester begins.