Dodge is site for Barnard Class Day

Barnard Class Day: a day graduates will be able to collect their diplomas, and then hit the treadmills?

Due to space constraints from the Diana construction, as well as changes in other undergraduate commencement dates, Barnard's Class Day will be held in Columbia’s Levien Gym, which is within Dodge Fitness Center. The change was announced at a recent Class of 2010 meeting.

If Class Day were to be held on Barnard’s campus, there would be “closer to three tickets per graduate … instead of four in Dodge,” said Katie Palillo, BC ’10, president of Barnard’s Student Government Association.

“Logistically speaking, if we were to have commencement on our campus, the number of tickets … would be greatly reduced.”

The move to Dodge is intended to accommodate as many guests as possible, giving students four tickets each.

Barnard’s Class Day has not been on its own campus for several years. For the past few years, the ceremony has been held on the South Lawn.

Dodge was the rain location three years ago for commencement exercises and proved satisfactory, Barnard administrators said.

“In the very beginning of the plans for The Diana Center, there were blueprints drawn up for the area surrounding the building that would allow Barnard to have its ceremony on our campus,” said Palillo. However, due to the sloping walkway to Milbank Hall and the lack of space, that plan was abandoned. “Many students viewed the ceremony on South Lawn as a temporary situation, which in fact it was and is. What mollified students was the luxury of not having a ticket system.”

When commencement was held on South Lawn, students were able to invite an unlimited amount of guests. But current construction would mean guests seated on a sloping hill hundreds of yards away from where the speaker would be, according to Palillo.

For guest overflow, friends and relatives will have access to the event space in the Diana, which holds nearly five hundred people; LeFrak Gymnasium; and 202 Altschul Hall, which will provide live simulcasts.

As the Spectator reported in May, the Jewish holiday of Shavuot conflicted with Columbia College’s original commencement date, and the date was changed.

“For the past two years that Barnard’s ceremony has been on South Lawn, the University commencement has been [on] the Wednesday,” said Palillo. “Barnard always tries to be on [that] Monday.” This holiday obstacle led to “having less time to schedule everyone’s commencement ceremonies,” added Palillo, so Barnard’s commencement was put inside Dodge so it could keep its date of Monday, May 17. The only alternative to the Monday date would be the last day of finals.

Students had mixed reactions to the change. Cari Heicklen , BC ’10, said she expected Class Day to be on Barnard's Lehman Lawn—near the Diana—and that she had no idea about the move to Dodge. Though, “ultimately, it is an administrative decision,” she acknowledged.

Daphne Larose, BC ’10,said she disliked that students and student representatives, including Palillo and senior class president Chelsea Zimmerman, BC ’10, were kept in the dark. “It’s upsetting because … I have always believed Barnard to be very much students-first,” she said.

Despite protests, Senior Class Dean Aaron Schneider wrote in an email to seniors that the decision is “necessarily firm and final at this point.”

A forum about the issue will be held on Sept. 24 in 202 Altschul from 6-7 p.m.