Scaled-back graduation continues as FGCU plans to host another Grad Walk

Unconventional graduation is leading to mixed reactions at Florida Gulf Coast University.

FGCU plans to host a Grad Walk at Alico Arena. This is something the university started doing during the pandemic. This is more of an intimate ceremony where graduates can reserve a time to walk across the stage and receive their diploma in front of up to six guests.

While some students don’t really have an opinion, others are happy that there’s a smaller ceremony. A third group was disappointed following the announcement.

There’s a petition on Change.org that says “FGCU Traditional Graduation” and it was created by two students. Emily Merton is one of those organizers and she’s a senior at FGCU. “I feel like the circumstances have drastically changed. And I think that it’s kind of unreasonable that we don’t have one now,” said Merton.

This comes after the university announced it will not be holding traditional graduation but, instead a Grad Walk. And this impacts spring and summer term graduates.

Emily, her petition cocreator and a senior at FGCU, Alexis Durlacher, aren’t happy about this decision. “I understand last year, COVID was a lot different. But now bigger universities like Florida State University, University of Florida that are quadruple our size are having in person one day, full attendance,” said Durlacher. “And we’re having full capacity basketball games the past couple months. And I just I don’t really see a reason.”

But that’s not the reaction that every student had. Camila Garcia told WINK news she’s actually happy with the choice. “It’s more personalized. We get to bring more people with us. And it’s actually quite quick. And you get to hear your name and be just thought so person on stage.”

Other students couldn’t really be bothered. Trinh Ngo is a senior at FGCU. “I don’t care much about it,” said Ngo.

Donna McAfee’s son is a senior at FGCU. When she learned that her son wouldn’t get to have traditional graduation, she was devastated. “It’s very disappointing. It’s very disheartening. You know, we deserve to celebrate our kids, we deserve to celebrate their accomplishments,” McAfee said.

She hopes the university considers making some changes before graduation comes. ”

I’m hoping that they’ll actually consider doing an in-person graduation,” said McAfee. “Or at least give the students an option to have a traditional graduation and or the grad walk.”

WINK News did reach out to FGCU in response to all the concerns from students and parents. FGCU gave us a written statement that said:

As you know, FGCU will be honoring both spring and summer 2022 graduates with Grad Walk events in May. Feedback from past Grad Walks has shown that the events were very popular among participants, who told us they enjoyed the high energy and more personalized celebrations. FGCU’s commencement crowds exceed our most-packed basketball games by 30%, with graduation ceremonies filling up all of the seats available in the stands, plus hundreds more on the floor. Over the years, we have had to offer multiple, back-to-back commencement events to accommodate our ever-increasing number of graduates, but that has become more difficult to plan in recent years. One-way in, one-way-out traffic and limited parking have created traffic issues that often delay ceremonies, and because of that we have been exploring other options. While we looked at holding commencement at other facilities in the community, none were available for the upcoming spring celebration. We continue to look at these options, but for now Grad Walk has given us the flexibility to honor our graduates on campus.”