For this year’s graduating class, the University of Arizona’s Commencement ceremony took place on May 10 at the Arizona Stadium starting at 7:30 p.m.

This 155th Commencement ceremony celebrates all of the graduating students at the UA. Any undergraduate, graduate or professional student graduating from any term this school year could participate in the Commencement ceremony.

This differs from the graduation presentations, as those are for each individual UA college where students are presented a case to hold their degree that will be mailed to them later. The Commencement ceremony is to celebrate all the students together as one school.

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The Commencement ceremony is worth it because it’s the last hoorah where all the UA students you’ve been working around for so long are gathered together in one place. It’s also worth it because you get to celebrate with the students that aren’t in your individual college.

You and your friends might not all be in the same college, but at the Commencement ceremony, those individual colleges don’t matter. You are all graduating as UA students, and that’s what’s being celebrated, that accomplishment itself.

As the ceremony is not mandatory, a ticket is required for graduating students, and students must RSVP if their graduation was before the Commencement ceremony.

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I don’t necessarily think the Commencement ceremony is primarily for guests. It is for the students to celebrate other students, bringing them all together to go out into the world together. The individual college graduations are more for families and guests, but the Commencement ceremony is for the students. 

Commencement represents what these students have been working for: themselves and their degrees. They are the ones who earned these degrees, and they all did that together. They’ve been in school for so long working towards these degrees, and the Commencement ceremony is a celebration of that, not just a presentation of sorts. That’s why it’s worth it.

So, congratulations class of 2019. Go out there and celebrate your accomplishments.

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