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Last week the university sent out an email to Quinnipiac students about some big changes made to the commencement ceremonies. In prior years, each school had their own ceremony, but for the Class of 2019 there will be three combined ceremonies.

On May 18, the School of Health Sciences and School of Nursing will be held together at 9 a.m. and College of Arts and Sciences and School of Communication will be at 2 p.m.. Then the School of Business and School of Engineering will graduate together at 9 a.m. on May 19.

The school anticipates 500 to 600 graduates in attendance at each of the three ceremonies. The duration of each are expected to be two hours or less.

Another change made is the amount of tickets students will receive. In prior years most students were able to get eight tickets for family and friends, but now they will be limited to four for the Schools of Health Sciences, Nursing, Communications, and College of Arts and Sciences or five for the Schools of Business and Engineering.

The overall response from students is overwhelmingly negative. For most, the biggest issue is the decrease in amount of tickets they will receive for their family.

“I have two parents and a brother and sister and two grandparents, not to mention my boyfriend of seven years,” senior, Jenna Shankman, said. “It’s okay if he would have to be in another room, but it is not acceptable that I have to choose between my grandparents and my siblings seeing my graduation.”

Senior Class President, Matt Corso, has heard and is taking notice to this negative response. He reached out to Q30 News to give his personal opinion on the situation.

“Obviously I heard students talking about it and saw posts on social media, which showed me that this is something the Class of 2019 cares about,” Corso said. “I think what our class wants the most is to have some input when these decisions are made, and no, I’m not saying for every decision, but something like this would definitely be one of those times we want our voices heard.”

Representatives from the school, however, say they haven’t heard this same feedback from the student body.

“We have had some feedback. As with any change, some students would like the commencement structure to remain as it has been. Ultimately, feedback for or against has been minimal,” Vice President for Public Affairs Lynn Bushnell said.

On graduation day, students will still be allowed to have more than the ticketed amount of family members in the People’s United Center. In the email, the university stated that the ceremony would be streamed in the hockey arena while commencement took place in Lender Court. But for most students, that’s just not enough.

“I realize that they’re going to broadcast the ceremony in the hockey arena, but if that’s where a majority of my family would have to watch they may as well just watch from home,” senior, Courtney Kuhl, said.

However, there is another way that students can get more family members into Lender Court for commencement.

“Graduates are able to ask other graduates for tickets that they may not need,” Bushnell said.

Many students want commencement to go back to the way it had been run for many years, with each school getting its own ceremony and being allowed double the amount of tickets, in most cases, than they are now.

Students say they feel like the school isn’t thinking of students individual needs with the new commencement changes.

“It’s frustrating because I have put so much hard work and money into making the best of my time here and I want to celebrate all of my hard work with my whole family,” senior Hannah Ellis, said. “This is the biggest day of my life so far and the university isn’t treating it as such.”

Bushnell says tickets will become available to students during the spring semester.