Graduation, but where?

Graduation cannot be on the football field due to stadium renovations.

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Seniors have one thing they all look forward to at the end of the year, graduation. It’s the moment their high school years are over and they all go off into the world in different directions to continue and begin the rest of their lives. This year is different than the rest because of graduation not being able to happen on the football field.

Constructions for the stadium were approved to start in mid-May and continue through the summer to be completed by the start of next football season. This means that construction will be going on when graduation should be happening.

Not being able to happen on the football field means graduation will have to be held somewhere else. Several new locations have been brought up as being a possible location for graduation.

“Graduation on the field is always a tradition, but we use the auditorium as a backup plan. To me it’s kind of sad because ever since middle school we have gotten the short end of the stick,” said senior Jon Kaercher.

Penn State Beaver has been brought up as a possible location. It has a outdoor stage at the front of the campus for us to use. Another reason it was brought up was because it was a close drive for people to get there and for the graduates to get back to the high school for project graduation.

Another location that was brought up was CCBC’s dome. CCBC was one of the first places to be thought of since the problem about graduation came up. Freedom was going to have it there, but then CCBC realized they had already had Central Valley booked for that day. This means Freedom cannot have graduation there unless they changed the whole day completely.

Robert Morris was also put out as an option, but it is not one of the favored due to the far drive to get there in back. It would have been in their auditorium, which has been known to hold very good graduation ceremonies in the past.

“Having graduation off-campus would be beneficial if you can receive a place that is capable of fitting many people. The only downfall is not graduating on the campus we were educated,” said Kaercher.

One of the last locations brought up so far would be right on campus, but in the auditorium. The only problem that has been brought up with the auditorium so far is the fact that each student would only have five to six tickets. This raises a problem for some because there are big families who want to see their family member graduate.

There is a thought of if we should have it off-campus or on-campus. A lot of students of the senior class are already going through the positive and negatives of each trying to determine where they want their graduation to be held.

“The auditorium is okay because it is the backup for the football field if weather doesn’t permit. However, it raises questions about if everyone is going to get to watch graduation,” said Kaercher.

The school is still looking at where they want graduation to be, but time is running out and a decision is going to be made.