To the Editor:
As one who was extensively involved in the decision-making process related to moving Commencement to Memorial Field this year, I would like to share some information concerning that decision and the reasons for it.
As Acting President James Wright said in his April 10 letter to 1995 Dartmouth graduates, Baker Lawn has a maximum seating capacity of approximately 8,700. For a number of years, attendance at Commencement has exceeded 10,000. Not all parents and other guests have gotten seats and, moreover, many families whose seats were at the back found it difficult or impossible to hear and see what is going on.
With a total of 1,600 graduates, we can easily imagine that their guests alone this year might total 10,000. To that number must be added faculty, administrators, staff and guests; the Fiftieth Reunion class and their guests; other alumni groups, members of the media, guests of the College and others. It is impractical simply to add more rows of seats in the back of the Baker Lawn location: people seated on the Green would be so far away from the platform that they would share in little or nothing of the proceedings. The simple fact is that Baker Lawn has been at or beyond its capacity, and for that reason some kind of change has been under consideration by the Commencement Committee and the administration for several years.
James Wright asked me and a number of other individuals from across the institution to study locations for the ceremony, and to make a recommendation where Commencement should be this year. He had already concluded that it would not be possible to have an indoor alternative rain location because we have no indoor facility that can even begin to accommodate all the family and guests that will attend. (Thompson Arena is the best rain location, but it can seat a total of 4,900 people.)
We quickly realized that there are only two possible sites: the Green and Memorial Field. The best way to hold Commencement at the center of the campus would entail moving the platform to the very north end of the Green, and placing chairs in rows across the width of the Green and back much of its length. Optimum use of the stadium would entail placing the speakers' platform at the north end of the field and seating graduates, faculty, and perhaps others on the football field itself, and all others in the stands. In the end, for the reasons stated below, the working group unanimously recommended that Commencement be moved to Memorial Field. Our major reasons are summarized as follows:
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The stadium's stands afford 16,616 people better lines of sight to the speakers and to the graduates -- marching, sitting and receiving their diplomas. On Baker Lawn and the Green, the audience would have essentially no view of the graduates in their seats. Based on the experience of family members and others seated in the back rows on Baker Lawn in recent years, there is reason to be concerned about how well a crowd of perhaps 16-20,000 could see and hear on the Green, an area that is far larger than Baker Lawn and which, in fact, slopes away to the south.
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The audience will hear better in the stadium.
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The ceremony can be conducted in the stadium in an attractive way, particularly when viewed from the stands. As last year's Commencement in Thompson clearly showed, the pageantry of the procession, flags and academic regalia are all more striking when viewed from above.
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Rain even the night before the ceremony would likely mean that the entire audience on the Green would be seated on a muddy surface. If it rains during the ceremony, the first unfurled umbrella would block the view of everyone seated behind. In the stadium stands, these problems will not occur.
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In either location, everyone present -- platform group, faculty, graduates and audience -- will have to go through metal detectors. Holding Commencement on the Green would have required either fencing or roping off the entire area. Access to buildings around the Green may have been reduced or eliminated, complicating departmental gatherings and necessitating the use of unsightly portable toilets.
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On Commencement day and for at least the week before, the Green would be inaccessible and unsightly. Guests and other visitors would, during that period, see the Green not in its simple beauty, but rather covered with chairs, camera and speaker platforms, portable toilets, water stations and crowd fences or restraining ropes, metal detectors and the like. (After the ceremony in the stadium, we anticipate offering graduates and their guests lemonade or other light refreshments on the Green, where they can meet, socialize and celebrate before taking leave.)
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Having the ceremony on the Green would have probably required closing traffic on all four sides of the Green, which would have wreaked havoc on traffic.
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The stadium will best mitigate the logistical inconveniences (including those related to ticketing and security) involved in hosting as large a crowd as we anticipate this year. The stadium, of course, is built to accommodate access and egress for such crowds.
Before making the decision on the Commencement location, Acting President Wright and I met with members of the Senior Class Council to solicit their input. While that group was not of one opinion, they recognized the logic of moving to the stadium: that site would provide more and better seats for their families and guests. Some were deeply disappointed by the apparent necessity of leaving the center of the campus. Some expressed a preference for the stadium because the vast majority of seats there would be banked, there would be more seats available for their families, their families would be able to sit together and see better and family members who had never been to Dartmouth before would see the center of the campus looking its best.
Following full consideration of these factors and consultation with a number of interested parties, President Wright decided to move Commencement to Memorial Field in order to ensure that the historic occasion is a wonderful and enjoyable one for all involved, especially the graduates and those who celebrate with them. Everyone agrees that the center of the campus is a site of enormous beauty, and striking symbolic and historical significance. However, the difficulties and drawbacks of that location are substantial and intractable. For all the reasons noted above, Memorial Field is clearly the appropriate location for Dartmouth's 1995 Commencement.
