So my oldest graduated from college this past weekend, yea! It rained which was a bummer, because they did not allow us to bring umbrellas to the stadium. My biggest gripe however, is that apparently some of the graduates seem to be drinking. During the middle of the ceremony there seemed to be a lot of movement, folks getting up, etc, then some girl was taken out in a wheelchair. A few minutes later campus police started removing a few students and we saw them throwing bottles in a trash bag. Needless to say, I was stunned. Call me naive, but is it ludicrous to think that you could not drink until after graduation!?!?
Well, that’s just gross. Will you tell us the school?
I thought this would be another thread about air horns.
Me, too, Hunt, which is why I passed on it the first time through.
Meh, nothing new.
Glad to say I saw no inappropriate behavior at my son’s graduation - at least not on the part of the graduates.
But I cannot stand when people leave ceremonies early. I know there are exceptions/emergencies, but when half the auditorium is empty by the time they get to the Smiths and Thompsons, you know they didn’t all get called to the maternity ward to deliver triplets.
@Youdon’tsay lol, if you search my threads, you will see where he attended. I was shocked, because its a very good state school. I should say the drinking there doesnt shock me, the fact that folks were being rude and obnoxious and couldnt wait until afterwards, did shock me.
I just returned home from my D’s graduation. There wasn’t much movement from the graduates, it was the audience that was moving around. The ceremony was in an NFL stadium and the concessions were open, including the alcoholic drink concessions. I guess it mostly bothered me that people needed to start drinking before 9 am.
@partyof5 - congratulations on your oldest’s graduation! My oldest also graduated this weekend. I’d have been shocked at the behavior too. That I could see, there was no drinking at my son’s and only one airhorn (OMG, how obnoxious was that?) All in all, it was a really nice day and one of the nicest commencements I’ve attended.
thanks @BTMell , the weather and behavior really soured the mood!! I can only imagine some of the parents watching as their grads were being escorted off the field. One girl got up holding her head, she returned some time later with what looked like an ice pack on her face. I dont know what the heck happened, but they did remove several students from the row where she was sitting.
And here I’m annoyed with my older son at move-out day - I guess I should stop complaining!
A friend of mine has two kids getting degrees from Columbia this week. This topic makes me wonder whether Mattress Girl will be allowed to carry it to graduation!
Was just reading the mattress thread. It sounds like it is still under discussion.
My dad went to UMass and graduated in the late 70s. The commencement had so many kids (they took up the whole football stadium) and took so long that people in the row in front of him set up a working bar, other kids had speakers blaring, and people were passing out left and right. Same thing for my mom at Tufts-- both of them remember it pretty fondly. This isn’t some Millennial “trend” to clutch pearls about, it’s fairly standard college commencement procedure outside of BYU.
Nothing new. I remember people showing up to my graduation (granted only 3 years ago) with bottles of wine, champagne (I went to school in Napa Valley,) and various other alcohols. There were also a number of bars down the street (literally down the street) where, if you showed up on graduation day in your cap and down, you could get free drinks.
I remember being mildly irritated, but whatever. They’re going to do what they’re going to do. It didn’t put a damper on my day.
At my graduation in 1979, we were told to line up 2 x 2 before we could no longer count that high. Our pre-game started at 6:30 am as graduation was at 9 or so. We had lots of champagne in the seats. They did not read every name, just “A&S” “Journalism”, “Business” etc. Many of the departments or colleges had individual graduations after the big ceremony.
First, congratulations on your kid’s graduation.
Sounds like a typical large uni graduation were the kid’s don’t walk and they just say, “A&S, Business, etc., stand up.” There were definitely many drunk and high kids at my graduation from CU-Boulder 37 years ago.
@BTMell, congrats on S1’s graduation!
@emilybee - thanks!