By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
This weekend, Fort Hays State University is set to celebrate the accomplishments of more than 1,100 fall graduates through in-person and online ceremonies over two days.
“It's the culmination of a lot of blood, sweat and tears and the joy you see on the faces of those folks as they walk across the stage and shake President (Tisa) Mason's hand, and then they embrace their families,” said Scott Cason, chief communications officer. “There's nothing quite like it. It really reinforces the good work we do at Fort Hays State University.”
At 9 a.m. Friday in Gross Memorial Coliseum, the ceremony for undergraduate, master’s and Ed.S. candidates from the Robbins College of Business and Entrepreneurship, the College of Health and Behavioral Sciences, and the Werth College of Science, Technology and Mathematics is set to take place.
At 11 a.m., graduates from the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and College of Education undergraduate, master’s and Ed.S. candidates will take the stage.
On Saturday, the university is set to honor graduate students in a virtual ceremony at 9 a.m. and undergraduates at 11 a.m.
“One of the things we learned really from the COVID experience was, we had to break our one major ceremony into several smaller ones, just to make it, we thought safer and things like that, so there was a model that really worked for us,” Cason said. “And so we're going to do it again.”
This year’s fall commencement marks only the second time FHSU has had a December graduation ceremony.
“We're doing it again, it was so successful last year,” Cason said. “We break into several ceremonies that are smaller, more intimate, and they're quicker. It's not quite the huge event that it once was.”
“This enables us to pretty much get folks in and out of a ceremony within an hour,” he said. “So, it's been really well received. We're going to keep with that model again, here in the fall, and then again in the spring.”
And adding the virtual event allows the thousands of students that attend FHSU online to be celebrated as well.
“Adding virtual ceremonies, as we've done recently, helps for those folks who can't make it,” Cason said. “But there's always a great story about somebody. Often it's somebody who's a member of the military service who finds a way to get back and participate in the ceremonies. But we try to offer as many options as we can ... to give everybody we can as much of a commencement celebration as we can.”
The graduation ceremonies will be broadcast on FHSU’s Tiger Media Network, tmn.fhsu.edu.
“With the way we’ve broken up our ceremonies, it’s a lot easier to watch,” Cason said. “You can go right to your ceremony and watch it right there, get in and out. It really lends itself to folks who don't have all the time in the world to sit on their YouTube channel.”
For those attending in person, he said it is easier than ever to find parking near the coliseum, but shuttles will again run from other campus parking areas.
“Faculty and staff are encouraged to park on campus and make the trip to cross Big Creek over to Gross Memorial from campus parking,” Cason said. “The biggest challenge I think we have is that transition space between the ceremonies when folks get out of the parking lot and open up the spaces for the next group coming in. We really encourage folks not to linger too long.”
For more information about the commencement ceremonies, visit fhsu.edu/commencement.
