Graduation ceremony exceeds capacity in Dixon Center

Over 500 students are eligible to walk during the graduation ceremony in the Dixon Center. With all their guests, administrators, faculty members, staff members and undergraduates participating in the ceremony, this exceeds the capacity for the center, which is 2, 160. This violates the fire code and fines and citations could be distributed if this number is exceeded.

by Laura Casamento editor in chief

With over 500 students eligible to walk at this year's graduation ceremonies in the Dixon Center, the college may be in serious violation of the building's fue code and in danger of being fined and cited by Radnor Township.

According to figures provided by the registrar's office, 561 students, are eligible to participate in the May ceremony.

The number includes seniors, masters degree recipients, and adult/continuing education students, as well as graduates from December 1998 and August 1999.

According to Physical Plant Director Mike Caranfa, the gymnasium's official capacity, in accordance with the fire codes established by Radnor Township, is 2, 160 people.

However, should the ceremonies take place under the proposed plan, with four tickets being allotted to each student for guests, as many as 2,805 people would be seated in the gymnasium for the ceremonies.

If the administration limits the number of tickets to three per grad- uate, 2,244 people would still fill the gymnasium.

The numbers, which change day to day and will not be finalized until April, do not r.eflect the actual number of students who will walk in the ceremony. However, they also do not include the number of administrators, faculty members, staff members and undergraduate students participating in or observing the ceremony.

Radnor Township Codes Official

Bob Loper said that should the college be found not in accordance with the fire codes during the graduation ceremony, the entire building would be immediately evacuated.

"We would evaluate any subsequent fines due to citations," Loper said. "Those fines would then be assessed to the college as a whole."

College President Antoinette Iadarola was out of town and unavailable to comment on the situation.

The graduation ceremony held in the Dixon Center last year was described by many who attended as cramped and crowded.

According to Don McComb, co- ordinator of adult academic services, who was involved in planning last year's services and will be involved in this year's, an additional l 00 to 150 people were let into the gym during the ceremony. However, a ticket system was not standing room only."

McComb said that aisles were initially set up, ''but whether or not they remained that way" was another fue issue.

'They were pretty much filled in with people," he said, noting that guests confined to wheelchairs had to sit in the aisles.

The only clear aisle, he said, was the one the graduates walked up to receive their diplomas.

The senior class has been battling with the administration over whether to hold the graduation ceremony in the Dixon Center or on the mansion lawn, where it has traditionally been held.

-Bob Loper Radnor Township Codes Official in use at that time.

'The bleachers were pulled out for guests, and there were seats in the front half of the gym floor for the graduates," he said. "Folding chairs were taken from behind the mansion and put behind and alongside of the stage, and there was still

Measures by the class to return the ceremony to the lawn, such as a petition, have been defeated by the administration.

Dr. Robert Bonfiglio, vice president for student development, said that no decisions have been made as to where the ceremony will take place.

"We are still in the process of gathering information," Bonfiglio said.

McComb said the debate over indoor versus outdoor graduation ceremonies is not an aesthetic issue.

"Outdoors, people have passed out from the heat," he said. "It is also a financial issue."

According to McComb, chairs, stage components and security services are all rented on a day-to-day basis. If it rains on the night of graduation, the costs to the college are doubled.

Other weather issues exist as well. McComb, who has attended graduation ceremonies at three other academic institutions, remembered one outdoor ceremony in which, although that particular day was sunny, previous rainy days soaked the lawn on which the ceremony took place.

Whenever someone sat down, he said, "Chairs would go into the ground because of the rainstorms. Have you ever tried to pull a 75year-old woman out of the mud?"

'The gym gives a controlled environment," he said. 'The air conditioning is much better than being out in the sun or out in the rain."

As for right now, plans still call for the ceremony to be held in the Dixon Center.