With over 1,300 students graduating on Saturday, Southeast Missouri State University commencement ceremony organizers will have their hands full.
About 8,000 people are expected to attend the event, but the Show Me Center’s capacity is only 7,500.
Julie Grueneberg is Southeast’s assistant registrar for graduation, and she organizes the ceremony. She says students are limited to four guests who can watch in the arena, and there are overflow rooms for everyone else with large screen TV’s. It’s also screened online.
“If a parent needs to stay home and get the celebration going, they don’t have to miss watching their student walk across the stage because they can see it live but at home. And it also helps with distance and those kinds of things,” Grueneberg said.
Grueneberg says when it comes to planning the event, there are many, many things that go on behind the scenes that nobody ever sees, like making sure there are chairs for all the graduates, or enough space for the symphony orchestra.
“And then we have to worry about things like the temperature in the building because if it’s a 90 degree day, which it has been some years, then cooling is an issue. Facilities management gets alerted well in advance,” Gruneberg said. “They have somebody on standby. Sometimes it’s predicted to be 90 and it’s 50. We have to take those things into account.”
Grueneberg has been coordinating Southeast’s graduation ceremonies since 1993.
