Long Beach State President Jane Close Conoley said the spring 2023 commencement will be hosted at Angel Stadium for the third year in a row and for the foreseeable future.
The decision came from a steady increase in the number of student graduates surpassing available space to host the ceremonies on campus, according to Conoley.
“When I first came, we were graduating between 7,000 and 8,000,” Conoley said. “Now we’re graduating between 10,000 and 12,000.”
In order to maintain safe distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic and the Omicron surge, Angel Stadium was rented out for the previous two commencement ceremonies to provide ample space for both student graduates and spectators.
However, with classes fully in-person, Conoley says that COVID is no longer the main issue with hosting commencement on campus.
“There’s more people graduating, they’re not dropping out,” Conoley said. “They’re finishing in four and a half, five years, so that’s all good, but it has overwhelmed the space we have on campus.”
According to Conoley, it will cost an estimated $1.3 million to host commencement at Angel stadium, and even more to host the ceremonies on school grounds.
“We would have to minimally do 12 ceremonies if we held them on campus, so it’s actually at this point more expensive to hold it on campus than it is to [host it at] the Angel Stadium,” Conoley said.
Commencement will proceed similarly to the previous year with only a few key differences.
There will be two additional commencement ceremonies added to the traditionally scheduled seven for the seven distinct colleges—three ceremonies on each day between May 15, 16 and 17.
The decision to incorporate two additional ceremonies was made in order to mitigate the hour-long processionals from the larger colleges such as Liberal Arts and the College of Health and Human Services.
By holding graduation at Angel Stadium, each graduating student will receive at least 10 tickets, whereas in previous on-campus graduations, students received eight tickets.
Conoley at one point said she was prepared to add a winter 2022 graduation at The Pyramid where names would be read, but this failed to materialize due to scheduling conflicts.
Conoley could not promise whether this could be made possible for the 2023 graduates, saying she didn’t “want to raise expectations.”
“People’s concerns have been heard, [and] we’re trying to solve that problem. We are learning as we work with Angel Stadium to see what’s possible,” Conoley said.
In the past, when the ceremony was on campus, students would provide a note card before stepping on stage to have their names called. Conoley and her team are currently weighing different options such as having a pre-recording of all student names announced. She says plans are still being finalized, but for now, commencement for spring 2023 will be back at Angel stadium.
No contract is in place yet for the ceremonies but Jim Milbury, Long Beach news media services specialist, said they “hope to finalize it soon.”
Further information about dates and times for the 2023 graduation will be shared on the commencement website.