This year, for the third year in a row, California State University, Long Beach will be hosting its commencement ceremony at Angel Stadium and will once again not be announcing graduate’s names.
This decision by the school’s administration has outraged not only the student body but also parents, faculty and friends, prompting the movement “Let ‘23 Walk.”
In this edition of the Daily Forty-Niner, our stories will highlight the student’s perspective on the decision. This issue aims to answer the public’s questions of why can’t CSULB graduates walk and hopefully show the administration that taking this monumental experience away from its seniors is the wrong move.
A lot of our senior staff members have been in college for a long time, some of whom have taken a gap year and made the decision to come back to school, this school. Our class had to go through college during a global pandemic and some students didn’t even get a proper high school graduation.
Graduation is something we have worked so hard to get to and we all just want to have the same experience as the students before us.
Hearing my name and watching me walk across that stage has been something my mother and I have discussed since we moved to the United States in 2008. My mom has sacrificed so much in her life to get me to where I am and this victory is just as much hers as it is mine. She deserves this moment.
Administration has stated that they want commencement to be a nice and memorable experience for graduates, but we can firmly say that what they are offering will not be a great experience for anyone. It is an experience that is convenient and it is a blatant slap in the face to students who have dedicated their time and money to this school.
Other schools and classes before ours get the honor and recognition of walking across a stage and hearing their names get called. We are not even opposed to Angel Stadium at this point, we just want the recognition we deserve.
sigh* Daily Forty-Niner seniors