For the first time in the school’s history, graduation commencement ceremonies will be split into two different times at 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. on May 5, 2012, and graduates will walk across not the floor of the Ganus Athletic Center but the stage of the Benson.Beginning Fall 2012, chapel will also be split and held at 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. to accommodate growing enrollment.
For now the changes to commencement apply only to May 2012, but the changes to the chapel schedule will apply to both the fall and spring terms and are likely permanent, President David B. Burks said.
The 9 a.m. graduation ceremony will include the Colleges of Bible and Ministry, Business Administration, Education, Arts and Humanities, and the Honors College. The 1 p.m. ceremony will include the Colleges of Nursing, Pharmacy, Allied Health and Sciences.
The two ceremonies became needed in part because Harding will graduate its first class from the College of Pharmacy, which comprises about 60 students, in May.
“The split will allow approximately 360 students to graduate in the first commencement and approximately 300 in the afternoon,” Provost Larry Long said in a press release.
Burks said there will probably still be a lunch for the graduates and their parents, this time between the two commencement programs. He, Long and the Registrar’s Office are among the few who will attend both ceremonies; faculty members will attend only the ceremony for their respective college.
While the two graduation ceremonies will be new to Harding, the two chapel programs will not. According to Vice President for Spiritual Life Bruce McLarty, Harding introduced the two-chapel schedule in 2005 for the fall semesters because enrollment during the fall terms was so high that not everyone could be seated in the Benson.
Harding reverted to one chapel service during Fall 2010 after physical resources added 150 new seats to the auditorium, but this fall the additional seating was not sufficient to accommodate the students and faculty, causing faculty members to sit in the orchestra pit and on the Benson stage.
Offering two chapel programs will allow students and faculty to fit comfortably in the Benson and will provide room for guests to campus, Mclarty said.
The two chapel services next fall will be as identical as possible; the speakers and the content of each program will be the same, although the song and prayer leaders may be different. And Burks said he will be at both.
“Chapel is very important,” Burks said. He said during previous two-chapel semesters “in order for it to appear and in essence be identical as possible, it was best for me to be at both, and it was best for us to have the same speaker.”
Having two chapels will affect academic scheduling since classes will be offered at 9 and 10 a.m. Burks said one of the drawbacks of having two chapel services is that people who attend chapel may lose the sense of community that comes with everyone being together.
However, McLarty said that because the balcony will be closed with two different chapel times, there will be an opportunity for more audience engagement in the services.
“With a smaller chapel, there is the opportunity for a closer sense of community within each chapel service,” McLarty said. “We won’t be spread out from the very front all the way to the back row of the upper heavens. … I think we will have an opportunity to create a more positive atmosphere where anyone can feel better connected and better engaged.”
