To: AME Seniors
From: Robert Howland
Date: 11/8/05

 realize this may at first seem premature, but (as difficult as it may be to
believe!) Graduation is approaching.  We in the College are fortunate in having
Departmental ceremonies at which each student is recognized individually with a
certificate from the College, and a certificate and ring for the Order of the
Engineer.  This note is just to give you a "heads up" on that ceremony.

PLEASE NOTE THAT PLANS HERE ARE ONLY TENTATIVE:  THERE MAY BE CHANGES RESULTING
FROM ACTIONS BY THE PROVOST.  BUT, ASSUMING CEREMONIES REMAIN AS THEY HAVE BEEN
IN YEARS PAST, THIS IS WHAT WILL TRANSPIRE:

The College ceremonies have been held the Sunday morning of the Weekend, just
before Graduation itself.  Ours this past year started at 10AM in the Leighton
Auditorium (the big one) at the PAC.  The formal ceremonies lasted under an
hour and were followed by "heavy refreshments"--sandwich fixin's and the
like--with the intent that students and their families go directly from there
to the JACC for the "big ceremony".  I mention this because, as part of the
Graduation Weekend packet to be sent to your homes, there is apparently a "box
lunch" available for that day which may or may not be optional and which may or
may not be charged for (guess which); it would be superfluous IF events go as
they have in the past.

Though we had open seating this past spring, PAC was relatively insistent that
we have proper tickets in the future.  There shouldn't be a problem getting
everyone into the hall--the main floor holds 600, after all!--but you should
know that seating will depend on when you pick up your tickets.  And the PAC
ask that we have some idea of those who might require special accommodation
(wheel chairs, etc.), so we'll be asking you about that closer to the time.
Again, we are letting you know about this now so you can plan with the Home
Front.

Let me stress that THIS IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE depending on the choice of
Commencement speaker (schedule and accompanying security moves times), and
whether or not the Provost tries to make this practice more wide-spread (which
could affect the availability of rooms).  But this is to let you know what is
in the works at this time.  We hope we will have more solid info available in
time for you to make commitments closer to Graduation.

Congratulations to you all....