Campus, News

The set up of the ceremony

Since the inaugural graduating class, commencement has been held on the central quad. Brian McKinnon, the Facilities Management manager of Grounds and Landscaping Services has been in charge of coordinating setup for commencement for the past four years. He described California State University, Long Beach’s ceremonies as “intimate” and “garden-like,” making it one of the best ceremonies in the CSU system. The Daily 49er recently sat down with McKinnon to talk about this what exactly goes into planning and coordinating one of campus’ largest annual events.

Is there anything different this year?

Brian McKinnon: We went under formal fire marshal review this year. So we had to show all the exit calculations, as far as crowd egress, which we got our permit, we’re all good. We ended up losing maybe 500 seats. We added an additional entrance and exit on the east side…

Did you do anything to augment the seats lost?

BM: If there are ceremonies that exceed capacity, we will have an additional 1,000 seats that will be available inside. And it’s also good for people if it’s too hot for them, if they don’t want to be out in the sun. They’ll have an indoor air-conditioning venue, and it’s a good seat.

What is one of the trickier parts about setting up for commencement?

BM: Coordination of all the staff. We are coordinating services for all of the facilities that support each commencement. With all of the ceremonies I have staff that will be on site for site restoration. When the ceremony’s over, we give the graduates time to exit then all our staff comes in. We are to pick up all the trash, vacuum all the confetti off, dust off all the chairs, reset the entire stage platform and then open it up as quickly as possible for the next ceremony. Getting that venue cleaned up and restored, plus in addition emptying all the exterior trashcans… is a pretty important aspect as well.

What are you most excited about?

BM: Getting the show started. I think, once the first ceremony starts and everything is done, it basically has got a momentum of its own… And we’re always looking at ways to improve services and improve the overall experience of our graduates and our guests.

Anything in particular abut this year?

BM: One of the things they are doing this year is increasing Wi-Fi service to the area. Cellphone services will be optimized this year during the ceremonies. There are some dead spots up in the main quad but they will be putting up Wi-Fi transmitters on the large speaker poles to help boost cellphone reception.

Has graduation always been out in central quad?

BM: Yes… I don’t know why it was started there, but it was back there in the 1950s. We have grown considerably. It used to be oriented differently. It was set up where the stage faced the FO4 building. I’d say about six years ago we reached that capacity and that’s when we rotated the entire venue and tripled seating. Over the past three years, we have maximized seating as much as possible. The only other thing we would do is split some of the bigger ceremonies…but that’s up to the commencement committee.

Do you have any advice for those attending the ceremonies?

BM: Please arrive early. If you can get here an hour before the actual ceremony, that would be fantastic… If you’re here an hour before, and you’re parked, that gives you time to get on the shuttles and up to the site. The venue will be open for seating. Once the music starts, they do not allow anyone to be [seated]. The focus at that time is getting all the graduates… filling in the seats. Once the graduates are seated, they open up the entrances and exits again and allow people to be seated. But by that time, graduation is starting. You will have keynote speakers talking, music. And that’s when lines form and people begin to panic that they’re not going to se their kid walk.

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