Change of Commencement Venue Ruffles Some Raptor Feathers

Written by Sydney Weber
Photo by Greta Chabot

Graduation at East Ridge has traditionally been held outdoors in the Nest Stadium, or if there are unsuitable weather conditions, in the gym indoors. However, a change introduced by the district has moved the location for all high schools in the district to the Aldrich Ice Arena in Maplewood, where Woodbury High School students had their commencement last year. This change has been very impactful for seniors, as many of them have expressed disappointment with the new location, considering that graduation at East Ridge holds much significance to their high school experience and creates a sense of resolution.

This location change initially spurred a lot of frustration and confusion in many East Ridge students. Student Council Board member and senior Elizabeth Benjamin states, “When I first heard that graduation was moved, I was upset and disappointed. I was looking forward to graduating where I had spent 4 years at high school and that seemed like my home in a way.”

Many other students seemed to feel the same way, and were upset not only because of the huge change in tradition and expectations for graduation, but also because when the change was first announced, the school did not provide the reason behind it.

Assistant Principal Ann Peterson reveals that there were multiple causes for the location move. “East Ridge is having construction happen on the stadium turf, so in order to get that ready for the fall, they have to start construction right away. So that’s part of the reason here, but also we are growing so it’s going to limit the number of tickets we would be able to have here at East Ridge. That’s hard, because if we were to move inside for weather, students would only get four tickets,” she states.

Construction on the turf has to begin right as school gets out, so having graduation in the stadium was ruled out early on. Considering capacity limits and possible renovations to the gym floors, having graduation at East Ridge wasn’t a possibility. Another motivation for the change was cost. “If you think about how much money is spent on individual graduations, it's thousands of dollars, so it's less if all three high schools are all at Aldrich for one day. So, with the bond that didn’t pass, the district is making sure we’re being fiscally responsible with everything,” Peterson states.

While there are still many mixed feelings about this new location, many students are starting to see the positives. “One of the benefits to this change,” according to Benjamin, “is that if we were to do it in the stadium, we’d only be able to have like 3-4 guests, but in the hockey stadium we can have up to 7. That definitely excites me because I can have more people attend. It also makes it a lot easier on the staff having graduation there as they can set up everything at the stadium for all the graduations.”

Overall, while many students are still struggling to come to terms with having graduation somewhere new, they are still appreciative of the ceremony itself. “Although it doesn’t hold as much of a significance to me, I'm still excited to have a chance to graduate with my friends and am trying to look at the bright side, especially considering that, in 2020, they didn’t even get to have an in-person graduation. So, I'm glad we get to have graduation at a nice place, and that we’re having it indoors where we don't have to worry about weather. I do hope that we can come back to East Ridge to take pictures and I'm definitely still excited for that,” Benjamin says.