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The Staff Behind Commencement
A Spotlight of Staff at Stanford’s Seven Schools who Coordinate Commencement

May 4, 2012

By Kate Junco

Behind the pomp and circumstance, underneath the robes and tassels, and beyond the smiles and joyful tears are teams of tireless staff members who weave together thousands of tiny details into a seamless weekend of commencement festivities.

For some schools, the planning and preparation that goes into each commencement begins a year in advance. For others, it’s a six-month push beginning in January. For all schools, it takes teams of staff, countless meetings, a laser-like focus, a knack for detail, and impeccable coordination to pull off the largest and most significant university production of the year. Stanford’s 121st Commencement weekend, June 14 to 17, will be no exception.

Staff from each school share a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to pull off their respective diploma ceremonies snag free.

School of Earth Sciences:
Roni Holeton, Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs

Roni Holeton coordinates the diploma ceremony for Earth Sciences’ nearly 200 graduates and their approximately 800 guests. Meetings start in January and nearly a dozen staff members are included in some type of preparation effort, from selecting food vendors to preparing each diploma. On the morning of commencement, a cadre of students helps with important details such as raising flags and ensuring doors are unlocked and trash cans are abundant. “There’s no way we could pull it off without these students,” said Holeton, who uses an oversized chart to track the “to dos” on commencement day. “If you could see the list of all the things that have to get done, you’d be surprised. It’s detailed by the hour in the morning with tasks that need to get done.”

The best part of commencement for Holeton is to witness the happiness of all who attend — graduates, their guests, faculty members and staff. “I’ve worked on this campus for over 30 years and there’s work in these jobs that can be really stressful at times and can be overwhelming,” said Holeton. “But that day everyone is happy and in great moods. It’s my favorite day of the year.”

School of Humanities and Sciences:
Lia Cacciari, Student Services Specialist, Program in Human Biology

Before Human Biology graduates ever cross the stage to receive their diploma, their academic record has been vetted and cleared by Lia Cacciari. Every Human Biology student who intends to graduate works with Cacciari in winter quarter to ensure that their the choices in their course of study are as strong and rich as possible and that pending courses for their degree program will be completed by the end of spring quarter. “The whole process of commencement is part of this because they ultimately end up on stage with a diploma in hand,” said Cacciari.

On Friday and Saturday before commencement, Cacciari prepares about 200 diplomas by herself, cuts red ribbon and ties them around each diploma cover, and alphabetically orders the diplomas on tables in stacks of 13, the height she determined — over 15 years of doing it — works best. “The whole idea is that this is a production for the families and for the students. The way everything is presented is very important so you want it to run very smoothly,” she said.

For Cacciari, the most gratifying part of commencement is towards the end of the ceremony when she can rest assured everything went well for graduates and their families. “By the time we get to “T”, I start grinning at everyone and everything,” she said. “Some of the tension is off and everyone is ready to celebrate.”

School of Engineering:
Darlene Lazar, Student Services Officer, Office of Student Affairs

Darlene Lazar’s commencement work begins as soon as students apply to graduate. She collects and reviews every undergraduate file to make sure students have completed their engineering and departmental program. With 16 different programs and a few individually designed majors, each with a different set of requirements, the work is complex and requires a laser-like focus and strict attention to detail.

This spring, Lazar will check files — and hopefully clear — about 420 undergraduates for commencement, serving as the last pair of eyes on their transcripts. What’s more, the process is still a paper one for both students and for Lazar. Students must fill out a program sheet, recording required courses and the grades they received, and Lazar manually adds up the units to ensure they’ve reached the requirements. “The students just can’t believe it. To them, it’s the dark ages,” said Lazar. “But because it’s such a complicated degree, with all these subsets of categories, no one has figured out a better way to do it.”

The most satisfying part of Lazar’s work is her interactions with the students. “Stanford students are pleasant, nice, smart kids and it’s great to interact with them,” she said. “Sometimes I have to deliver bad news when I don’t see a requirement on a student’s transcript, which may mean they cannot graduate. But we always figure out a way to make things work so I can give them good news too.”

Law School:
Chidel Onuegbu, Associate Director of Student Affairs

For Chidel Onuegbu, who oversees both the Law School’s orientation and diploma ceremony, commencement is the end of a bittersweet journey. “I see them when they come in and then I get to see them when they leave, so that’s always a joy and sad as well,” she said.

Preparation for the diploma ceremony involves about 20 people, primarily staff members and a few student volunteers, and includes everything from coordinating tables and chairs to creating programs and robing candidates. The most critical piece is ensuring the Law School’s 200-plus graduates are seated in the correct chair, and therefore, receive the correct diploma on stage, said Onuegbu, who has been involved in planning the Law School’s diploma ceremony for the past 12 years.

“The day goes by so fast and we’re so busy making sure all the pieces fit,” she said. The pieces include planning for an outdoor reception after the outdoor ceremony for about 1,500 guests. Rain is something Onuegbu always checks the forecast for and prays never happens.

The most enjoyable part of the day for Onuegbu is witnessing students accomplish what they’ve set out to do. “Seeing them graduate and get their diploma, especially if they’ve had difficulty along the way, is really special.”

Graduate School of Business:
Courtney Payne, Director of the Student Life Office

Planning for this year’s Graduate School of Business diploma ceremony started during last year’s diploma ceremony, when a team of about 50 staff and 10 student volunteers wrote notes about what worked and didn’t work and how to improve upon it, said Courtney Payne, who has been involved with planning GSB’s ceremony since 2001. From there, the contracts are signed, vendors booked, announcements made, and logistical planning kicked into full gear.

Planning a ceremony and reception for nearly 500 graduates and 3,000 guests “is truly a school-wide community effort,” said Payne. “We really do have participation from all corners of the staff and students see staff from all part of their time here — people from our IT staff, Student Affairs positions, Faculty Affairs and from Development and Alumni Relations.”

A unique part of GSB’s ceremony is that it is webcast live on GSB’s website, which means that families of students who come from all over the world can watch the ceremony live if they can’t make it in person. In addition, each graduate can spend one minute in front of the camera to send a message home, which GSB calls “the hi, mom” messages.

But the best part of the day for Payne, who also serves as an academic advisor for students, is “the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow” and being “part of such a special moment for so many people,” said Payne.

“The best moment is the dozens of students who whisper in my ear ‘thank you so much, Courtney.’ It’s being involved in those personal stories that are awesome in the most profound, humbling, I-love-my job sense of awesome.”

School of Education:
Kate McKinney, Academic Services Coordinator, Academic Services

Last spring, Kate McKinney was sitting in the sea of caps and gowns as a member of the School of Education’s graduating class. This year, she’s taking the lead in coordinating the school’s diploma ceremony for about 200 graduates and their guests. “It’s interesting being on the other side of the table a year later,” said McKinney. “The event ran so smoothly [last year] that I don’t think I realized how much effort actually goes into it!”

Although she’s leading the planning process, which includes a shared master spreadsheet with a timeline of tasks that need to be accomplished, pulling off the ceremony is a group effort and involves many people on various levels throughout the academic year. “Before coming to this position, I would have guessed there were only a few people involved intensively in the planning, but there are really so many people who contribute in one way or another, and who incorporate planning into their already busy schedules,” said McKinney.

The best part of commencement is the reason behind it, said McKinney: “Celebrating the achievements of our students and marking the beginning of a new chapter in their lives. We are so honored to be part of their educational experience here, and commencement is an opportunity to reflect on how they’ve grown and changed during their time at SUSE and what they plan to do with those experiences moving forward.”

School of Medicine:
Zera Murphy, Director of Student Life, Office of Student Affairs

Zera Murphy has been planning and coordinating the School of Medicine diploma ceremony and luncheon since 1999. And every year following the logistical summersaults that are required to pull off a smooth day, Murphy said she thinks “maybe it’s time to retire now.”

Kidding aside, Murphy said the heavy preparation work — from booking caterers and tent vendors to tracking down Ph.D. students’ dissertation titles for inclusion in the program — is well worth it. “This is what it all comes down to and the last thing they are going to remember about Stanford,” said Murphy. “We want to leave them with a good feeling about the day and their education at Stanford.”

A unique and long-standing tradition at the school’s diploma ceremony is the opportunity for graduates to walk across the stage with their children, who also receive miniature diplomas from the dean. “It’s amazing how many graduates are getting their Ph.D. or are in medical school and have children,” said Murphy. “It’s just incredible to me that they can do all this.”

The best part of the day for Murphy is the excitement and happiness of graduates and their guests. About 160 M.D., Ph.D. and master’s students are expected to graduate this year. “When students start processing into the tent to go up on stage, the energy is palpable; you can actually feel it and it’s exciting,” said Murphy. “No matter how tired you are for those of us that have worked on commencement, the exhaustion just goes away at that point.”