Graduating students from the University of Michigan are upset that there will be no major speaker in their coming spring commencement ceremonies. This is because they focus of the event is said to be on the Ann Arbor school's bicentennial celebration or their 200-year history.
It was only this week when the university has announced that the commencement will be an event where it will feature the voices from the school' past and present, special alumni awards and Oscar-winning musicians, Detroit Free Press reported. The ceremony will be happening on April 29.
After the details were announced, the students, as well as their parents, have expressed their disappointment on social media about the school not having a speaker for the ceremony, because that has not been the tradition of the graduating class, according to MLive.
A senior student of the university Julia Gips said she started feeling concerned about not having a speaker when she was attending meetings back in October. She said that despite raising these concerns, no changes were made with the program.
Gips, in her statement in an email, said that she felt as if the ceremony is more focused on the alumni instead of the graduating students, because they are going to spend more time watching recent alumni win awards.
The ceremony will be held at Michigan Stadium and will include a number of special presentations from faculty members, university leaders and graduating students. There will also be a presentation for the future classes of the university, which was prepared by the current UM students.
UM spokeswoman Kim Broekhuizen said that the commencement will pay tribute to the university's past, and will include a number of speakers instead of having a single one. She said that it is because they want to celebrate 200 years of accomplishments.
