Why Is Commencement a Thursday?

The Crimson's recent, excellent series on the importance of socioeconomic class at Harvard reminded me of an issue that has arisen every year since I've been here, yet which has never yet been addressed by the administration. Why is Commencement on a Thursday? For working parents, this means an absolute minimum of two days off work--if only because every hotel in the area requires a two-night stay during Commencement Week--and, if parents are coming a long distance, more often three days. It means expensive air rates, too, since the cheapest tickets often require a Saturday-night stay, impracticable under the current schedule.

The current Commencement scheduling discriminates against both the alumni and the parents who have difficulty affording such time off work. Commencement is an inherently expensive proposition, from inflated hotel rates to $35 outdoor clambakes. Why must the University deliberately exacerbate the problem? Is Harvard really such an elitist institution that it has not realized the inconvenience and expense it causes to those it invites for celebration? I would like not to think so, but I--and many years of previous writers to this page--am honestly at a loss otherwise to account for the weekday Commencement schedule. Is the requirement for a weekday graduation inscribed somewhere in the original charter of the College? Then change it! If we can add no fewer than 26 amendments to our national Constitution, then surely we can make a trifling change in Harvard's.

Tradition has its merits, but so too does change. If the University is serious about its commitment to a diverse student body and class-blind atmosphere, then the choice in this case is clear. Parents make enough sacrifices to keep their children at Harvard for four years. They do not deserve unnecessary headaches in the final week. --Leora Horwitz '96