On Friday, Jan. 31, the Macalester Commencement Committee (MCC) announced that the class of 2025’s commencement will take place in the Leonard Center Fieldhouse, a departure from last year’s outdoor ceremony on John Leaney Field.
“The biggest thing was to improve the overall experience for folks that were attending commencement and participating in it,” Paul Overvoorde, associate provost and co-chair of the MCC, said. “Over the years, there’s been a lot of last minute changes, uncertainty, not [being] sure how many people could get tickets or not. And the idea of being able to plan for one place and allow for folks to have … an expected kind of experience, and not set up in two places was a big, big motivator.”
The decision has drawn criticism from students including Liz Kelly-Doan ’25, author of a petition sent to the MCC calling for commencement to be returned to John Leaney Field.
“My [high school] graduation wasn’t ideal…[and] I don’t think an inside graduation would be best,” Kelly-Doan said. “[The petition] was just [because] a bunch of my friends were mad, and so we all started [talking], and I was just the one to actually type it.”
Kelly-Doan’s petition, which underscored the smaller area of the Fieldhouse compared to John Leaney Field, has since been signed by more than 200 students and recent alumni who share her concern that the decision will limit the number of community members able to attend. Overvoorde notes that while capacity would be reduced compared to an outdoor venue, there will be more certainty about how many guests can attend.
“I hear the concern, and part of what … we’re working on is trying to make it so that if folks are not able to get into the Fieldhouse, that there is…a plan in place where we are intentionally setting up a space that can be enjoyed by those that are able to attend but not able to get into the Fieldhouse,” Overvoorde said. “[We’re] think[ing] about some additional music outside to the reception … or that there’s a tent to plan on some of the other spaces across campus where some of the reception type activities can take place.”
Following the announcement, Macalester College Student Government (MCSG) voted to pass Resolution 18, “Resolution for Graduation Venue Reconsideration,” which extols the merits of an outdoor ceremony and calls for the MCC to “reconsider the decision and restore John Leaney Field as the default option for the 2025 Commencement Ceremony.”
Vice President Ryan Connor ’25, who wrote the resolution, presented it to the Legislative Body (LB) during MCSG’s Feb. 13 meeting. The LB voted unanimously to pass the Resolution during the same meeting.
“First, we wanted them to reconsider the location change,” Connor said. “We asked for more student representation on the …Commission Planning Committee, we asked for those students to be part of … [the] oversight, so future students can actually see what’s going on. One of the biggest concerns I had was that they released this decision in February of the spring semester, so there’s really no time for student voices to come out in opposition or raise opinions about really anything.”
Overvoorde recognizes the lack of student involvement and wants to encourage more student participation in graduation going forward, including through student membership on the MCC.
“We were hoping to have four [students join the MCC]…and only one person ended up replying,” said Overvoorde. “So we’re working with them to try to … serve as a conduit to imagine what, what would make the space … in listening to some of these other options that are out there, what would be most impactful and ways to make this as good an experience as possible.”
