{"id":8433,"date":"2025-09-04T23:52:37","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T04:52:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/?p=8433"},"modified":"2025-09-04T23:52:37","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T04:52:37","slug":"the-2026-graduation-location-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/?p=8433","title":{"rendered":"The 2026 Graduation Location Debate"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the wake of this new semester, the class of 2026 has been faced with a big<\/span><\/p>\n

announcement regarding their upcoming graduation ceremony. The Roanoke College<\/span><\/p>\n

Administration has decided to relocate graduation from the Front Quad to Salem Stadium.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hundreds of students are severely dissatisfied with the decision, as it breaks a longstanding tradition of having the ceremony in one of the most picturesque locations on<\/span><\/p>\n

Campus.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Soon after the announcement was released, a student started a petition on<\/span><\/p>\n

Change.org asking the administration to keep graduation on the Front Quad. Receiving<\/span><\/p>\n

nearly 800 signatures so far, the petition has reached not only the class of 2026 but also<\/span><\/p>\n

countless alumni, parents, and many others. Many petitioners are pointing out that the<\/span><\/p>\n

Front Quad tradition helps Roanoke stand out from other colleges as a historic liberal arts<\/span><\/p>\n

School.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Although the administration has yet to respond to the petition, there are a few<\/span><\/p>\n

reasons why they have chosen to move graduation to Salem Stadium. Simply put, the<\/span><\/p>\n

Salem Stadium can accommodate more people for less money. In addition, the stadium is<\/span><\/p>\n

more accessible for people with disabilities compared to the Front Quad.<\/span><\/p>\n

I got the chance to speak with one student whose opinion differs from many of his<\/span><\/p>\n

graduating classmates. When asked about his opinion on the Salem Stadium graduation,<\/span><\/p>\n

senior Ricardo Castaneda said that he and his friends have agreed that this change might<\/span><\/p>\n

be for the better, stating, \u201cI know it\u2019s a tradition, but it\u2019s a good idea for convenience.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Ricky expressed that he\u2019s been to many Roanoke College graduation ceremonies on the<\/span><\/p>\n

Front Quad, where he couldn\u2019t see the front due to the hilly terrain of the area.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

All in all, the symbolic tradition of a Front Quad graduation means a lot to many<\/span><\/p>\n

Roanoke College community members, while others are willing to let go of the tradition for the sake of convenience. One can hope that there may be a way to keep the tradition alive<\/span><\/p>\n

and also accommodate everyone. If you have opinions or suggestions on this debate, you<\/span><\/p>\n

can sign the petition at Change.org or reach out to the college\u2019s administration to make<\/span><\/p>\n

your voice heard.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Madeline Wall<\/span><\/p>\n

Staff Reporter<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the wake of this new semester, the class of 2026 has been faced with a big announcement regarding their upcoming graduation ceremony. The Roanoke College Administration has decided to relocate graduation from the Front Quad to Salem Stadium. Hundreds of students are severely dissatisfied with the decision, as it breaks a longstanding tradition of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":8434,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/CampusAug-44.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}