U of C Seniors Cry 'Politics' At Commencement Day Shift

Politics has allegedly raised its ugly head out in the Golden West, and 6,000 Californians are hopping mad over the whole thing.

The 6,000 comprise the graduating class at the far-flung University of California. Their complaint is that their graduation date has been moved from June 19 to June 12, and the latter date happens to be right smack in the middle of their final exam period.

As a result, many parts of the traditional commencement program will have to be omitted so as not to conflict with exam schedules. And most graduating seniors are prone to blame politics as the reason for the change.

The change in dates for the commencement exercises was first announced when President Truman accepted an invitation to speak at the exercises on June 12.

At that time, University of California President Robert G. Sproul declared that the change in schedule was made so that students who finished their finals during the first week of exams would not have to undergo extra expense in remaining at college an extra week while waiting for commencement exercises.

Sproul in Politics

An extra fillip was added to the issue, however, when it was disclosed that Sproul is scheduled to leave for the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia on June 15. The convention does not begin until June 21, and Sproul denied that his convention plans had any influence in the decision to move up the commencement program.

Sproul is a California delegate to the convention, and is expected to nominate California's Governor Warren.

Student reaction to the shift was generally unfavorable, and talk of boycotting the commencement proceedings were not infrequent. "It appears that our commencement is being turned into a political track meet," Charles R. McDonald, a member of the Senior Class Council declared.

And Normen Tronton, senior president, warned that "with the commencement now coming in the middle of final examinations, senior will not be prone to attend the exercises if they have to study for forthcoming finals."