We Want Better For Our 2024 Commencement

It has been odd coming back this semester, knowing it is the last semester of Saint Rose’s existence. As students, we are scrambling to figure out our next steps. Professors are frantically sending out applications in the limited time they have remaining here. Dozens of staff members in different departments already received their pink slips and had their last days here last month.

A question that has been particularly troubling to the graduating class of 2024 is whether President White and the Board of Trustees should join us and give commencement speeches during this final graduation ceremony for Saint Rose, as is typical at commencement ceremonies. 

To put it plainly: no, they should not.

After the blatant, tone-deaf disasters that the school meetings proved to be announcing Saint Rose’s closure, along with the lack of empathy and accountability on behalf of the president and her administration during this stressful period, we graduates do not welcome them to our final send-off. 

Although most of us can acknowledge that the failure of the school does not fall entirely on President White and the Board of Trustees, we do not want to see our graduation ceremony deteriorate into another gathering of self-pity and finger-pointing like we have heard at the  previous meetings.

We do not want to see you President White, back on a stage complaining about how difficult this process has been for you. We do not want to see the members of your board fumbling over their words with false assurances that they’ve “done everything we could” to save Saint Rose. As news articles have been coming out about the years of poor financial decisions that have been made, it certainly does not look that way to us. 

Frankly, the commencement ceremony of 2024 is not about you, and we will not allow you to make it so. It is about us, students who lived through drive-through high school graduations, social distancing, masks and remote classes during the pandemic. We want a normal, joyous commencement that celebrates our achievements.

This is the message on behalf of the student body. Not a single one of us has expressed interest in having any of you attend our commencement, as we refuse to see it become a morose occasion, focusing on your sense of loss. 

Instead, we would like to hear from students and faculty who they think should speak at commencement. We feel it should be someone who has been close to the school–and, importantly, close to the students–for years and who represents the best of Saint Rose’s mission. We are happy to take suggestions so we, as a community, can decide who we want. 

We also want to tell our professors and staff members who are considering boycotting commencement in protest of the years of lies when they were being told everything was fine, or were simply ignored when asked for more details on the school’s finances–you have gone out of your way to comfort us in our final days at Saint Rose. We, as the class of 2024, implore you to please attend graduation this year. 

You are the individuals that have been equally betrayed by the school. You are the individuals who have given us strength as you struggle to find it within yourselves. You are the fabric that weaves together all of the Saint Rose community. You are the very reason each and every one of us graduating students will be walking across that stage in May. 

With open arms and hearts, we wish for all of you to be there to celebrate this occasion with us. This is a moment of togetherness that you deserve to take part in, and we would not want it any other way. 

With all of this said, The Chronicle staff would like to remind students that although Saint Rose’s legacy is coming to an end, the lessons and stories learned here will continue within each of us. Remember that even in these trying times, there will always come a day of peace. The final Saint Rose commencement ceremony should be just that.

So Golden Knights, keep your heads held high and your spirits intact. We are nearly onto the next chapter of our lives, so let’s enter that chapter with dignity and love for our dear neighbors.