University Times

Pitt will hold its April 30 commencement ceremony at the Civic Arena, not the Cathedral of Learning lawn as had been announced.

Chancellor J. Dennis O'Connor decided last month to return the graduation ceremony to the Arena, where it has been held in recent years, said Ron Gigliotti, assistant director of Special Events and commencement director.

"Holding commencement on the Cathedral lawn would have been more expensive than renting the Civic Arena," Gigliotti said. "Also, we didn't have a viable rain plan. Those were the two main reasons for the chancellor's decision." Under the Cathedral lawn plan, Pitt administrators had considered Fitzgerald Field House as an alternate site if rain had ruled out an outdoor ceremony. But using the Field House would have meant restricting each graduating student to two guests, said Gigliotti.

At the Arena, there is no restriction on the number of guests, he pointed out.

"It would have been a great ceremony if it had been held on the Cathedral lawn," Gigliotti said. "But I'm not sure what kind of ceremony it [an on-campus commencement] would have been if it had rained." At the October Senate Council meeting, the chancellor had announced that commencement would be held on the Cathedral lawn rather than Downtown in order to give Pitt more control over scheduling.

Last spring, Pitt was forced to move commencement to a Monday to avoid a conflict with the Pittsburgh Marathon. The next time the marathon will fall on the first Sunday of May, a traditional date for Pitt's commencement, is 1999, Gigliotti noted.

Penguins home playoff games also are a threat to Pitt's commencement.

The featured speaker for the April 30 commencement is children's rights advocate Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of the Children's Defense Fund. The event begins at 2 p.m.

— Bruce Steele