As graduating seniors finish off their last few weeks at St. Bonaventure, they are trying to enjoy all the pageantry that comes with graduation. The catch? That pageantry revolves around some pricey expenditures at the end of the year.
Recently, graduating seniors had to purchase caps and gowns, which were priced at $54 plus tax for those receiving a bachelor’s degree and $58 plus tax for those receiving a master’s degree.
The caps and gowns went on sale last Friday in conjunction with the One Stop Shop event. Monday, Senior Week tickets went on sale for $58, according to the same email.
Starting to seem like a pricey run to the finish line?
Everyone needs a cap and gown for graduation, but they don’t necessarily have to buy a ticket to Senior Week. The issue with both of these purchases is when they became available.
This year, seniors have had 200 Days, 100 Days, 50 Days and 25 Days events where the purchase of a ticket was required. In addition, many seniors spent money traveling to see both basketball teams make their respective runs in the NCAA Tournament.
At this point, some seniors are spent and don’t want to have charge after charge keep coming up. All they want to do is enjoy the home stretch of their college careers.
In looking at what can be done for future years to prevent this logjam at the end of their college careers, it would be mindful for the events and necessities that graduating seniors need to pay for be more spaced out.
There is no reason caps and gowns couldn’t be available earlier in the semester, and the same goes for Senior Week tickets.
In the last few weeks, seniors have more than enough on their plates finishing up classes, searching for jobs and making sure all requirements are fulfilled for graduation. The time for making sure money is in order for graduation expenses should be taken care of well before that hysteria kicks in.
While the university’s idea to have one last week of events for seniors is appreciated, selling tickets near the end of the semester is not the way to go about things.
Instead of throwing all these costs to the seniors at the end of the year, they could put the costs in the student activity fee that students have to pay at the beginning of the year. That way, the costs would be taken care of and seniors wouldn’t have to worry about paying for so many things at the end of the year.
There is more than enough time during the semester for these sales to take place, and the university should take advantage of when seniors have more time and do not have an abundance of other issues to attend to.
A move to selling these tickets, along with caps and gowns, earlier in the semester will only make the process easier for those students as they prepare to wish Bonaventure farewell.
This editorial represents the opinion of The Bona Venture staff
