Rescheduled ceremony sees out-of-state, international students graduate
Despite the evacuation of over 400 people at Tuesday’s canceled graduation, security remained largely unchanged.
Students get to graduate two days after “credible threat” evacuated the planned ceremony. Photo courtesy of Ross Mellman.
August 11, 2018
Fourteen international and out-of-state students graduated in the Administration Building lobby Thursday after missing their chance two days before.
This followed Tuesday’s canceled graduation ceremony. Over 460 people were evacuated from the Student Union due to a “credible threat.” Sixteen out of the 30 international and out-of-state students who were supposed to graduate then weren’t able to attend the rescheduled ceremony.
FAU police replaced the hired security staff normally present at graduations with on-duty police officers, but other than that, not much changed, said police Chief Sean Brammer.
“If you go to any other FAU graduation you will see the same level of security: we always have metal detectors and we always have officers present,” Brammer said.
Despite what happened earlier in the week, students still celebrated at the small graduation ceremony.
Nicolette Sorice, an 81-year old graduate from the College of Arts and Letters, received her diploma after 18 years of studying, according to the Sun-Sentinel.
She said she decided to complete her degree because, “there are many obstacles in life that you cannot overcome without a degree. I missed out on many promotions because I did not have a degree. Never give up on education.”
While this was the first of the rescheduled graduations, the details of another ceremony have yet to be announced for the 300+ students who have yet to receive their diploma due to Tuesday’s events.
Check back with the UP for updates.
Ross Mellman is the opinion editor for the University Press. For information regarding this or other stories, email [email protected].
