From the editorial board

     With record-breaking numbers of students being accepted and graduating from Georgia State, you would think now would be the perfect time for administrators to start celebrating.

     Instead, as hundreds prepared to graduate in the Georgia Dome at the end of this semester, those same administrators have dashed the chances of others to do the same in the future.

     Unlike in previous years, when Georgia State held a commencement ceremony for both its winter and spring classes, the administration has apparently decided the students this winter will be the last class deserving of that honor.

    In a supposed cost cutting maneuver, the university administration has settled on postponing the ceremony until the spring, so that both groups will graduate together.

    However, the problem with this reasoning is that it ignores the goals and plans of our potential alumni.     For starters, it is assumes that students have the luxury of waiting several months to attend a commencement ceremony.

      Their reasoning assumes that these graduating students have the time to just wait around another five months to get the full recognition they deserve.

      This assumption by school administrators belies a general problem within the upper echelons of those with power over public education.

     Like the cuts to HOPE and other anti-student policy changes in the last year, those in power have shown a persistent tendency to put their balance sheets over students.

     Yes, these ceremonies cost the school lots of money, but if there is a single event worth spending any money on, then it should undoubtedly be on the recognition of the school's graduating class.

     And rather than forcing these students to postpone their recognition, we should be holding them up as examples for the rest of us not fortunate to have finished our degrees yet.

     After all, every other large, public research university in the state holds a major commencement ceremony for its graduates at the end of each term, including Georgia Tech at the dome. We look foolish and uncaring to not do the same.

     Everyone involved in the decision to eliminate winter commencement, from the University Senate, the Deans Group, the Administrative Council and the Student Government Association, should be ashamed.

So while we congratulate those graduating this semester, we cannot help but feel as though the school thinks their of their graduation not as a celebration but as a financial burden.