As an event coordinator, you and your staff spend months preparing for commencement. You work hard to ensure everything is ready for the big day, and you rely on the dedication of your staff and volunteers to make each ceremony a success. At the end of graduation day, it is just as much of an accomplishment for those who make the graduation possible as it is for the graduates themselves.

As a commencement coordinator, you know that stage layout at your ceremony is normally planned well in advance. In fact, at most institutions, how elements are arranged on the ceremony stage rarely changes from year to year. As such, there is more than enough time to consider one important element of stage layout that is often ignored: the background behind your graduates’ handshake photographs.

The University of South Florida in Tampa recently made headlines by prohibiting graduates from taking “selfie” pictures while being individually recognized on stage during commencement. Making a similar announcement was Bryant University in Smithfield, Rhode Island. Both institutions are valued clients of GradImages, so this story certainly caught our attention.

Postal mail, email, and text message are all ways GradImages can provide graduates with access to their proofs from commencement and student portrait events. However, without the ability to acquire address information, proofs cannot be delivered. Consequently, without the ability to deliver proofs, the vast majority of graduates and their families will never see their images from these special events.

The majority of commencements across North America have graduates crossing the stage in only one direction, either right-to-left or left-to-right.  When commencement professionals talk about a ceremony having two lines, they are referring to a process by which graduates approach and cross the stage from two different directions simultaneously.  (The word "simultaneously" is important.)

At commencement, offering close-up photographs is a great way to provide additional photo options to your graduates and their families.

In this article, we will explore why using a reader list to announce graduate names as they cross the stage is not a best practice for commencement ceremonies.

Pre-registration is a quick step that your graduates should be encouraged to take before commencement.  By completing a short online form, graduates (and family members) can provide their own email address directly to GradImages, which ensures timely delivery of their photo proofs after the ceremony.  This can be done by visiting: