It should have been such a proud moment for my girlfriend and her family on May 8.
After six years at Ball State University, it was her chance to walk across the stage and collect her master's degree. It took a lot of nights of me calming her down from work overloads and tens of thousands of dollars.
After that, if you don't want to take a morning to pat yourself on the back, then you might want to rethink some priorities.
It was a decent ceremony.
The administrators donned their ceremonial caps and gowns and perched themselves at the summit of stairs out in front the university's Museum of Art.
The commencement speaker recounted snippets of life lessons and tales of small fortunes that led to her overall success. And of course, the mothers, fathers, grandparents, siblings, friends and a plethora of other guests clicked their cameras to retain a hard-copied vision of the memory.
And oh yeah, it was cold. Really cold.
So much so, that as I snort back phlegm more than 48 hours after the ceremony, which led to my head cold, I'm still trying to logic why my alma mater would present itself so unfavorably to thousands of guests.
Mid- to upper-40s in early May isn't an unseasonal arctic blast by any means, especially in an area with as fickle of a climate as the Midwest. But when that temperature is accompanied by ceaseless wind gusts that are strong enough to send mortar boards soaring, that air gets pretty uncomfortable.
A few days before the ceremony, it felt like June or July. It was in the 80s the day before. Warm enough that the majority of the out-of-town commencement guests packed light.
Those of you who sat in that main ceremony crowd with me probably observed many family members and friends wearing sundresses or light cotton Oxfords (one man was actually in shorts and a T-shirt). The apparel was hardly the type of gear needed for low-40s temperatures, high-30s with wind chill.
The ceremonial rhetoric from the main stage was drowned out not only by the wind whipping over the microphones, but with every unpleasant gust came a wave of moans from the crowd as its members withstood the conditions.
Which again raises the question – Why were we out there?
The university has a plan B for inclement weather. If the weather is too bad, everything moves inside, where you don't have to worry about exposure to the elements.
Apparently, distractingly uncomfortable conditions aren't inclement enough because plans for an outdoor ceremony progressed.
Yes, the ceremony looked nice on its proper stage.
Yes, the members of the press were able to shoot photos in front of one of the most historic and definitively collegiate buildings on campus.
But who is the ceremony for?
It's not the administrators. They do that every year. Nothing special.
It's not the faculty members. They may like seeing their students off into the real word, but again, they do that every year.
It's the (mostly) young adults sitting among a few thousand of their classmates, all of whom were there to listen to Ball State President Jo Ann Gora utter the phrase "I now confer upon you your degrees."
And more so, it's about the families. The grads may be excited to collect that diploma – or at least its cover. But compare that jubilation to the smiles on the mothers as they watch their babies undergo their initiation into the grown-up world.
Instead, the university left too many of them bundled up. They had to endure the ceremony, not appreciate it.
Think of it on a smaller scale.
You plan an outdoor party. The clouds roll in. The weather drops almost 40 degrees from the day before. You move that shindig indoors.
And if you are stubborn enough to keep that party outside, what would your guests think of you? Probably something to the extent of: "That person's an [insert dirty word]."
Much of the grumbling I heard after the ceremony directed toward Ball State's decision makers wasn't too far from that.
Daniel Human is a 2009 Ball State graduate and a former editor of The Ball State Daily News. He is writing a guest column for the Daily News. His views do not necessarily agree with those of the newspaper.
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