Six-ticket limit for graduation leaves some seniors scrambling

Six tickets.

That’s all Lipscomb seniors will receive for this year’s commencement ceremony, a number that has left some students choosing which family members get to witness one of the biggest moments of their lives.

For Gabriela Barreto, a senior public relations major from São Paulo, Brazil, that meant telling relatives who had already booked flights.

“My family all live in Brazil, and they are all booking flights and hotels over here,” Barreto said. “So they spent the money, and now some of them are coming, but they don’t have tickets. That’s the bad thing, I had to literally pick who I’m giving my six tickets.”

Barreto said she learned about the limit not through an official announcement, but when a friend asked whether she had extra tickets available.

“I felt very blindsided because I would expect maybe Lipscomb is going to make a big announcement about it. 
Or at least email that for everyone that’s graduating, so we would be aware because I had already invited 10 people to come.”

Capacity Concerns

Naomi Lutz, administrative assistant and academic event coordinator, said Allen Arena has pushed capacity limits since at least 2019, particularly during the undergraduate ceremony. In previous years, guests were seated behind the stage while others stood along the concourses.

“It’s not safe, and it’s also not a good guest experience,” Lutz said. “So we kind of looked at a lot of different options to try to figure out the best way to do this.”

Administration considered splitting commencement into multiple ceremonies but ultimately decided it was important for seniors to graduate together as a class.

After removing floor seating reserved for graduates and faculty and eliminating sections behind the stage, approximately 3,418 seats remain available for guests. With a projected maximum of 565 graduates, six tickets per student totals 3,390 seats, leaving little room for flexibility.

“It’s unfortunate that they can’t all come, but it’s just how it has to be to safely fit everybody in Allen Arena,” Lutz said, adding that in previous years there was no clear way to track attendance against fire marshal capacity limits.

The only other time Lipscomb ticketed undergraduate commencement was during COVID-19.

Communication and Process

Lutz said she believed graduating seniors had already been made aware of the ticket limit and plans to follow up with the registrar’s office regarding communication.

“I need to talk to the registrar’s office, because my assumption was that the students already were aware of it,” Lutz said.

Students and members of the Student Government Association were not involved in the decision-making process.

For students like Barreto, finding extra tickets from classmates has been a challenge, since many are facing the same situation.

“Everyone that I talk to needs more tickets, you know, and every person has their own situation. So it’s kind of very messed up.”

What Students Can Expect

Graduates will be able to transfer unused tickets to classmates beginning April 1. The ceremony will also be livestreamed, and overflow seating will be available in Collins Auditorium for guests without tickets.

Lutz said there are currently no plans to distribute additional tickets at the door.

“As of right now, we’re saying no,” she said. “We’re hesitant to give away someone’s tickets.”

Students who forget to reserve their tickets can have them printed on graduation day.

For Barreto, graduation represents more than a ceremony; it represents gratitude. “No one can do a path like this 100% by themselves. So you want to bring the people who helped you here, regardless of even being your family or a friend, or someone that believed in you during this whole time. I feel like it is a way of showing gratitude.”

Featured image courtesy of Naomi Lutz.