With the commencement address by California’s House member Diane Watson, the 79th annual commencement’s direction at Bennett College had been set. This is an important note as I cannot figure out what a House member from California has to do with Bennett (other than maybe being a black women who had it tough, as noted many times during her speech), but the unexplainable oddities of the commencement had begun. The mayor of Greensboro, Yvonne Johnson, would be in attendance and would give a speech along with Valerie Amos, Gregory Barmore, Andrew Harris and Evelyn Lowery, the four honorary degree recipients along with Diane Watson. Scheduled to last just over two hours, it was set to be quite a memorable and value-packed ceremony except for one major footnote on the program: It was going to be at the campus quadrangle – a giant field outside.

That’s right – the ceremony would be held outside on campus starting at 11:00am. With an expected temperature of 88 degrees, the giant field with no real shade from the North Carolina sun, and no real relief from the heat other than complementary bottles of water was sure to make an impact on all guests. It seemed a little strange that the entire ceremony was scheduled to coincide with the hottest, most dangerous time to be out in direct sunlight but I suppose it would have been too much to start things at 9:00 or even 10:00.

Sure, the majority of guests were not really affected much by the scorching sun beating down but nearly all of the minority white guests I noticed were sunburned. Speaking with faculty member Johnny McGee afterward, he mentioned, “I was sitting in front watching that guest Gregory Barmore’s face just blister throughout the day. He was getting redder and redder!” I do not believe Mr. McGee knew what his own head looked like as he reminded me of someone who had gotten pissed at the beach and later fell asleep in the sand.

A lot of rumors were about as to why Bennett decided on having the commencement outside when it has been held indoors the last few years, but the way I hear it is that the alumni get to decide on the location and this year they decided on having it outside on campus. Perhaps they were being vindictive.

If it were my graduation, I would be pissed off and sure to be vocal about it. In any case, you can count me out of attending next year if it will again be held outside.