To the Samuel Merritt University:

A graduation delayed by several months has been a recurrent concern for SMU students who finish their program at the end of the year. Our cohort and the cohorts before us have respected the chain of command and tried to go through different channels to bring up this issue yet no changes have been made or considered. In the Fall of 2016 semester, a student representative for our cohort politely tried to shine light on our concern for the graduation time frame during a general meeting between faculty and students, but was scolded by a member of faculty and left in tears.

If our graduation is postponed almost half a year after completion of the program, some students will have moved away, some may have already begun their career as a nurse, and others may not attend for various reasons. Attendance in a May graduation for those who finished in December may be low, therefore changing the experience of graduation which consists of standing next to colleagues turned friends who stood by each other through two grueling and rewarding years.

We are willing to combine our pinning ceremony and graduation into one event. We can help find the venue within an appropriate budget based on the graduation per person cost included in our tuition. We are also willing to work beside faculty to perform the tasks necessary to make this event possible, and to work around the schedule of the faculty that need to be present for the graduation day.

We kindly ask that our tuition money for the May graduation be moved to a December pinning/graduation, and for faculty who are necessary at the ceremony to attend. We have and are continuing to invest our time, focus, money and effort into this program and University. We strongly believe it is time that our voices be heard, and that our wish be honored. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Respectfully yours,

BSN December '17

***In the comment section: please add your program and you expected graduation month/year. Thank you!***