Stick Around

Every year along about that time, a Dilemma creeps up stealthily on members of the senior class and suddenly gooses them. This dilemma generally goes under the title of Whether Or Not To Stick Around For Graduation, but it isn't a true dilemma, for the odds are far from even. There aren't many seniors, for example, who conceive a violent hatred for Graduation; and there aren't many seniors who manage to find jobs that start before June 23. In short, most seniors would not only like to get their diplomas in person, but they are able to do so.

Yet the fact remains that only about half of the graduating class shows up for the week of unmitigated senior glory. This is a preposterous state of affairs. For one thing, it leads the outside world to suspect that a large body of the class gives way to sloth. Admittedly, a senior who plans to see his four years through to the end is going to have to hustle around a little getting tickets and hotel reservations for his relatives. Too, the whole affair isn't exactly for free.

But there hardly breathes a senior with soul so dead that he won't admit Graduation is worth the time and that the money can be managed somehow. It's simply that plans have to be made reasonably far in advance, and scores of seniors don't face the Graduation issue until too late. It isn't too late yet--the Class of 1949, and all others who will receive degrees in June, can still get the pesky details out of the way and appear in staggering numbers five weeks or so from now.