Over the past few weeks, changes in the summer commencement ceremony rang through the halls of NIU. Angry letters to the editor piled up in the Northern Star. Faculty members complained the decision was rushed and the Student Association wondered why it wasn’t given a chance for input.

Petitions were started and quickly accumulated signatures.

Last Thursday, one of my professors suggested I look at the Convocation Center’s Web site – and examine what had already replaced the original date of the summer commencement.

I did, and realized the Convocation Center was reserved for a Jehovah’s Witnesses convention on Aug. 5, 6 and 7 (the summer commencement was originally scheduled for Aug. 6) and also for three full weekends in July. It seemed odd such a big-time slot had already been filled – since the change of commencement dates was only announced on Feb. 15.

I immediately contacted Vice Provost Earl Seaver and asked him about this. Seaver insisted the event had no bearing on the change of commencement dates.

“The Jehovah’s Witnesses convention was no factor in the change of dates,” Seaver said. “We’re looking at the time and energy it takes, the faculty attendance, the staff and student attendance … Many schools don’t even have a summer commencement.”

This all made sense – but one question still remained. Why was such a big decision made so suddenly, and in the middle of February? It’s not uncommon for a university to change its policy on such things – but why wasn’t the decision made at a more appropriate time, when students could better prepare for it? I decided to investigate the matter further.

I found myself in the office of John Gordon, the director of the Convocation Center. I asked to look at the contract signed with the Jehovah’s Witnesses – and found it was signed by Eddie Williams, the vice president of Finance and Facilities, on Feb. 7. Gordon told me they had noticed a conflict with the date and had contacted the provosts about the matter – and the provosts told him it appeared the summer commencement would be permanently merged.

This means the decision was made to reserve the date of the original summer commencement for the Jehovah’s Witnesses convention before the idea was even proposed to faculty members.

This evidence has some very serious implications.

Although there may be a side to the story that has not yet been revealed, the facts are disturbing. The amount of money the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Convocation Center settled upon has not been disclosed, but because of the length of time the convention will be running, one can imagine the amount is considerable. Right now, we have no choice but to assume the decision to move summer commencement, premeditated or not, was pushed by the potential for a large financial compensation. A compensation such as this may mean a lot to administrators, but will do very little to reassure the students whose lives have been affected by the decision to cancel the summer commencement.

Columns reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily that of the Northern Star staff.