The NIU administration feels a summer commencement isn’t necessary, but it obviously was necessary to the many students who utilized the ceremony in the past and those who expected to do so in the future.

NIU announced Tuesday it will merge its summer and fall graduation ceremonies in favor of one December ceremony. Students who normally would graduate in the summer now have to come back to the university a semester later just to walk down the aisle many have waited years to do.

Although many colleges and universities in the state have the same policy, that doesn’t mean NIU should have followed suit if there wasn’t a significant reason to do so.

About 450 students attended last summer’s commencement.

NIU Vice Provost Earl “Gip” Seaver admits the cancellation of summer graduation is not a cost issue, which leaves many to wonder why it hurts so much to have the ceremony.

Seaver also said he hopes the would-be summer graduates return at the end of fall for graduation; however, he doesn’t expect them to do so.

Now, many students who have invested thousands of dollars to attend NIU might not be able to see the day they waited years for because of inconvenience.

Even more affected are members of NIU’s international student population – many of whom graduate in the summer and many of whom won’t be able to make it back to truly end their college careers.

While administrators continually say they’re on the lookout for students’ interests, heads seem to have been in a daze when it came to cancelling summer graduation.