More than 9,000 students earned degrees from Indiana University’s Bloomington campus this spring, and the university spent nearly $1 million to recognize their accomplishments.
Spring 2017 commencement ceremonies at IU-Bloomington cost $909,512, according to figures IU provided The Herald-Times. Across all campuses, the university spent a total of about $1.65 million. That total does not include the cost of any ceremonies organized by individual schools or units.
Ceremonies at the Bloomington campus were the most expensive, followed by Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis at $432,612 and IU Southeast at $128,391.
At other campuses, graduate and undergraduate ceremonies are combined, but in Bloomington, which has the most students of any IU campus, they are separate. This year, there were actually three ceremonies: one for graduate students and two for undergraduates. That was a last-minute change as the undergraduate ceremony was moved from Memorial Stadium to Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall due to weather. Assembly Hall is not large enough to accommodate all undergraduates and their guests at one time.
The move didn’t create any additional costs because Assembly Hall was already set up for the previous night’s graduate ceremony. In fact, spring 2016 commencement ceremonies cost about $270,000 more than this year’s because the John Mellencamp Pavilion had to be staged for the graduate ceremony. Assembly Hall was under construction that year, and the indoor football practice facility was used instead. One undergraduate ceremony took place in Memorial Stadium that year.