Rachel Yeates, Campus Carrier Managing Editor
The Grand March committee has decided to move the event a few weeks ahead of spring graduation, SGA President Ree Palmer announced at the student government meeting on Tuesday.
“That would allow alumni and parents a better chance at being able to attend,” Palmer said. “Whereas if we did it in the next few weeks we wouldn’t have time to get a larger group there.”
Holding the March fall semester would also mean competing with cold mornings, as past years’ events have started before 9 a.m.
The Monday morning following this year’s Mountain Day weekend, the SGA executive board, class presidents, Grand Marshall Janna Johnson and dean of students Debbie Heida met to discuss a plan of action.
“There’s a lot more that goes into this than I realized until we started to reschedule it,” Palmer said.
Certain faculty members, such as College President Stephen R. Briggs, must be in attendance, Heida said. And, while not required, traditions such as representing student enterprises on mountain campus, having the band play and listening to the cheer led by the soccer team would be missed.
Rescheduling will help make the March everything students, staff and alumni want it to be, Palmer said.
Senior Tyler Kaelin, who was head of the Marthapalooza planning committee, agrees that the decision is for the best.
“Thinking of what we did with Marthapalooza and making the best of what we had, I think moving it to the spring really is the best option,” he said. “It’s really going to be pulled off better in the spring than it would be if it was in two weeks.”
Other students, like senior class vice president Lainey Battles, are upset that the March will be so late in the year. She knows her parents won’t be able to make it for the March because they can’t justify the travel costs.
“I’d love for them to be at the march to experience that because it’s my senior year,” Battles said. “But they live in New Mexico, so they can’t fly here one weekend, then have to go back for work, then come back the next weekend for graduation.”
The decision was tough to make, Palmer said, but she hopes it will be for the best.
“It has been somewhat humbling but very exciting to see how much students care about it,” Palmer said. “My history major self often gets disappointed about people not caring about our heritage and history sometimes, and this has shown that Berry students really do care about that tradition.”