When students at California Lutheran University (CLU) were informed that their graduation ceremony would be held at the Ventura County Fairgrounds in a “hybrid” model, two students took it upon themselves to rally support to have the location changed back to the CLU campus.
Madelyn (Madi) Wells, a Thousand Oaks native and education major at CLU, and Rylie Beaty, who is from Oak Park and will be graduating from CLU with a degree in liberal studies in education, decided to draft a petition and gather support to move the commencement ceremony.
“You want to graduate where you accomplished your work,” Wells says. “The Ventura County Fairgrounds are not sentimental.”
CLU had scheduled the graduation ceremony to be held at the Ventura County Fairgrounds before the school year began. The university has held commencement ceremonies at the fairgrounds for the past two years “to provide our graduates with an in-person celebration that will adhere to whatever COVID protocols are in place at that time,” the CLU commencement website read.
However, with COVID regulations disappearing, the students did not understand why they were being forced to enjoy such a limited ceremony. To add to the sense of incongruity, in late February, the new CLU president, Lori E. Varlotta, held a week-long inaugural celebration at “Kingsmen Park” on the CLU campus.
“It was hard to be sitting in class and seeing our professors dressing up to honor President Varlotta while we had to have our ceremony at the fairgrounds,” Beaty says.
President Varlotta’s inaugural celebration was detailed on CLU’s website as including a 5k run/walk, an academic celebration, a worship service with reception and an installation service. The presence of these events on campus seemed at odds with the decision to hold graduation at the Ventura County Fairgrounds.
“We have been working hard to graduate from here, not the fairgrounds,” Wells says.
Wells and Beaty created a petition which garnered thousands of signatures from students and parents. This led to a meeting with CLU leaders. Wells said the first meeting was “positive but not really going anywhere.” So they continued to rally their fellow students and find support on social media. Pressure grew to make a change. In March, CLU released a statement that read, “Last week, a petition regarding the 2022 Cal Lutheran graduation ceremonies was posted on multiple social media platforms. Since many of its signatories were not Cal Lutheran students, we wanted to give elected student leaders the opportunity to voice their opinion on the matter.”
CLU’s student body government then voted to change the location of the 2022 commencement ceremony to CLU’s Rolland Stadium. Wells told the Guardian, “she was not expecting the attention or for this to get so big.”
“[W]e were heard and given a voice,” Beaty added. “I was pleasantly surprised to see the school change the graduation location. I am excited to celebrate with my family and friends at CLU and have a renewed respect for the administration for being willing to listen to their students and make the change.”
The women say they are happy to see their efforts pay off for everyone and that students “deserve the honor of graduating where we worked so hard.”
