Despite 85 percent of the Cecil B. Humphreys School of Law graduating class voting to have their ceremony take place on May 5, 2001, the date was changed to May 4 by Dean Donald Polden.
Aaron Parker, Law Review editor-in-chief, said he believes the date change will be inconvenient for incoming family members.
"This is extremely short notice for people who live out of town," Parker said. "Personally, my parents live in Florida and my in-laws live in (eastern Tennessee) and there are many people that have similar circumstances."
The conflict began when the original date for this year's graduation was scheduled for Sunday, May 6, 2001. Some students complained this would interfere with their religious observances.
"I understand the difficulties that certain religious groups can't have it on Sunday (or) Saturday and also certain religious groups from the Islamic sector can't have it on Friday," International Law Society president, Bernie Hasenbein said. "It's very difficult to accommodate everybody."
Troy Poetz, moot court chief justice, said based on the poll results and surveys from the students, the date should remain on Saturday.
"The decision just doesn't seem to be representative of the student body's wishes. An overriding majority wanted to have it on Saturday," Poetz said. "In fact we don't know of anyone that opposed the Saturday idea, and it's our guess that the Dean is trying to set a precedent here so it doesn't have to be dealt with in later years."
"We weren't given enough time to talk about it. We were just given something that was just kind of basically forced on us," Parker said.
Although Parker is in disagreement with the date change, he said he is not unsympathetic to what Polden is trying to accomplish.
"(We understand) what he is trying to do and for future years many of us think-- whether you're liberal or conservative--that those kind of accommodations can and should be made where possible," Parker said.
Another concern for law students is that their exams, which are on Friday, will conflict with attending the ceremony.
Lara Pellegrini, senior law student, has an exam Friday afternoon.
"I have an exam at 2 p.m. that day and they expect us to get downtown by 3 p.m.," Pellegrini said. "This school does not want to accommodate us, but rather we have to accommodate the school."
Based upon a letter signed by Beau Fancher, Student Bar Association president, Aaron Parker and Troy Poetz, there are four exams scheduled. Trial Advocacy at 2 p.m., Securities Law at 2 p.m., Non-Profit at 9 a.m. and Business Organization II at 9 p.m.
"There are four finals scheduled for that Friday that have to be changed," Poetz said.
"Our final schedule is extremely tight," Parker said. "We have eight days to get all of our finals taken and most of us have finals scheduled the Friday we graduate as it stands now. None of that, absolutely none of that, was addressed with us."
Although the date for graduation has been set, Polden said students will not have to worry about exam conflicts on graduation day.
"I don't see a reason to change (the date of graduation), and those exams have been rescheduled," Polden said.
Some students feel the counteractive behavior from the Dean's advisory committee could hamper their contributions to the school in future years.
Rebecca Miller, Student Bar Association governess, said she feels she is not being treated respectfully by The University.
"I would like to contribute to the Alumni Association," Miller said. "I would like to be a mentor for young people. I would like to maybe set up a scholarship for the University law students but if I'm not going to be treated as a professional while I'm here, then there is no reason for me to treat the school as a professional school."
